Tag: Memory

Methodism

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What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

I’ve said before I’m not religious, I don’t go to Church or Chapel anymore, but when I was younger I did. The methodist way of prayer and praise was simple. Not much adornments, no artistic decoration, just plain white walls and brown wooden pews and pulpit.

That heritage is in abundance where I live now. Just not of here is a village called Mow Cop where primitive Methodists used to preach outside to their flocks of parishoners. I believe that John Wesley preached there.

Wikipedia

Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesleyan_Methodist_Church_(Great_Britain)

Gives more information than I am aware of.

Bethesda Methodist Chapel, in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, is gradually being restored to it’s previous magnificent state, after being left to rack and ruin over several decades. I have had the pleasure of performing there with a choir on a couple of occasions and have seen the improvement over the years. It is rather large for a Methodist Chapel and could almost be classified as a cathedral.

Other cultural heritage I am aware of is the formation of the first co-operative movement in the world. It was started in Toad Lane in Rochdale, England. Wikipedia probably has information about that too.

Poison words

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What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I used to be hurt when people said things to me to upset me. I would take on board what they said, and it could lead to several sleepless nights, or mistrusting my judgement or feelings.

After a few years of this I talked to a new friend who explained a way of getting through or over the uncaring words.

What they said was imagine the nasty words are poison. The words are absorbed by the victim (in this case me) and the poison works it’s way into the mind of the person they want to hurt. This affects that person’s confidence, thoughts, security.

But in the meantime the person doing the poisoning walks away scot free. With no effect on them, able to go and place poison elsewhere, spreading their cruelty and getting a rise out of others.

The trick is to realise what they are doing and train yourself to ignore their jibes. Inoculate your mind against their poison and learn to stop their tricks before they can get to you. It really does help.

Which holidays?

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How do you celebrate holidays?

There are holidays and holy days? Some countries have more of one sort than the other. It depends on where you live.

It also depends on what your religion is, if you have one.

Some holidays are based on Saints days, like St Patrick’s day in Ireland, St Nicholas around the world, many different saints in Christian countries, prophets in others.

Other holidays are based on different deities. From Hindu to Buddhist, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, they all have holidays, some are celebrated by multiple religions, others are unique to one clique of one subdivision of a religion.

I celebrate Christmas and Easter, but as I’m not a strong believer I do not go into it deeply, I just appreciate the history of the celebration and possibly attend a service at our local church. But I am not intensely involved.

Holidays, as in travelling, or visiting other towns and cities IS something I truly celebrate. With the Covid infection, cost of living crisis and other problems I rarely get time to take a real holiday. As a pet owner, the time we can spend away is limited, I cannot afford to put my pets into accommodation, so we only stay away for short breaks.

So that’s my holiday celebrations, a bit sparse, but I enjoy what I can.

Lots of mistakes

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Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

I guess the worst thing I ever did was to burn a cake! I took the risk of making it up as I went along, but I didn’t think of the oven temperature. I set it at has mark 7 and cooked it for an hour. More than slightly crispy even after I cut the outside layer off.

That’s why it’s good to follow a recipe. You can learn from your mistakes. But once you have the basic idea THEN you can add your own twist. But remember not to over spice things. Especially if you know nothing about chilli and the varying types that you can get. I also didn’t know about deseeding them and not to touch your eyes if you have chilli on your hands!

One meal I wasn’t responsible for was a chicken casserole. I left my hubby detailed instructions and friends came round to enjoy the meal (not). I didn’t realise that he would translate my clove of garlic into a BULB of garlic. Not a pleasant meal!

Into the light

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The pulse has gone, all is lost. Communication has ended. A dull drone at the end of the phone. A murmuring has slowly died away. No more heat. Soulless sadness. I had to write.

I see your face, but can’t recall it, only imagination holds you in place. Anniversary gone, I must face my own troubles. But I look in the mirror and see your face, then you walk away into the distance, into the light… My sister, goodbye.

Not much

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How often do you walk or run?

When I was young I used to run in races, I didn’t have any training but I would get quiet good places in school sports day races. I was fit, I used to jump over my dad’s saw bench, using it as a hurdle in our back garden. I also used to love climbing up the swing and hanging off the top.

As I got older we would walk to places and I got good at cycling. I was able to cycle 40 miles up to my boyfriends house north of Manchester and down to my mom’s home near Birmingham.

Then I had an accident, my bike was damaged and we got a car. The car was useful for commuting to work. The repair shop which was fixing my bike lost it for a year! But I still walked around my patch at work, so I stayed fit. I eventually got my bike back, but never felt the same way.

I still walked a bit, but my health wasn’t good. I put on weight and my job changed so I was more sedentary. I didn’t realise how big I was getting until a health scare.

I lost about a third of my body weight and met a good friend. We started walking together and I started to get fit again. I was also going on walks with hubby.

Then the pandemic happened. I still walked but didn’t see friends as much. My health was not good and although I was trying, when my friend got a new job I stopped walking as much. At the time I pulled my calf muscle and ended up off my feet for several weeks. I slowly started to gain strength, but I wasn’t able to do as much. Other sad things happened and I got in a rut.

Now I’m slowly recovering from another injury. I must start walking again as soon as I can. Being stuck at home is very frustrating.

Almost a year

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Almost a year

Time has moved on

From when I heard

That you were gone

The Earth around the Sun

That shone

Has turned full circle

And flown on

Around the galaxy

So that now

We cannot ever

Return anon.

Still raw my thoughts

Reach back in time.

I miss you so

Hence this Bad rhyme

I hope that if you were to glance

At this mad poem

You’d laugh and prance

And tell me ‘chill!’

Take no heed

We must survive

Old life’s sad dance!

Castle keep

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A real castle in Wales we visited last year. There are so many in the principality that we have visited over the years, this might be Carnarvon. This is in North West Wales but I’m not absolutely sure.

I posted this because it’s a substantial castle, mostly in ruins, a lot of them were built by English King’s to control Wales. This is why the English monarchy has a Prince of Wales who is usually the monarchs son. I’d love to go back.

Happy flowers

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Joy

Bees and hover flies pollenating the flowers, I don’t get out to deadhead them so they are going over (dying back) sooner than usual, but they are still joyously beautiful.

I didn’t realise how much the back yard meant to me ubtil this period of isolation. But I just have to look out of the back door and I see this glorious view. I haven’t taken any recent photos so I must get some before it’s too late. Have a lovely September.