Tag: Time

My random gallery

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Lots of photos, thousands! Because I use my phone to edit and experiment with images, I keep ending up with too many photos. I’ve worked out (finally) how to optimise them on this new phone, but it means that images I have been adding here are taking up too much space on WordPress /Jetpack.

Editing the photos as I go along does take time when I am busy with other things. Duplications get missed, or sneak into other folders, I haven’t created the folders, the phone does it on its own! Then Jetpack gets upset with me, my picture content is always hovering around 100% so I have to delete old photos (I have over 1800 images in my folder here!).

I’ve started using free images here, but often they don’t really represent what I want to depict, so the majority of images I add are my own.

Old tops

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Pattern

I’m unearthing old tops and leggings because I’m having a late spring clean. I bought some of those vaccum bags that you fill with clothes and then suck all the air out. It’s surprising how satisfying it is to do. I’ve bagged up all my winter jumpers. All I need to do is unzip the bag when I need them again. It also means they can’t be attacked by clothes moths. I will also bag up a winter bedcover and a few sheets and a crocheted blanket. I’m glad I bought the bags. In the meantime I’m enjoying wearing a top I last wore twenty years ago… My cupboards need sorting out more frequently!

Global warming

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What are you most worried about for the future?

The heat is on..

The world is melting

Tides are rising

It’s happened in my lifetime

Sea water is hotter

Glaciers are drying up

No water to drink

Once it’s gone.

Drought hits crops

Why not be concerned?

Just because I might be gone

I still need to worry

For the ones that come after.

Do my best to restore things

To how they were?

Not much effect maybe?

But one fingernail holds me

Stuck on a cliff

Of hope to change things

We cannot turn back time

But we may make a difference

If we all try?

Bench post

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We were thinking of replacing a garden bench with a new one. The seat has rotted through because we didn’t use wood preservatives and there were a few ones for sale at a garden centre we visited at the weekend. But I gasped when I saw the prices! This one was almost £500! I used to pay less than that for a few nights holiday accommodation, although I can’t see us having a holiday this year. Everything has got too expensive.

At least we have some money to spare, but only because of cutting back. It meant we could afford the vet bill today. I’d rather do that than buy clothes or shoes. Life is crazy, but I’m not going to complain, a lot of people have it far worse than us. I think we have to learn to be kinder to each other…. (and not buy benches…)

Singing group

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We had choir practice tonight. We started to learn a song ‘it’s getting better everyday’ we had learnt it a few years ago when we had sung in a play at the local theatre. I was thinking about the enjoyment of singing and I remembered that Elton John was extolling the virtues of being in a choir at Glastonbury this year.

We are not a big group but we harmonise well. We did a few sea shanties and started learning another one about going on holiday.

It was such a positive evening, I would recommend joining a choir or singing group if you want to get calm and improve your breathing too. We learn a capella and we are mainly unaccompanied, it’s really fun!

Up and down

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This is how I feel. Trying to balance the world on my nose. It wobbles, but keeps spinning. It precesses and stays just about stable, but demands on me pull it off kilter. Can I do this, will I do that? Can I help with.. I don’t like letting people down so I do my best. Perhaps I should be more selfish? But that’s not what I’m like.

I feel like dropping the spinning wheel sometimes, just let it slide away, tip up then roll off into the distance. Trying to manage the behaviour of someone who self harms isn’t good (I won’t say who). That and personal pain from my medical conditions makes me grumpy. I just want peace. A couple of days to myself. It didn’t help that our neighbours behind us are selling their house and are threatening to cut branches off our trees? We said we would sort things out so hubby, who is in his seventies, was climbing up and down ladders cutting foliage back. All I could do was hold the ladder. That and some other new neighbours have decided to park their car in the alleyway so it’s hard to access the back of our garden. No consideration for us. I might contact the council. So many things to deal with, and now it looks like one of our cats had got an abscess on his face, he’s just come in and his face is swollen. Oh dear!

Chomped cherries!

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Pecked at!

We just gathered some cherries off the ground because the rain and wind has knocked a lot off the tree. This is about a third of them that were too bruised, damaged or pecked. The rest have just been washed thoroughly in salty water and I’ve put them in the fridge to eat tomorrow. I will thoroughly rinse them again first.

The plan is to get a broom or a stick to try and pull some more down and collect them in an upturned umbrella. I hope the weather doesn’t intervene in the meantime! Praying the wind doesn’t whip up and blow them off. There’s still plenty left for the birds…

A diary of gratitude

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What are your daily habits?

For 323 days now

Book 3!

I started this last year. It was recommended as a way of bringing more positive thoughts to my mind. I have done it for 323 days now and there’s no sign of me stopping. I’m most of the way through my third sketchbook. I draw a sketch for each of three gratitudes and a short description of what I’m grateful for.

The idea is you don’t write big gratitudes, but little ones so you don’t feel put off by not having a big enough thing to write about. So on one day I wrote that the traffic lights were on green and I got to the doctors in time. For that I drew the traffic lights. Another could be that the cat came up and was very loving. I drew a curled up cat. Finally I wanted something else to write, and the plants in the garden were lovely so I wrote that and drew some flowers.

I have continued to do this each day, sometimes I forget, but it’s a good habit for me to keep to and it has helped me to keep things together. So if I’ve forgotten I will catch it up. It’s become that important to me. It’s going to mean a lot of gratitude sketchbooks though if I carry on!

Cutting down power usage

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Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?

We have an old car, it’s about 23 years old (not as old as the morris in the painting), we can’t afford to replace it. But don’t really want to because of all the resources locked up in it. We only drive short distances now and did less than 1000 miles last year. I rarely have to fill it up with fuel. For local trips we usually walk. It’s a struggle to carry things, but it’s exercise.

I have a bike but I’m too wobbly to use it. But it may well be given to a charity so it can be reused, it would be good to give it to a good home. You only have a short window of adulthood to be adventurous but as you get older it gets harder. My mind is mostly fine but my body is getting worn out and ill.

Apart from that we planted a lot of trees on our garden which have become mature over the years. I’m sure that must offset our carbon footprint. We try and grow some fruit and vegetables too. We also try not to use much gas and electricity. We rarely buy clothes or shoes…..

I could go on. I don’t feel deprived. I’ve never flown and don’t want to and I rarely travel more than the occasional 80 miles to visit relatives. I hope all of this is a good way towards living a sustainable life. We could do more, we try.

Spiritually speaking

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I think about spirituality sometimes and I question whether it is part of religion or not?

I don’t really know what I believe in. I was brought up as a Christian but I also think there are other aspects of spirit and life that come into your thoughts. I cannot be dogmatic or “born again”, I think you have to question things. Just because the bible says the world was made in seven days does not mean it was. That explanation seems like a simple way of understanding the Earth and the Universe. As we grow and learn we have to take on board science and all the knowledge that has come about over the centuries.

I could be an atheist, and not believe in a God or Gods, but in fact I’m more of an agnostic. I don’t know what I believe in, but if the universe is infinite and “God” is infinite how can I possibly know anyway?

I love John Lennons song “Imagine”, imagine there’s no heaven above us, and no hell below (I don’t think I’ve got the words right). I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I don’t know if there is anything after life, and if there is, what comes after that?

I enjoy Yoga, and we do breathing and meditation exercises. I think that helps me cope with my life. I think there are aspects of spirituality that I could question more, but I don’t know whether I should.