New paintings and regular art updates.
It was singing at the Church carol concert tonight. I felt proud, I think because I hadn’t been rehearsing due to my broken rib, people were surprised. I got a few compliments at church and when I got home a couple who had been up at the concert stopped to say I’d got a lovely voice!
Strangely when I was having a mince pie during the intermission I had a discussion about being agnostic with the local vicar! I don’t know what got into me!
Blimey! I’ve just had a new bed delivered. My old one way about Xx years old (too embarrassed to mention it’s actual age). What a palaver! Moving furniture and boxes out the way. Making sure there were no trip hazards in the way. Emptying divan drawers of stuff that could have come out of the ark, were those cushions from the 1980s? Then because I’ve gone from a king-size to a double do I need to get new sheets and a duvet? do I need new or will the old ones do? Will it be too soft or too hard? A friend of mine has given it me and she lives miles away so I didn’t get a chance to try it out. All I can say is that it looked comfy as the men carried it upstairs, but I’m too tired to get up there and try it out!
Is Lady Liberty disappearing into mist and fog? What happened to the support of huddled masses? Can there possibly be mass deportations?
Looking up the name of the island where people arrived in America, Google says:
On 1 January 1892, Ellis Island opened to receive immigrants. At its peak, during the early years of the 20th Century, thousands of people passed through its gates each day. Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had the same role on the west coast from 1910 to 1940.
So why is this aspect of America. Support and kindness now being curtailed? Perhaps it is through fear, perhaps it is selfishness. I don’t know. There seems to be almost a mass hysteria around the world where xenophobia is taking control. We see it in the UK where the legal routes to migration have been reduced and people fleeing conflict have been forced to risk travelling across the Channel in small boats to get to the UK. Vicious rumours about those poor people have caused riots and misinformed so many people in negative ways.
We see war in Syria now that has started to maim and kill people again. Destabilising countries causes strife and fear and forces people to move. Gaza is in crisis, Ukraine is being destroyed. Sudan has floods and starvation to mention a few current crises. But instead of dealing with the bad actors we allow the oligarchs of the world to feel they can get away with their cruelty.
All of us need to stop and think about kindness, caring and love. It’s about time we thought as President Kennedy did, not what we can do for ourselves but what we can do for others. Somewhere humanity needs to think about our fellow humans and not just grabbing what we can and damn the rest.
It makes me dispair and worry about what we are doing. Maybe fear of what’s happening to the Earth’s environment is now impacting on its population. Somehow we must start to care more about each other.
Before covid (bc) I painted a series of pictures of places the cast of the pantomime I was in travelled through to get to Gretna green in Scotland (they had no sense of direction). This was one of the destinations.
This popped up on my Facebook memories. Imagine 8 or 10 people walking along and each painting being moved across the stage behind them. It was fun.
A photo from 7 years ago. It’s just a horizontal mirroring of the top of a tree. It feels tranquil, like a flooded flat lake that has risen to cover the land. A perfect reflection created digitally.
In other thoughts I’m having a quiet day, my stomach is upset again and I’m just trying to sleep, relax, and stay calm like the photo.
What technology would you be better off without, why?
Expensive hair curlers that cost the Earth, but don’t do much better than cheaper ones. The cost and power they use must be excessive for people with low incomes. The fact that they often come in “exclusive” colours so they can charge more is ridiculous.
The amount of effort to make something use the Coanda effect to pull hair round onto a heated surface? Is it worth the effort? I wonder.
Every so often I find a heart, and I smile and remember, I’m not alone.
Memories grip me, I remember clear days, driving through country lanes, visiting old houses, happiness, times spent together.
It doesn’t have to be a leaf, I see hearts in swirls of coffee, puddles, holes in crumpets, flower petals, it’s just some random pattern that leads me to loving feelings, caring, comforting, companionable love.
And I’m glad.
I keep getting ads in my time line to order my 2024 past book now.
Anyone who follows me will know I don’t need reminding. I have had the worst 12 to 24 months in my life that I never want to live over again. I hope to get through December and have a better start to 2025, although I worry about geopolitics. I don’t want one! I don’t want reminding, please don’t make me!
OK that’s enough..
There were good times too, I have some good photos, but I’m not in the mood to share. I’ll hoard those to myself, keep them safe.
I saw you in a dream
Echoing through my head
High on a hill,
Climbing a crag
Cycling on narrow roads
Blossom twined in your hair
Life in the 70’s
All love and peace
Working at Machynlleth
You saw Dylan
At the isle of Wight
Your free spirit
Was my joy untold
When I met you, so bold
Never enough time to be
In that world with you
Dragged into work
Instead of adventure
With you.
I hope it’s obvious what I’m talking about!
I won’t go into detail but I’ve lost 3kg over the last couple of days. I think I have caught a virus, and that and a damaged rib has made for a painful few days. I’ve not been out of the house in a while. Luckily a relative visited but I wasn’t on my own. But I ache all over and she made me small meals to keep me going. I’ve slept in an armchair because I couldn’t get upstairs or lie down. I just hope I’m feeling better soon.
Mallaband-Brown