New paintings and regular art updates.
Cats have eaten
Ones gone out
He likes outside
Too much
The others curl
In warmth
By radiators
Or next to heaters
Feeling the warmth
Bedtime
Check the doors
Lock the windows
Turn out the lights
Sleep under these eaves
Rest and refresh
Goodnight all.
There’s definitely something odd about this watch, she said to her friend. I ordered it over the Internet and it arrived today. I needed a new one and this was cheap and cheerful……. She couldn’t explain what was making her uneasy. Is it keeping time? Her friend said, and she replied, yes, it seems to be fine.
She went home after her shift and changed into her pajamas. Put the watch on the bedside cabinet… Tick tock… Tick tock.. Tick tock … She woke in the middle of the night and realised what she had subconsciously been hearing all day…
Tick-tock, the watch was saying the words, not actually ticking or tocking !
Go to sleep Sarah it said, Gooo tooo sleeeep!
What the merry hell?
It flowered
And I had to show it
Resplendent trumpet
In electric light
Will you flower forever
Or fade away
Winter wonder
Snow White petals
The apple tree shimmers in the wind, shadows envelope it and suck out the colour from the leaves. The sky shades from dark brown to black as the clouds flit by. Sulphur Street lights making orange highlights.
Overhead a firework flashes, the whizz bang startles me… Laughter from excited children in a neighbours garden…. No bonfires on bonfire night, but fireworks for the week before. Some so loud the cats jump and startle. Frightened by the sparkle of unexpected explosions.
So many people seem intolerant of pet’s needs. They don’t seem to care how frightening it is for them. I tell mine that it’s only a loud noise and to be calm. I think if I talk quietly to them it helps…
Ker-ak another rocket flies overhead. Meanwhile I wait for a clearing in the sky. A meteor shower is due. No chance, it stays cloudy, more rain and cloud forecast…
Night sky
Like a painting
Moon swirls with cloud
Like cream
in a cup of coffee
Bronze leaves glint
Moonlight sparkles down
Van Gogh imagining
Light and dark
Blackness enveloping all…
Romantic and moody night.
Oh no! Clocks go back tomorrow night. What does that mean? Lighter mornings, but it goes dark an hour earlier.
They did an experiment in the 1960’s I think. They kept British summer time for about three years. It stayed lighter in the evenings. The other effect was that there were less accidental deaths of children because they were not going back from school in the dark when they were tired. But it didn’t catch on because sunrise in the North and Scotland was at about 10am. The idea has been suggested a few times since then but was voted down in Parliament. Maybe one day they will change it permanently. I wish they would. It also saved money and reduced power usage. So maybe its worth it.
The hedgehogs are about tonight eating catfood again. I quietly opened the back door and saw one of them eating the catfood I’d left out for the abandoned cat. When it realised I was there it slowly scuttled off up the yard. When I looked again later all the cat food had gone. When the abandoned cat arrived I gave him a couple of pouches of wet cat food to make up for him missing supper.
I love out hedgehogs, I’m hoping they will weigh enough to survive winter. I think they are living in the back of the shed. My hubby says he hears snuffling in there late at night.
X
She gave me the metal cat as a present, it was sweet of her, but I could not get over the staring eyes. Googly eyes. Glass eyes. It was like the cat had no eyelids.
I put my ‘present’ on the windowledge in the kitchen. As the nights drew in the cat was more noticeable. The eyes, staring. I would try and look the other way as I walked past it to the back door or the bathroom, and on my return I would look at the cooker or the fridge just to avoid its eyes. Her eyes, definitely female, feline eyes.
It was a few months later, September or October, when the nights began to last longer than the days. I looked over at her, but she was facing the other way? Looking out of the window? I asked my husband, no he hadn’t moved her. I asked him to put her back facing inwards. She’s heavy so he did it for me. But, the next night, the same thing. We moved her back… This was the same every night for a week. It kept happening.
The next night I looked and she wasn’t there. I looked around, she was by the cat flap! This was mad. Either my husband was doing it, or the cat had some sort of magical power? I was getting scared it was very strange. I wanted to tell someone, but my husband said if I told the police, or friends, they would think I was going daft.
Every time I put the cat back it moved overnight. So what else could I do? I stayed up after my husband had gone to bed. I looked in the kitchen, and as I did, the cat stretched, front legs, then back legs, arched it’s back, tail straight up…. And jumped… Jumped off the ledge, onto the kitchen counter and onto the floor! It looked back with those eyes…. I was mesmerised. It walked to the back door and I followed. It pawed at the door. What could I do? I opened it. As I did, ghostly black cat shapes poured in! All of them with staring eyes. I knew then I wasn’t safe….
This hanging basket had a solar light shining over it. With the sunshine we had today its really bright. The colours stand out well in the night against a dark sky. Perhaps we will add more over the other baskets.
Up hill
Steep, hard to breathe
Step by step we struggle.
Into the sunset
Over the ground
Crawling up.
Now we turn around a corner,
Along a street
Looking at stars and planets.
Meander for a while,
Then up again
To the plateau.
Now home
Down hill
Short steps
Teetering down the hill
Steeper to start
Then slowly levelling
Home.
Mallaband-Brown