No cards this year

Posted on December 16, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged 1843, Cards, Christmas cards, Digital, Fun, Memory, Post, Postage, Reality, ThinkingLeave a comment

Usually I send cards to my friends, but the local card shop has closed, the post office closed and one of the post boxes has been removed.

I decided I would make a donation to the charity Parkinsons UK instead. They do work on trying to find and resolve the causes of Parkinsons disease. Hopefully I will be helping others in my circumstances.

Cards are a fun way to show you care about your friends and family. They were first sent by the Victorians in 1843. They became more popular in the 1860s and 70s. People used the penny post to send them to their loved ones. I do t really want to stop sending them, but digital life affects reality.

Altercation…

Posted on March 1, 2025 Posted in UncategorizedTagged altercation, bully's, Life, Negotiate, oval office, Power, Reality, Sad, threats, VP, War2 Comments

We saw the altercation in the White House here in the UK. Most of the UK is not impressed. It looked like two bullies ganging up on someone whose having trouble but could succeeded with their help. Utterly disgusting behaviour. The fact that Ukraine was considering giving up half their mineral rights to the great galumphing orange one is bad enough, it’s basically blackmail. But then the smug one with mascara and a reporter complained their victim wasn’t wearing a suit and was being disrespectful? So why was it OK for the owner of X marks the spot to go in wearing civvies when he bought his kid to work at the Oval office, some double standards there.

So there they were, shouting down a president of a sovereign state, telling him he had a bad hand of cards. When he respectfully tried to say he wasn’t in a card game the orange turnip shouted and pointed and pouted and ranted. He showed the world what he really was, a tyrant and a bully (allegedly).

He’s coming over to the UK on a state visit to see the King, maybe the invitation should be rescinded?

View through

Posted on June 27, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Eye, Layers, Life, Photo, Reality, Spode, Studio, superimposed, View, WindowLeave a comment

Looking through a window in a door at Spode out of the studio window. The layers of lines and squares superimposed on top of each other made it interesting. The wood frames each section neatly.

What you can’t see is the bright sunlight catching the building in the background. I could see it, but here it’s over exposed and looks almost white,merging into the line of sky above it. Eyes are so important, cameras are wonderful, but seeing in reality is a better experience sometimes.

Raining again

Posted on May 28, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged AI, Art, CGI, Creepy, Design, Downpour, Life, Odd, Rain, Reality, Sci fi, Sound, Time, WeatherLeave a comment

The rain came down in a torrent this evening, it was drumming on the roof so hard it drowned out the radio in the kitchen. I was just about to go out and I stood and waited for it to blow over.

I had watched a short video on my phone earlier. It was supposed to show a cloud burst over a desert, but it looked wrong, something like a waterfall but with waves and eddys and tiers a bit like a chandelier. People’s reactions were incredulous.

I then saw the caption at the bottom “generated with AI”. The rain I experienced was real, not AI. I don’t mind that people are creating images, I do it a lot myself, and it’s good watching a film where someone has used CGI to create spaceships, or add landscapes, or alter how people look. But AI seems alien, creepy, like it knows the rules but does not know how to follow them? It sometimes adds extra fingers or distorts faces.

In the end I prefer reality.

Squally shower

Posted on March 27, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged gusty, Life, March winds, Myth, Rain, Reality, springtime, Squall, Time, Weather, Window2 Comments

Wow, it’s just rained heavily. A real squall with gusting winds. The gutters were overwhelmed and water poured down the window. Now the sun’s back out and the dark grey clouds have blown away. I love the sound of raindrops clattering against the glass and the gusts of wind whistling through the gaps in the window frame. It’s never been properly airtight, but I don’t mind and in the dawn light I can hear the blackbird singing on the top of next doors chimney. Music of nature playing around my garden.

It reminds me of the myth or saying about the month of March and March winds… If it is a gentle start to the month it comes in like a lamb and out like a lion, while if it’s windy at the start of the month the opposite, in like a lion out like a lamb tends to be the case.

It will be ok

Posted on February 23, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Advice, Art, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1857, Home, Learning, Life, moving out, Reality, studentLeave a comment

What advice would you give to your teenage self?

When I came to Stoke-on-Trent (the potteries), as a teenager I was leaving home for the first time. I was living in student accommodation for the first year, but then I had to move out into a rented room. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. But I met my boyfriend who later became my husband. I would now tell myself that was the right choice. It didn’t always feel like it at the time, we had some crazy days until things settled down. I could tell my future self some things that I have since forgotten.

I would tell myself that when things were bad they could and did get better. It wasn’t all perfect, how could it be? I never became a famous artist, but enough people would end up liking my paintings for me to feel their recognition.

Life changes over the decades, but a lot of what was important to me as a teenager still is. Moving out also taught me lessons about real life. How I should treat people kindly and to care about them. I can’t say much more because it’s so long ago!

Cost of living

Posted on January 1, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged bills, costs, expensive time, Finances, job, Reality, reduced income, Thinking, Worry2 Comments

Life costs money

The more I think about things the more I wonder how I will manage my finances. My hubby was the main breadwinner, recently I’d given up work to look after him because of his health. We had the cushion of his money coming in over those years and I got used to it. Now? A lot smaller income. Probably a third of what we were getting. Savings will have to be made. I don’t know if I can afford to keep my car. All expensive bills come in January. I’m dreading it. But I think I will cope. If not I will try and get a job.

Quiet day

Posted on December 28, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged avoiding people, Computer, computer game, Game, Internet, Life, Living, mindless, Reality, Time2 Comments

I woke up from a nightmare where I’d lost my house keys and couldn’t get back in the house. I decided to have a quiet day. I haven’t been online much today. I decided to stay off the computer and basically played a game on my phone all day. It was diverting and took my mind off things. But I think I will delete the game. It’s a mindless matching hexagons game. It’s frustrating and fun at the same time. But half the time is t taken up by adverts. I tried to get past them as quickly as I could but they are intensely irritating and there’s no way I’m paying to avoid them. So I’m back to reality again….

Parsimonius

Posted on April 27, 2023April 27, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Careful, Life, Monetary, Money, parsimonius, Poem, Poetry, purse, Reality, Serious, ThoughtsLeave a comment

I must be parsimonius

The door stays locked

Money is a great big fuss

Payments will be stopped.

My purse is not bottomless

The moths are growing big

The dust in there is limitless

While fuel bills they still rig

The cost of living crisis

Has got us by the throat

Money goes by osmosis

Out of a sinking boat!

So now I will spend less

Cutting my money cloth

Mcawber rules I will address

No cash now for froth!

Flitting

Posted on December 20, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Brain, country, Dream, Hidden, Movement, Photo, Picture, Poem, Poetry, Reality, Sight, TravelLeave a comment

My mind flits

From one thought to another

Over the same land

At different stages of coherence.

Dreams of silky seas

That were not mine

Or high mountain peaks

All is enfolded within.

Pictures taken by others

Hidden folds and valleys

Corrugations of brain.

Dream travel can be overwhelming

Or limited to a single room

Hidden meaning or memory.

Then the cotton thread snaps

And you wake,

To grey darkness

Stuck back in reality

Only a thin film away

But so far

From dream country.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Reality