Tag: Memory

Repairing split jeans

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My old painting jeans. They are years old. When they started to split I started to sew. One patch of sewing covers another. Trying to keep up with the holes!

Mostly sewn with cotton reel thread, a few strands of embroidery silk. My stitches are no longer neat and small. My shaking arm makes it hard to hold the material while I try and stitch. The yellow is the latest cotton. I will swap to another colour soon. I just need to catch the rip below the pocket before it gets any worse. It’s really threadbare…

This is like the story of the old broom. It’s had three new stales and two new brush heads… But it’s still the old broom you always knew… X

Classical

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What is your favorite genre of music?

Stravinsky, Holst, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mozart, lots of older and more modern classical pieces. Including opera, ballet, symphonies and anthems.

I particularly like the Rites of Spring, and the Planet Suite. But almost every piece of classical music cheers me up.

But one of my difficulties is I can never remember what half of the melodies or composers are called. I will remember the music when I hear it, but ask me to name specific pieces and I struggle. Oh I know Ravel wrote the Bolero and Tchaikovsky wrote Swan Lake (I hope?), but I have a blind spot. I can remember some physics or biology, or information about art and artists, but music of any genre? I really struggle. It’s not in my head. And yet if I’m singing with the choir, I don’t remember the song until we start singing, then suddenly its there, words and tune. I must have a strange brain.

The dolphin one..

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Describe your most memorable vacation.

We were holidaying on the Devon Coast in summer. We came back to the campsite and saw a crowd of people on the beach and others in wet suits in the sea. We went to find out what was happening and saw a pod of dolphins swimming back out to sea. But one had stayed behind.

I looked at my friend’s and told them I was getting in! I took off my glasses and shoes and got in the sea fully clothed! I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of swimming with a dolphin. I swam half way to the people in wetsuits so I was not much out of my depth. I was a reasonable swimmer and it was a calm and walm evening.

The dolphin was very inquisitive and kept swimming backwards and forwards between the people on the beach and out to sea. Of course that meant it had to come past me. One thing I did notice was it had a lot of cuts along it’s sides. Apparently it was well known for getting near the propellers of boats. Sadly it had been hurt by this behaviour.

The other memory I have was of the caravan step collapsing on our last night. It had rusted through because of the salt air and broke as I stepped on it. We had to move caravans and got an extra nights stay as I had hurt my foot and couldn’t drive back home until the following day.

Yes, why do you want to know?

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Have you ever had surgery? What for?

I’ve had surgery a few times in my life. I won’t say what for, you can share too much information. I may have to have more.

Surgery can be frightening, I’ve had general and local anaesthetics. You don’t know anything has happened until you wake up. Then you have to deal with pain. I prefer local anaesthetic to be honest. The surgeries I’ve had have really helped my problems. I would say have it if you need to.

I don’t know what else to say except its amazing what surgeons can do today, and in some cases they are bringing in robot surgeons. Probably a good thing as they don’t have hands that can shake!

A quiet bench…

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Bench at Westport lake last year. It was taken on a drizzly day like today. It’s good to see the weeping willow tree a bit further round the lake sweeping like a curtain across the side of the waters edge. It brings back memories of another one I knew….

I used to hide under a weeping willow when I was a child. It stood on its own in a park and I would sit with my back against it and imagine I was in a green tent or hiding behind a green waterfall. I had many adventurous thoughts sitting there in peace and quiet.

Relaxing on a bench is good when you have a view like this at Westport. After you have walked half a mile it’s nice to stop for a chat. Or a sandwich and a cup of tea. Refreshed and calm you can carry on with your walk. By the way there is a bench appreciation society page on Facebook for those that are interested….

At the Leopard

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Before it burnt down, the Leopard Hotel was a great place to visit, the owners asked me to paint a series of murals in the Arnold Bennett suite at the back of the hotel.

Here is one of a few photos a visitor to it took of my paintings. It doesn’t show them clearly, but it does give an idea of the sizes and the distances between them.

I’ve painted murals at other places but the buildings they were in have mostly been demolished! I’m not complaining but I think its sad that all the effort that was put in to paint them has been lost. Some of them were joint projects with artists from Stoke-on-Trent city council. I was just helping on those and wasn’t the main artist so I don’t feel as attached to them as I did with the Leopard. Such a sad loss to the town of Burslem. It was a historic building that had a lot of influence on the lives of its residents.

Knickerbocker glory

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What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

A knickerbocker glory in the cafe at the top of the Great Orme mountain in Llandudno in Wales.

Why? It’s the only one I ever ate, I was a child, and I was amazed by it.

A tall cold glass with a long spoon, a fan shaped wafer in the top. Vanilla ice cream, fruit (I think cherries and peaches), chocolate and raspberry sauces, and fresh cream…. Well that’s how I remember it! We had gone up on the cable car and it was a real adventure. I think we were staying in Rhyl and had a day trip down the Coast to Llandudno.

I remember deep blue sea and bright blue sky, tall houses and wide, quiet roads. The cable car was scary but fun and the cafe had cool drinks and ice-cream for sale.

I don’t know if I ate the whole knickerbocker glory or if I shared with one of my sisters? It seemed to be huge. I think we chose it because of the picture on the menu? It certainly cooled us down on that hot sunny day. Fifty years later.. I still remember…. Delicious!

Hydrangea blue

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The bracts are developing to a purple blue. Such a lovely plant. It’s sitting in the yard but I think we will move it towards the house so it gets more light. I remember my grandmother having a hydrangea but hers was pink. I painted a portrait of her in front of it years ago. It grew in a big pot under the living room window. Just seeing this brings back memories of a strong and forthright woman. She knew what she thought and what she wanted.

Faces

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Experimenting again, Artrage app

Another couple of drawings/experiments, I do love learning and playing with art, but then I want to know how do I optimise my photos on my phone? My old antivirus used to do it, but now I’ve changed phones I can’t seem to work out what to do.

Should I use something in settings, or will there be an optimiser in my gallery. It’s worrying because my media here keeps telling me it’s full. When I upload optimised photos it’s not as bad. And along th e same lines, how do I sync my phone and my PC? It would help sort things out….