It’s withered, like a dead skull, on York stone pavement. Crumbling, dried, sad. Losing colour, frayed round the edges. On a thin stem, fallen from a great height, spiralled down from the highest treetop. Remember when you were a bud? Barely broken out of your twig…? Then you swelled as rain fell onto the ground. Expanding green, growth, sucking in sunlight. Changing it to sugars. Then the cold wind bit, frost grew on your surface, ice crept into your veins. Ended, you fell. You will be dust soon, forgotten.
A memory of a walk round Westport Lake last year. The geese were very keen to be fed. We were gradually increasing the lengths of our walks. Then I started going for walks with a friend. I miss them. About three weeks ago I got tonsillitis and its knocked me for six. I’m getting better but still very achy. Why does that happen?I think I will be OK but I don’t want to catch anything else! Sunny warm days… Come back soon.
My mojos gone out, I feel down, I feel demotivated. I think it’s living at this moment. I want to just wrap myself up in a ball, put my head under the duvet, hide.
Feeling myself gently rocking for comfort. Hunched shoulders, unable to start things or respond. I put on a brave face, but it’s hard work. It hasn’t helped being ill for the last few weeks. I think I’ve had tonsillitis and I’ve got an achy shoulder, and toothache and they are all impacting on me. Plus it’s getting darker in the evenings and I’ve not done much walking or going out, nerves about the increase in covid19 I guess. We are looking at more local lockdowns? In the meantime the world seems to be ruled by buffoons, orange, blond and barking mad! Is it any wonder I feel off?
That’s not what I’ve been doing this last week, in fact almost the exact opposite! I think I have realised what has been wrong with me. A bout of tonsillitis. It’s tired me out, I feel washed out and slightly dizzy. Today I actually left the house and did some shopping. I needed to get some watercolour paper and new drawing pens. I’ve been meaning to do it for a week. I had to get my hubby to come along to help me carry things and ended up spending far too much on some plants for the winter months in the garden. I also haven’t done much of my college work and can see it spiralling away from me. Will I catch up? seriously I need to be better now. I cant afford to get too behind with the course work.
Just a photo I took a few days ago. A still life. I’m still ill and haven’t been out much recently, so I am thinking about what I can write about. As the saying goes, autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. It would be good to get out and enjoy the world but I’m keeping my germs to myself. Its only a cold but its still irritating.
Oh I feel rough. My throat is really sore and I’m aching. I’ve had a very quiet day, plenty to drink and some painkillers. I’m sure it’s just an autumn cold but I’m fed up with it. I have things to do. College starts again tomorrow. I’m still walking and trying to get a bit fitter, but I feel like I’ve been knocked off my feet. I will see how I feel later but I might have an early night. I haven’t blogged much today. I have a few pictures I might add. I don’t know yet….
I live in Stoke-on-Trent and the village at the top of our hill is called Penkhull. It was mentioned in the Domesday book and was a Royal Manor from 1086 to the time of Edward the Second. It is a village in a city and people like it so much that they had a competition to design a flag.
The flag has a golden Cockerel symbolising the weather vane on top of the church steeple. It stands on a blue ground which is for the blue of Spode, the old pottery firm in nearby Stoke-upon-Trent that manufactured ceramic products including the willow pattern pots that became synonymous with the factory.
The yellow oval and lines radiating out are for the road around the village green and the four roads each leading downhill from the village.
The green is to show that is a green place in the middle of a city. The whole design was approved by vexillologists (no I didn’t know that word before the competition) from a charity called the flag institute.
So why am I up? Penkhull is taking part in a competition being run by @theflaginstitute on Twitter. It is in the #WorldSeriesOfFlags and is up against the golden rays of barley from #tiree in Scotland. This is the final. I have not been able to sleep since I saw that Tiree had got ahead of us in the final they are on about 51.8% and we are on 48.2%? Something like that. Its very even between the two places.
Don’t know if I can get back to sleep…. The vote on Twitter ends at 11am. I think I’m in for a long night.
Our telephone cable and the neighbours has been tangled up in the Russian vine. They came round yesterday and asked us to remove it as it was affecting their phone line. Luckily we had booked a builder to do some work, so he very kindly got up on the neighbours garage roof to cut it back. Now the question is where to ut the stuff! Three huge loads went into our councils brown bin to be collected next Tuesday. We will have to fill it a few more times before we get rid of it all. What I was worried about was the number of wasps around the vine because its in flower. Off out again in a minute to help clear the mess!
Mallaband-Brown 