New paintings and regular art updates.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
When I was fitter I used to swim. I’m not fast but have stamina so I gradually built up the distance I could swim. My preferred goal was breast stroke.
I found out that a mile was about 40 lengths of the pool so I set a goal to see if I could do it. I slowly built up the numbers, I was limited by the time it was taking me to finish it but after about two or three months I managed it. I have to say I never swam that distance again!
These were my plants in summer, now they are starting to wilt. I will be sad when they are gone. I want to time travel to next summer till the next lot of flowers can be planted. I might get some winter flowering pansies to cheer the yard up in the meantime.
I’ve bought loads of bulbs to put in the big garden for winter/spring. Somehow I need to get them planted.
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
What would I do if I lost it all?
Cry for lost memories
Weep for my tranklements
Sigh for my paintings
Scream for my cats
But remember them all
The good times
The joy that they gave
And try to make a new start
A way to cope
Seeking for comfort
Hoping for help.
Loss can destroy
But hope can strengthen
Survival would be my goal.
I decided to optimise my photos as I haven’t done it for a while. Now it looks like 50% of my photos were taken today. Plus they are all mixed up. If I go back a few hundred they were suddenly taken in March. I wish it wouldn’t do that, I’ve been searching for something for half an hour because I wanted to share it? Can I find it? No, so I just decided to post a photo of an old factory from a few months ago. And great to see an undemolished chimney.
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
I voted when I was 19 and followed the family, we were tories, I wanted to see a woman prime minister. I had not left home and had no idea what the real life was about. Then I went to college. An eye opener. I had to live in an old house with no fire, just an open coal fire. The toilet was outside, I showered at the college, I realised that this was not unusual, people had to manage.
Most of my friends were caring, thoughtful and Labour voters. One was in CND, this was the era of protests against Cruise missiles. I saw what Thatchers laws were doing to people. You could see the rich getting richer, the poor, poorer. It was the era of the Yuppie. What can I say? I had to change. I’m glad I did.
My conclusion about this.? My family had held me in one way of thinking. Reality changed my mind. Don’t be afraid to think.
We met in the September
Moved in together in October
16 years later?
We married.
In 9 minutes it will be our anniversary.
My first without him.
We never really celebrated
He wasn’t into birthdays
Or Anniversaries
A quiet meal
A glass of wine or beer
We were going to be together forever.
The shock when he went
Backed me into a corner.
Nowhere to go
Nothing to do
Surrounded by stuff
That holds me in
Trapped in a corner of sadness
Missing him
And tomorrow? In 5 minutes?
24 hours lost in greif
Playing, digital drawing, trying to add colour and using symmetrical mirrors images.
I’ve had to delete several images again as I don’t have enough memory to keep all of them. If you find some of my blogs without a picture, that’s why!
Looking out of the kitchen window this morning I saw blue sky amidst the white puffy clouds. The clouds were breaking up and merging. Reminding me of the song Cloud busting, by Kate Bush
It didn’t last, soon flat layers of cloud spread across the sky, then darker layers built up, piling up as the wind dragged them across the sky. We were on the edge of them, some yellowish light filtered through the upper clouds. So where are the photos? My phone was out of charge and when it was ready for a picture or two? The sun had set.
When we first started our lives we were empty books. At the end, perhaps we are the same. When the memory dwindles and is gone. Thousands of days or years pass by. How can we be remembered? Our belongings may be passed down through generations, but eventually they just become remnants of a previous way of life.
I not trying to be melodramatic about this or emotional. I’m just contemplating my place in history, a short blip in a continuous spectrum of time. I’m trying to grasp as much of life as I can for as long as I can. Continuing to take an interest in the world and the best of humanity. I hope you are too.
For years I drew seahorses on the sand
A holiday tradition.
He would watch while I drew
Happy in admiration
Sunny, bright days,
Soft sand
Holding hands.
I started doing this
30 years ago
Seahorses gallop into the waves
Dragging my memories
In the undertow
Last week I walked towards a beach
Did not step onto it
Did not pick up a stick and draw
Did not depict this watery creature
I don’t know if I ever will
Again….
Sand particles washed and blown
Away…
Has my tide turned?
I don’t know…
Mallaband-Brown