Next door is banging and drilling again! So much for a quiet day. I live in a terraced house and there is no soundproofing between us, so the noise can be distracting.
This has been going on for probably a year. I thought the drill was going to come through my wall a few minutes ago. He must have been drilling a deep hole. I presume he’s fitting the house out now?
Last week I found half a window frame in my yard. I was tempted to try and throw it back but I don’t have the strength and I don’t want to break anything! And there goes the drilling again. I will have to go out.
My sister was going to visit this weekend but she’s got to work. I was really looking forward to seeing her. We would have bought some plants for the yard and I would have twisted her arm to help me put them in the pots round there.
I feel like I’ve abandoned my garden. I can’t do as much as I used to, I need to be stable and not risk falling over. Friends are busy and I have got into a situation where I don’t want to ask for help. I’m as disappointed in myself as anything else. I’m losing my ability to want to keep going.
Internet fixed so thought I’d post a picture of the back yard. Thanks to my sister for collecting the baskets and hanging them for me. I have filled a few pots for the wall but the understory on the ground is overgrown with perennial geraniums and Welsh poppies. I’m trying to build up a bit of colour. I have a mad variegated hosta and some lilies that hubby planted last year. Memory is a funny thing.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
I’m not a doctor, but I always think in situations you should ‘first do no harm’. That is something I try and live by. Even when I’m tempted to do something. That said I am no saint. I get angry like anyone else. But you have to try not to get to upset. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, hit anyone, although as I’ve got older I do swear at, or about people. Thankfully that can’t physically harm, although mentally it might hit home?
One of the problems, still, with social media, is the lack of nuance. What is written is in black and white… There are no grey areas unless you create them in your words. For a long time on one particular site a person was being very antagonistic towards me, everything I said seemed wrong to them. We lived in different countries with different traditions and we couldn’t seem to agree on what was the best way to cooperate… I thought I must find a way so I found an important symbol in that country and did a complicated and detailed drawing of it and offered it as an olive branch. Luckily it worked and things became much more harmonious afterwards, we even became friends.
I guess all I can say is try and be diplomatic if you can. You should still tell the truth, but in a constructive way, and try and do no harm. I think hurting someone can only come back and bite you!
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was radio. A bad and wobbly drawing of my old bush radio. Bought it at a car boot sale years ago. It was covered in emulsion paint that I managed to scrape off. It works, takes a huge battery. Can only get long wave.. Which is OK when there’s a test match on.
Proof I’ve been working on my MA project all day. I’m going to give it a rest now. It’s ten thirty in the evening and I’ve got to cook our evening meal. No rest for the wicked at they say. I also want to do today’s #bandofsketchers prompt before midnight! Then more work tomorrow. I’m really quite tired but also excited. I spent an hour with the PowerPoint slides too big. Thought it was a major problem. Turns out all I needed to do was click control and – (minus)! Thanks to a student friend I’ve managed to do a lot today. But I need a rest. X
I’ve been working on my MA project Al day and it’s driving me mad. I have one image that will save as a .Tif file but not as a .Jpeg, no matter what I do I get a notification that the file is not supported or something. All the rest are fine. I have both sorts of files so I can put them into a website that will print a one off book for you! Argh!
Round the back of Westport Lake is a wilder area which is being looked after and tidied regularly so overhanging branches and growth is turned into little layered fences to improve the habitats. I thought it was being done by the local wildlife Trust but it turns out it’s being done by a couple of elderly volunteers, except its now down to one man as his friend has been ill. I had to thank him for all his hard work. It seems he’s not getting much support and that’s a shame. Anyway I thought I would say something.
I’m striving to finish my college essay. I’m two thirds of the way through and fighting with the ideas of semiotics, signs and signifies, interpretants, other words that fly over my head! I’m trying to tie it all together into a coherent whole. My brain hurts but I have till Thursday to finish it. So if I’m not around… Well you will know why!
Today’s drawing session, these are for my Urban Sketchers Stoke-on-Trent daily challenge. I thought I would share them, I was planting up pots and trying to tidy up, plus attacking the ivy that’s taken over the garden. Finally had a beer with my hubby and then came round onto the back yard to listen to the blackbird singing on the chimney tops. That was wonderful. So melodious
Mallaband-Brown 