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Guitar blues

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So I’ve decided to take my guitar out of its case for the first time in many years…It’s my New Year’s resolution to learn several songs from start to finish before the year’s up.   To help me, I’ve employed a guitar teacher and so far, things are looking positive!  Though if you’ve ever played a guitar, you’ll know that until your fingers are used to it, it can be somewhat painful!

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Risotto nights

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I’ve just come to the end of my 365 photography project – a challenging year for creativity. Now that it’s over, I feel obliged to focus a bit more on my drawing so I’m tentatively starting a doodle a day for 2016.  The drawings will be rough and ready and I probably won’t post all of the images, instead, I’ll just share a select few, like this one!

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Kittens

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I was tidying my computer files and folders today and came across a very very short introduction to a story I thought I might write.  I’m not really a writer but for some reason I felt compelled to jot it down.  Then, I got writer’s block – wow! I’d never complete a novel! Anyway,  I posted it on Facebook earlier and asked friends to add to it.   One person responded with another short paragraph (see italics), so I sketched a very very quick response!

It all started with a gob stopper and a bag full of kittens. The tiny bundles of fur squirmed and mewed as the canvas rucksack bounced and bumped against his sweaty teenage back. He pedalled harder, feeling his muscles burn with the effort. The sweat sprung from his forehead and trickled towards his eyebrows where it pooled before slipping into his eyes. He blinked and wiped it away with the back of his hand.

“Not much further” he thought as he reached the junction between the old oak tree and the crumpled steel gate. “Not much further and I’ll be safe”.

…but for how long he wondered. He was sure the ring master with his cruel whip would catch up with him soon. It didn’t matter though, all he cared about was saving the kittens. He had made a snap decision to snatch them when he’d seen their tiny sad faces as they stood on each other’s shoulders while trying to roll around the sawdust floor of the big top on a gob stopper.

Thank you Zoe for your contribution.  If anyone else would like to add to it, why not drop your paragraph in the comments!

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Guilt

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Sometimes my daily routine floods me with guilt.  Guilt for the impact I’m having on the environment.  I spent seven years working in the sector, bossing (yes ‘bossing’ – I know, hard to believe eh?) people around because I wanted everyone to sit up and listen. I’d tell them to recycle because in the UK we produce enough waste to fill the Albert Hall every two hours. I’d run around switching lights off after everyone and chastising people if they didn’t turn their computer off after a day’s work.   For those seven years, I was told that the tipping point was coming – the point when the detrimental impact of human society on the planet would reach the point of no return.   I would get upset because people couldn’t see beyond today.   I left that job.  I left it because I felt helpless.

These days I still boss people around and harp on about the penguins, polar bears and climate change – people think I’m odd.  I also carry a lot of guilt around because my daily routine still leaves a massive footprint!

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