Lilac flowers

Posted on May 21, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Boys, Flowers, lilac blossom, Memories, Mother, previous burglary, Shock, shouted, swore, TeenagerLeave a comment

I’m not OK this afternoon. A bit shook up. I saw someone climbing up my garden gate through my side window, so I decided to confront them. I’m afraid I swore at them very loudly (along the lines of “What the EFF do you think you’re doing?” ). Then I realised it was a couple of teenage boys from the local school. They were shocked and so was I. They explained they were trying to get some of my white lilac for their mums which is about 8 foot up off the ground. I told them they should have asked permission. I explain it shook me up because we were burgled 18 months ago and caught burglars climbing over the gate… I still feel rough (high. BP). I let them get some flowers as I was also shocked by shouting at them! They were OK about the shouting and apologised to me.

How do you spell Mackerel?

Posted on April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged comprehension, Confusion, Learning, Life, mackerel, Mother, Spelling, Support, Words2 Comments

One of those words that foxes me. Makeral, Makeral, Mackerel? Finally got it.

Other words lose or loose…. I used to use loose when something was lost, not escaped from a field. And field was another one. I used to spell it feild….

Tommorow was how I spelt tomorrow

Centre and center interchangeable…..

Only my mother making me do 100 spellings a day rescued me. Sometimes I still get it wrong…. I’m wrung out!

It has to be Chinese

Posted on September 14, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Chinese, Chopsticks, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2061, Food, Indian, Life, Memories, Mother, Tasty, vesta chow meinLeave a comment

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.

No tree

Posted on July 29, 2024 Posted in Cat, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Baubles, Broken, Cat, Christmas tree, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2015, Life, Memories, MotherLeave a comment

What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?

We always had a traditional Christmas tree, decorated with glass baubles, lammetta to look like icicles (thin strips of shiny metal tassels) also dodgy Christmas tree lights which would regularly stop working. It was a treat to be allowed to decorate it with my mother’s help. I think we always managed a tree with nicely placed ornaments and would then add bits of cotton wool to represent snow.

Scroll forward a few years. Now I rarely have a tree because of my cats. They like playing with the baubles and breaking them. They have also knocked the whole tree over. I haven’t given up on the idea. I even think I could hang a tree from the ceiling just to keep the cats at bay!

Dragon coffee pot

Posted on April 25, 2024April 25, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged 1950's, Ceramics, Chinese, Coffee pot, Japanese, Memory, Mother, Pottery, Time, wedding presentLeave a comment

Something my mother collected, possibly a wedding present from the 1950’s? I’ve always loved this set. I borrowed it off my sister so I could use it in some college work about dragons.

This is a Chinese dragon I think? It might be Japanese, the way to tell is the number of toes on its feet. I think I remember that Japanese dragons have three toes and Chinese have four or five? If you know please remind me.

The coffee set was probably made for the export market and won’t be worth a great deal but I like it, it’s quirky and interesting. I think the dragon itself is quite humerous. I like the colours, also the airbrushing and the slip trailed areas.

I just Google imaged this, it’s Japanese Moriage Bone China.

Letter to myself

Posted on December 9, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged breathe, Father, Letter, letter to myself, Loss, Memories, Mother, Thinking, Writing7 Comments

Dear Me

It’s been a horrible few days. I’m worried and scared, but I must try and cope. Remember to breathe, don’t hide away. Memories of other situations make me want to do this.

I remember my mom when my dad died, she sat on the settee in the darkness for three days, in the end I wrote her a letter and asked her to look after us, her children. I think that finally got through to her. She seemed to respond.

Writing this is just a way of talking to myself, but to share with others, maybe it is something to think about for other people?

I wish I could talk to her

Posted on July 22, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Advice, Life, Loss, Memory, Mother, Mourning, Pain, regret, Sadness, Sister, Thinking2 Comments

I wish I could speak to my mother, my sister, but they are gone. If there was a phone line, a way to communicate. Just to say hello. To get some comfort. To just say a few words and get some response. It’s hard to lose people, it leaves such an empty space. Even when I’m busy I think of them. I thought I would learn to cope, and I have to some extent, but the older you get it seems the more the regret grows (at least for me). Sadness, regret, pain, loss, mourning, they all crowd in on me sometimes.

Art college

Posted on April 17, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, College, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1909, freedom, History, Home, Life, lucky, Mother, Past, Time2 Comments

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.

I will always be grateful for my mother’s encouragement for me to go to art college. She had to work to support us all and when I finished school she might have insisted that I work full time.

Instead she let me go to college (though I had a couple of part time jobs). I initially went on a preparatory course, then left home to do my degree.

I was aware that my cousin who was also artistic had to go to work in a factory and forget her dreams. I don’t know what happened to her after I moved away. But in my case I was always welcomed home in the holidays.

I’m glad my mom gave me the freedom to do art. Learning has always been something that I enjoyed, and to do a subject that I love? I will always be eternally grateful to her.

Going home over the years I realised how proud she was of me. She was always encouraging us all to do the best we could.

Mothers Day

Posted on March 19, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged absence, Family, Father, Hearts, Life, Loss, Love, Memories, Mother, Mothers day, Passed awayLeave a comment

Gone but I remember you. It’s been a few years, but on Mother’s day I wish you were still here. I could tell you my news, how things had been. You would be stern but fair, or happy and pleased. No matter what, you would try and help with problems. You cared about things.

Mothers (and Fathers) who have passed away are still remembered. It’s always a tug on my heart when the day comes round and I can’t buy her flowers or get each of them a card, a thank you for their care and support. I will try to keep those memories, to keep her in my mind, today and in future.

Hotel view

Posted on July 20, 2022July 20, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged dinghy, Fishing, Humour, Mother, Sea, Short story, Sunset, suspense, Very short story, Weather2 Comments

Looking out from the hotel over the Channel she worried about her son. Where was he? Anxiety weighed like a heavy stone on her heart. What if she never saw him again?

The dinghy had not been seen since sunset, when it had been out on the sandbar fishing for mackerel, but no one had called the lifeboat and they were not that overdue. Still, a mother can have a sense about these things. She knew in her bones… Something was wrong.

A shadow fell across her as the sun started to set again. She turned her head to look. She heard his voice…

‘Mum?’….

‘Can you do my washing this weekend?’

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Mother