Now

Posted on January 5, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-05, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1808, Future, Imagination, Life, Now, Past, Present, Thinking, Time2 Comments

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

The past is behind me, I cannot change it. I want to, but it’s twisted up like knots or knitting. Tangled threads that tie everything in place. Nothing can escape again, so I say let it be. Don’t get caught in it’s net and be held back by the past.

The future is out of control without a time machine. Each step of the day splits and shatters into a miriad of gleaming shards. Each action reflects against the next and distorts the future more and more, until the never ending possibilities are too mixed up to see clearly.

So I prefer now. I grip it tightly and try to hang on, like holding a tiger by its tail as it thrashes about. I try and control it as much as I can, I never know if it will slip my grasp and fall apart. But I try.

Leaving work

Posted on April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Change, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1911, History, Life, no regrets, Past, redundant, Time, WorkLeave a comment

Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.

Things happen and suddenly you have to decide what to do. Your life can carry on the same old way or you can adjust it. Mostly though that happens when you get a little older. That’s what happened to me.

I knew I would be OK as I was taking a calculated step, but what I didn’t bank on was Brexit (why?), then the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis, and health issues.

So would I do it again? Yes of course. I know I’m not probably as well off and secure as I would have been, but I know I’m happier. I won’t describe why I left, but I wasn’t happy. Things changed and I could explain, but it’s in the past now. All I know is that I feel more confident, it has definitely helped me grow as a person.

What’s next? I’ll keep trying to make things work. I have to. I wish anyone else who has made a similar decision all the best and good luck.

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.

Old TV

Posted on March 28, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged children's TV, Fun, Memory, Past, Poem, Poetry, Programme, Remembering, Rhyme, theme music, TimeLeave a comment

When I was young we used to see

Children’s programmes on tv

Chigley, Trumpton, Camberwick Green

Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb were seen.

Then came the Herbs and a dog called Dill.

Parsley the Lion, I remember him still….

The theme music that we would sing

The Clangers, and Magpie, fun they’d bring

Puppet shows galore there were on TV

Like Stingray and Thunderbirds you’d see.

With Bill and Ben

Wild flowerpot men!

So much to remember from years ago

When I was a child…Memory fast not slow!

Keeping in touch.

Posted on November 30, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Family, Friends, Future, keeping in touch, Memory, Now, Past, Relatives, Time2 Comments

I’ve realised how out of touch I have got with some people. It’s not deliberate, but I’m one of these out of sight, out of mind people. I tend to be aware of things in the ‘now’, and the past is gone. It’s helpful because I don’t dwell on bad things from the past, but on the other hand it makes me forget to keep in touch with old friends. Can you know too many people? I don’t think so. But I can’t hold them all in my head! So my intention is to try and at least say hi once a month…. I need to remind myself to do it…..

Moonlight bright

Posted on October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Burslem, Burslem witch, Cold, Creepy, gravestone, History, Ice, Life, molly leigh, Moonlight, Past, weather frost, WitchLeave a comment

Moonlight like ice, glinting frost, I wish we had cold weather. Walking round a frosty graveyard looking at ice crystals on bushes and grasses. Little pawprints trailing across the lawn, glittering as a stray moonbeam passes through wilting leaves.

A gravestone sits sideways to all the other ones. Because it’s occupant was said to be the local witch, wise woman, healer, giving remedies that were beyond the wit of man? Perhaps that moon shone down on her once, on her cottage surrounded by herbs, witch hazel, foxgloves, woody nightshade.

Don’t move, just listen, hear the rustle of bat’s in the belfry, feel the crunch of ice under your hand. Its All Hallows Eve. Perhaps this is a dream about Molly Leigh, the Burslem witch.

Janus

Posted on January 22, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Digital drawing, Doodle, Future, January, janus, Past, Poem, Poetry, Two facedLeave a comment

Janus, two faced

Looking forward

To the future

And back

To the past

January is your month..

Old Year gone

Now New here.

What is your future?

Do you know your past

Janus, oh two faced in one.

Will you last?

Conkers

Posted on November 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bodnant garden, Conkers, Garden, Memory, Past, Photo, Photo still life, Picture, Time, Trees, WalesLeave a comment

Still llife photo of conkers. Photo taken last year at Bodnant Garden in North Wales last year. What a great trip out that was. We walked round the large garden grounds. Down into the river valley, past huge and ancient trees. Late flowering perennials and bushes. Its a charming place to visit, but be aware it is hilly. Its a National Trust site so its very well maintained. There are small shops trading there, a garden centre and a cafe/restaurant.

Great for a visit when the garden is in full bloom, especially the laburnum walk. You can join the National Trust or pay when you visit. BUT check opening times, it does close in the winter and with the lockdown for the pandemic there will be changes to visiting and probably closures.

Thinking of Time

Posted on September 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Can I understand it?, Future, Is there information to explain?, Life, Past, Present, The world, Thinking, Time, What is time?5 Comments

You can’t see the past or the future. You might be able to remember the past but it no longer exists as a physical thing. The future might be predicted, but it doesn’t exist yet.

I tried to imagine how it works. Like walking through a door or a window. The present would be a thin flat plain of glass with your body perhaps caught in it, and the past and the future would be ghostly after images of a leg or the impression of an arm projecting into the future….

Clearly it isn’t really like that. Our limbs don’t dissolve into a misty future or fall into a darkening landscape behind us. But it’s interesting to think about. We are ‘present’ in our present. We need to realise how strange the universe is. We need to care for our environment. We cannot see the future but we can try and make it safe for our future selves and generations.