Encrusted: For prosperity.

Encrusted, a word that is so apt for the day I had yesterday at the allotment. Old faithful our three windowed polytunnel after surviving all weather, storms, winds etc. (tornado’s would be over-exaggerating but you will know what I mean), had finally succumbed.

Surrounded by about a foot of wood chip, she took quite a lot of work to get out having been so securely dug in and the fact that the new three windowed tunnel turned out to be two foot longer didn’t faze my wonderful hubby who laboriously dug and got the newbie in place and woodchip back in place.

So, then I had the job of moving the strawberry plants to a nice new home in front of the tunnel, nice and easy. Finding some old covering that we had put down to stop the weeds, I used my secateurs to cut through to the good soil below. It took a little longer than I thought but eventually all was done and it looks good.

Then another little job, some bushes that needed pruning, so looking around where are the secateurs? Last time I had them I was putting the strawberries in..oh right so I left them over there.

I did indeed leave them over there and having tentatively searched through the chippings they are nowhere to be found and have now been left for prosperity or until the need for a new tunnel. There is now a pair of secateurs encrusted waiting to be discovered one day.

Dailyprompt

 

Strangers on a Train: Review.

I didn’t really know what to expect last night going to see Strangers on a Train at the Opera House, Manchester. A new version of the Patricia Highsmith novel, the main characters: Guy Haines (Jack Ashton), Charles Bruno (Chris Harper), Elsie Bruno (Helen Anderson), Anne Faulkner (Hannah Tointon) and Frank Myers (Sandy Batchelor) take you through this intriguing thriller with its twist and turns to an ending that you know has to happen, but don’t know who the victor will be.

The Set Production was, and I can’t gush too much about this, amazing, it almost distracted me from the play!

With stellar performances by all the cast, I can’t pick out a favourite, this was an enjoyable evening at the Opera House and if you are looking for a good night out, I would recommend going to see this play.

Manchester Opera House

A play by Craig Warner, directed by Anthony Banks

 

Permit: Liberation.

We all have a permit, an invisible badge that we show to the world. It’s doesn’t always give a true meaning of who we are. It’s what we want the world to see; it may be a symbol of conformity or rebellion, of love or hate or so much more. A device to display or hide our inner selves. This can be hard work, sometimes in life we may need to change the badge, the design or add some colour.

For me, I find this in writing, I’m not a prolific writer but permitting myself to share my thoughts openly to anyone who may read them is truly liberating.

Dailyprompt

Profuse: Decisions.

‘Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour.’ www.successconsciousness.com

The thought that these profuse amounts of thoughts going through my head is mind-blowing, are you as daft as me, and think ‘I wonder if I can count them?’ This could maybe done while meditating? I will have to ponder these questions for a while.

Dailyprompt

 

Inkling and Delusion.

 

 

 

The 28^th January was my birthday. Now I’ll share with you a couple of thoughts; when I reached my 50^th I was a little perturbed, how? What? 50? How on earth am I fifty years old? Yesterday I was thirty! Where did those years go?

A few years on, I’m not going to say how many, but I have an inkling that my body is getting old, but in my head I’m still thirty! If you asked my daughter’s they would probably say that I’m still in the 1980’s for example I still like :

• Big Hair
• Batwing jumpers
• St. Elmo’s Fire
• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

I could go on, but I am still waiting for the first two to come back into fashion.

Anyway, back to the age thing, this is probably a little vain, a little trick that I learnt a couple of years ago; depending on the light, there are a couple of mirrors in the house where, when I look at my reflection I think ‘Ugh, really? You’re looking your age Teresa’ then there is another which, especially under electric light where I could (actually can), delude myself that I still look 30ish.

So that’s the mirror I use. Happy in this delusion.

dailyprompt

Dominant: Electricity.

It was only for a short while, an hour and a half but we had a power cut today. I’m probably like many other people in that, it is not until your electricity supply is unavailable that you realise what a dominant feature this is in your life, especially when you work mostly from home and online.

No wi-fi, so you can’t find out what is going on, no washing machine, only twenty minutes left on laptop and worst of all no coffee! It’s strange how isolating it can feel when you can’t get online.

I do like to watch or read about people who have gone ‘off grid’ and some of them seem to have such wonderful lives but I’m afraid these one and a half hours have shown me that, I am nowhere near ready to attempt such a lifestyle.

DailyPost

Horizon: Round or Flat?

What is over the horizon? Isn’t it a place that we are all trying to reach in some respect, walking or working our way towards the distance, not knowing what we will find? These are our voyages.

As we move, we gather information that shapes and forms who we are and our own destinies. One subject that has caught my attention is the Flat Earth Theory; alternative theories are good, even if we don’t believe or understand them, giving time to consider other views I think, keeps our minds active and open.

Either Flat Earth or Round Earth, the horizon is still there, whether we walk round in circles or fall of the edge it’s all part of the journey.

Daily Prompt

Agile: On the Window Ledge

Sadly last November our beautiful boy Snatch passed away and after 12 years, a huge hole has been left in our lives. We are still missing this loving, crazy Lurcher that gave us so much.

But in the two months since he has been gone, we have noticed something in our garden, an increase in the amount of cats that now mooch, saunter and find hiding places to catch the birds! Their numbers are going up; we have at least six now that we see mostly on a daily basis. There only used to be one brave soul, sitting on the fence and that was all.

Last week, one agile and audacious black cat strolled across the outside window ledge of the living room window!

Now, I really don’t mind cats…I just never knew there were so many in our neighbourhood and that close to our house.

Dailypromt

Study

I’m sitting here at the moment watching a blizzard through the window, it looks at first as if the hail stones are falling straight down, but if you look carefully you can see how the gusts of wind gather some of the drops, swooping them along to fall somewhere else. The sun is shining as well, so I guess I should wait to see the rainbow.

Does this mean anything? Not really except taking a few moments to study the world around me and just observe. Our lives can be so busy, demanding action, analysis and judgement, that to sit, watch and notice how things are sometimes:  just what they are.

Although I am now going to have to wrap up warm and brave the elements!

DailyPromt

Evoke: What if?

I’m not sure, but I have an impression that by the time you reach a certain age (I’m not going to say what) that you should know what you’re doing and have an idea of who you are. For many this is probably true, I hope though that there are many like me for whom this is not the case. For instance being out of your comfort zone is just as scary if not more so because of the above, starting a new business, writing your thoughts down, sharing them to an invisible world and not knowing who will read them.  The emotions that they evoke, fear, excitement, passion, it maybe strange that the first emotion that I thought of was ‘fear’ what if: the business doesn’t work; no one likes what I’ve written etc. Is this an ‘age’ thing? Or should I avoid looking in the mirror and be thirty, as in my head?

Dailyprompt