In Devon 9 years ago, hubby had an idea to paddle our blow up bed with a trowel to see if he could get across the bay…. not a good idea as the wind was blowing out to sea… he has these odd ideas, which slightly worry me sometimes..
9 years ago…
Tag: Memories
At the exhibition
My portrait of hubby actually up on the wall at the Brampton open exhibition in Newcastle under Lyme. I’m so proud to share this with the world. It’s called mend him. I started it at my studio at Spode and finished it there after he passed away. It was my last painting at Spode.
It’s on till 22nd December 24 so a lot of people will see it. I hope they like it. The painting is covered in cracks as if he is broken and then the idea of using gold lines to hold him together like a broken japanese pot. X
Brampton Open Exhibition
Lucky to get my painting “mend him” into the Brampton open exhibition in the Brampton museum and art gallery, in Newcastle under Lyme. Staffordshire. It’s on from 14th October I think. The painting is a portrait of my hubby I started last year and finally finished a couple of months after he passed away. I miss him. This is my in memoriam tribute to him.
I had decided to enter it as “not for sale” but the gallery wanted all images to be up for sale so I put a large (very large) price on it to virtually guarantee it won’t be sold. It’s very personal to me, but I wanted people to see it.
It’s acrylic on canvas and I started it in my Studio in Spode Site, Stoke. I finished painting it there after I decided to leave due to not being able to afford the studio rent any longer. It means this is the last painting I completed there.
Long day
Been to choir twice today
Morning songs, evening tunes
Now I’m tired and so I lay
On the chair, ready to sleep.
Music gave me a good day
Raised my spirits up in joy
Made me feel less dark I’d say
Summer returned
When that music did play…
Set design
Crashed UFO at the play I went to yesterday. It wasn’t actually on the stage but in a seperate room on the way in.
In a strange way it reminded me of a Santa’s sledge I saw once outside Santa’s grotto as a child. You then got into another sled inside a large screened of area and the landscape on the sides seemed to move. It was actually a painted backdrop on rollers that ran round so the landscape seemed to scroll past. At the end of your “journey” you got off to see Santa and get your present…. Oops rambling there
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I could imagine doing the same thing with the UFO so it would look like it was flying through the sky with stars and clouds.
Compassion
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
I try and be compassionate and care about people. It’s hard sometimes because you have to care about yourself too. If you don’t you can sink under the pressure of peoples problems.
I was bought up to be compassionate, I would watch things on TV or listen to the radio and feel bad for people in trouble, I understood some of the pain they were going through. I don’t know why? I was just doing what people around me did, but it’s stuck with me throughout my life. I hope it shows through.
Traits are hard to recognise in yourself though, it’s not something I go looking for but deep down its there.
Looking at photos of him…
My phone is full of photos and every so often I optimise them because the file sizes are too big. But that always mixes the dates up, and this time many photos of my hubby showed up out of the thousands of images I have.
Cue deep greif again. My man was funny, eccentric, bombastic, able to express himself. He was emotional and sometimes irrational. But he supported me and we loved each other. He had a mad sense of humour and although he could get angry about things that was more about incidents in his life that had caused him to suffer from PTSD.
Each time I see his face I remember and I am upset again. Decades of life together has made our link so strong. I wish I could have him back, not just photos, but the reality.
Esther Chiltons Blog prompt “surprise”
Surprise!
One night I dreamt that I would meet some friends on a road nearby, but since they lived 40 miles away and only cycled that seemed unlikely. I also remembered the dream was on a wet day. Things seemed very clear. But as usual I couldn’t remember the details when I woke up. Then a few days later we decided to ride out and meet some other friends on their farm. It was an overcast day as we started out on our 5 mile ride to visit them. But SURPRISE! In the distance we saw our friends cycling towards us. They must have had the same idea. But they were with some others. It started to rain and as the friends drew closer I realised they were with the people I’d dreamt of! Then we all took shelter under cover of a bus stop. Thunder rumbled and lightening flashing! I realised it was my dream!
Vesta meals
Tasty 1970s food before real foreign food was a thing. I particularly liked the chow mein vesta made (I don’t know if it’s still manufactured).
This is my faulty memory, I thought it came with prawn crackers but when I saw the photo I remembered they had a little packet of thin strips of noodles that you had to fry so they puffed up into little squiggles of crispy noodles. I’m guessing that the food was cooked In pans, certainly it was before microwaves, and it was unusual to have anything like this (except dehydrated mashed potato). I remember the jingle ” for mash, get smash!”
It has to be Chinese
What are your favorite types of foods?
Our mother would take us out for meals occasionally when we were children. Sometimes it was Indian, but mostly Chinese. I like the flavours, the textures, the combination of ingredients. Duck with hoisin sauce, chicken chow mein, special fried rice, beef with spring onions and black bean sauce. All kinds of other things. I just like it, although I have read that the Chinese food in the UK is not authentic.
Mom got us to use chop sticks which added to the unique and special feeling it was to eat out. In those days the only other form of Chinese food was Vesta Chow mein which came in a box and you added hot water to it I think, and fried prawn crackers. But they were good memories.
Mallaband-Brown 