Jim   Rosie Rosie and Jim have settled in well. They've been with us since December last year. As their confidence has grown, it has been interesting to see their characters emerge. We were told by the animal rescue sanctuary that Rosie was timid. Oh no she isn't! This tiny bundle of fun is the instigator of most games and the creator of much mischief. She loves digging holes in (what's left of) the lawn. For Rosie, anything can be a toy; yesterday she and Jim were enjoying a tug-o-war with a long blade of dry grass. Jim often runs around the house with toys in his mouth, the fluffier the better, and will bring us toys - but really he just wants cuddles. He loves being able to ramble around our garden by himself. Sometimes he just wants to snooze in a quiet spot. He'll do that for a few hours then come bounding back into company and want more cuddles. We've had a few funny comments about them. One small child thought they might be "miniature moo-cows"....

  Here's my latest watercolour painting, which I've called Messing About on the River . Okay, it's a canal rather than an actual river, but narrowboats can go on rivers if they're careful and the water's not too choppy. Choppy water risks tipping them over due to having a flat hull - or so I'm told. What do I know about it, really? I've been on a grand total of two lovely narrowboat cruises and read a bit and watched too many YouTube videos made by people who live on narrowboats, but my direct experience of them is minimal. I quite fancy the idea of living on a narrowboat. The ability to travel around appeals. The lack of space to paint in, and my total lack of any relevant mechanical, electrical or navigational skills would be major obstacles, as could my dodgy knee when climbing lock ladders or, indeed, actually opening or closing any canal locks. Richard would need a second narrowboat just to store his beloved Dr Who collection as there's no way he...

  So off he goes, back to work after five months of furlough. Am I awful for being a little envious of his prolonged paid holiday? While hubby's been contentedly lounging on the couch, indulging in reading novels and marathon film-watching sessions, I've been melting under itchy PPE and helping to look after people made ill by COVID 19. Some didn't pull through. Each day I'd think,"Is this the day I contract the virus? Will I carry it home to Richard?" His health conditions make him more vulnerable to infection. It has been stressful and mentally exhausting, and yet I've had it easy when compared to the experiences of hospital staff on the designated COVID wards. The place where I work part-time is now free of corona virus/COVID 19. Will we get a second wave?  Your guess is as good as mine, as only time will tell.  Meanwhile, I keep seeing idiots on social media spreading nonsense which implies COVID 19 is a myth and that its dangers have been exaggerated....

My work - this week we began having to undergo weekly COVID 19 tests. Yes, that horse had bolted so long ago it is now lost beyond the horizon. At least I don't have to hike to Bidston train station again for these, as we're using self-administered tests done at work - so we're all breathing on the same office mirror while we poke a cotton bud down our gagging throats then up each rebellious nostril while the manager waits with sterile tube in hand in which to dunk it, and the admin lady rattles away on the computer to log each test. Results are sent to each tested person (and place of work) via text, and the NHS log site assumes everyone has a mobile phone and makes no allowance for those like me who don't. So my results get texted to work, then work emails them on to me - so much for data security! Speaking of daftness, Richard tried to make an appointment to see our doctor. As the surgery is just around the corner and as he was passing it anyway he deci...

Here are March's efforts for my one-sketch-per-day project, now presented as a short video. Do let me know what you think, or if you've any suggestions or ideas. Actually, the hyacinth you see in one of the watercolour sketches here has now finished flowering so I've planted it in the garden. Hopefully it will come up again next year. It was in our living room, where it filled the air with its delicious, heady perfume. We're living in strange times, hmm? The news is laden with tragic death counts and infection rates and tales of life under the shadow of the coronavirus/COVID 19. The restaurant where my husband works is closed and this is his third week at home. So far he's weeded the garden, washed down all the windows inside and out, spring-cleaned the house and finished reading the entire series of graphic novels of the X-Men. At the time of typing this, he's just come back from walking the dogs and is now listening to Scala Radio while reading a Derek...

Here is a video slideshow of my paintings and drawings from last year. I hope you enjoy looking through this collection of watercolours, oils and drawings, plus a few related photos. So other than making a few videos, what have I been doing? Since Xmas the life drawing group which I attend has been suspended due to the organiser's ill health, but to keep drawing regularly I began a new daily sketch project. It's been fun to turn these into little slideshow videos which you can see in posts below or on YouTube. Do subscribe to my channel there, as more videos will be posted regularly and there are already over 70. Last Wednesday saw me enjoying lunch in Southport with my sister Evelyn. We had a slow amble round the shops and between us bought absolutely nothing, excluding the utterly gorgeous orange and chocolate cake from a cafe in the Wayfarers Arcade . The arcade itself is a genuinely beautiful Grade II listed building with a lovely arching glass roof and ornate mahoga...

Watercolour study by Adele Cosgrove-Bray on A5 Khadi paper; 2018. I've been studying the fabulous maritime paintings of Montague Dawson , not for his old-fashioned sailing ships but for his highly skilled methods of painting the ocean. He mostly painted in oils, whereas I find myself reaching for watercolours more and more, but when I spied a book filled with large colour plates of his work in my favourite labyrinthine bookshop in Southport, I couldn't resist buy it solely because of his depiction of waves. Getting water to look wet can be a challenge, I find - but then I always did like a challenge.... Watercolour study by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, on unknown paper; 2018. The study above was done in a small sketchpad without any manufacturer's brand name on it. It has a pale blue satin-like cover decorated with appliqued shells and beads, and its cream-toned paper has tiny gold flecks threaded through it - far too pretty to leave languishing in a scruffy basket cramme...

Lime Hawk Moth This lovely lime hawk moth was found snuggled against our garden wall.  I'd been doing a spot of weeding when I saw it, and so I went back inside for my camera.  Pretty, isn't it?  I don't think I've seen one of these before, though we have had other types of hawk moths visit our garden. Anyway, watching me watching it was the blackbird which often rummages through the plant pots and forget-me-nots in the borders.  As I walked away, intending to put my camera back in the drawer where it usually lives, I saw a dark blur in the corner of my eye.  And that was the end of the moth. Speaking of finality, Fabian has now been edited and the process of formatting has begun.  I've been looking at roughs for the front cover, which obviously has to continue the theme already established by the Artisan-Sorcerer Series.  So, we're now looking at publication date of July/August, if all goes well.  I've already started putting together a ...

We are now the proud owners of an exercise bike.  Richard's worn out just assembling the thing.  I chickened out of that little job, opting to walk the dogs round the park instead, which was pleasant despite the bitterly cold edge to the wind whistling off the Mersey. With a group of other people, I took part in the RSPB's annual Big Garden Birdwatch .  There we all were, sat in an enthusiastic row by the windows, binoculars at the ready, armed with shortcake and tea, and eager to spot wild birds...and there was hardly a bird to be seen.  The entire hour-long count scooped all of two magpies, one sparrow, six woodpigeons, one crow and a seagull - and the RSPB's list of desirable birds to spot didn't include crows or seagulls anyway.  Normally there are all sorts of birds hopping around.  Oh, well. My sister Evelyn gave me a pretty white and purple cyclamen a couple of years ago, and it was among the plants transplanted from our old garden and brought ...

In the mid-1980's I was working for South Sefton Health Authority.  Based at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool, I was part of a small team of Health Promotion Officers who'd drive around north Liverpool in an old double-decker bus.  The lower deck had been converted into a creche, while the upper deck housed a tiny clinic area and an information resource centre.  For the most part, our team handed out leaflets and played videos  - anti-smoking, healthy nutrition, oral hygiene, etc.  One of the leaflets was the infamous AIDS tombstone leaflet intended to terrify people into using condoms to slow the spread of this rampant disease which would, it seemed at the time, lead to us all having to step round corpses in the streets. And while people certainly have died from AIDS, (or from the treatments given to control it, especially in those early years), many who now live with the HIV virus no longer need fear an automatic death sentence.  Apparently, a...

An avenue of apple trees outside Gilroy Allotments.   Sign encouraging people to freely enjoy future apple harvests!   Gilroy Allotment site, a thriving community project.   Gilroy Nature Park, a few short steps from the allotments.   Click on the pictures to view them larger.      A new avenue of apple trees lines the narrow public footpath which leads from Gilroy Road in West Kirby, Wirral, and passes the Gilroy Road Community Allotments site and the entrance to Gilroy Nature Park.  The young trees are of mixed varieties, supported by stout wooden posts, and have been planted on both sides of the path.   There is a large sign, shaped like apple leaves, which declares:  "Incredible Edible!  When ripe feel free to pick some fruit!"  Another 'leaf' on the sign reads:  "The apple avenue is an invitation to consider where our food comes from and how we can reduce our food ...

On June 9th, The Daily Mail published an article by Tom Leonard with the title, "Three senior Oxford University academics will pay to be deep frozen when they die so they could one day be 'brought back to life'".  This article was also published on Iol .  Thanks go to John de Rivaz for passing on these links via the Yahoo! newsgroup for Cryonics Europe . The Daily Ma il article attracted 300+ comments, many of which were negative dismissals of the potential of cryonics.  As expected, many of these comments were based on inaccurate beliefs, such as cryo-patients being frozen in ice, or of cryonics being a money-making scam. The Cryonics Institute is a non-profit making organisation.  It's annual finances are published for all to view.  Its directors are elected by the institute's own members. Patients are subjected first to a profusion then a vitrification process, which greatly reduces tissue damage from ice crystals, before being stored in liqui...

Emily and Poppi, June 2013. After a run of hot days, it's fair to declare that summer has finally arrived.  Not to worry, the solstice is less than two weeks away, and it's almost a tradition that it pours with rain then. As can be seen in the photo, our rhubarb is growing well.  In the black tub, to one side of the photo, is a small crop of garlic which isn't doing so well - the spindly leaves look yellowy, so I am wondering if the sun's been too fierce for them.  This morning Richard and I went swimming again.  We're really getting into this, and had a lot of fun today.  I won the race!!!   There was only the two of us in the race, and he does have impaired breathing capacity...but it's the principle.  I won, I won!  This is also the first time in my entire life that I've ever won any race, come to think of it.  I was always hopeless at sports back in my school and college days - partly due to a total lack in intere...

Today I did something which I've not done for thirty years or more.  As I'd expected, I was spectacularly out of practise but it was definitely fun and I have every intention of repeating the experience.  Richard joined in, too, which made it even more fun. I'm talking about swimming, of course.  When I was a child, our family group swam on most Sundays.  We had a circuit of different pools which we'd go to - Warrington Baths was a favourite, though it has since been demolished, as has Leigh Baths which we also used. Dad would never swim; he hated the very idea, and the most I ever recall him doing was paddling in ankle-deep sea water in Cornwall, his trousers rolled up to his knees.  Mum loved swimming.  One time, she decided to try doing the butterfly stroke.  At least, that's what she insisted it was after the lifeguard's whistle had emptied the pool and she'd been rescued.  How was he to know that the plumes of frantic splashing eru...

There is an interesting interview with Aubrey de Grey, the biogerontologist and life-extension researcher, in The Manitoban here  which is worth reading.   

Hot off the software, here's the proposed front cover for Rowan , which should be available as an ebook by the end of this month.  All the shells used are from either West Kirby beach or Red Rocks, Hoyake, which is where Rowan would have collected them.  Some of the poetry which Rowan writes features shells.  Anyway, let me know what you think of the cover. Other than creating this, today I had an appointment with my dentist - a lovely man whose kindness has helped me overcome my childhood horror of dentists, which was caused by the horror of a dentist I was made to attend as a child.   Why my sister Hazel and I were continually sent to this uncaring, even cruel person I do not know.  His syringes had a similar thickness to knitting needles, and the drill he used was a huge thing on a folding arm which made your entire head vibrate.  As soon as I reached my teens I rebelled and went elsewhere, and Hazel swiftly did likewise.  ...

We spent the Xmas period waiting for the results of Richard's second MRI scan.  The doctors thought they had found something but weren't sure what, hence the need for the second test, this time with an injection of luminous gloop so they could see more clearly what may be causing his awful migraines.  The good news is that he only has an enlarged vein in his brain, which does not require any medical attention. Richard has suffered from migraines for over thirty years.  He's run through every tablet available on the NHS.  Most night's he's sat with an ice-pack on his head.  He also has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which means he can't drink alcohol, eat spicy or fatty foods, and has a string of allergies longer than your arm.  Eating out can leave him ill for days, even when the menu is pored over carefully.  Even minor changes of routine, such as a day's travelling, can put him in bed for days.  However, for years I've grumbled about his hor...

Have a play with this Death Clock.  No, not the cartoon death metal band; this gadget is supposed to be able to calculate the date of your death.  I got July 8th, 2054 - but this date doesn't take into consideration my cryo-preservation contract, or my other (shall we say philosophical?) pursuits. 

"Dementia needs the same type of concentrated research as was put into tackling HIV in the 1980s, Sir Terry Pratchett claimed yesterday.  The author said despite the large number of sufferers, the world 'does not take much notice' because it was a series of 'small tragedies' played out behind closed doors. Dr Donald Mowat, a researcher at Aberdeen University and co-ordinator for Alzheimer’s Research UK’s east central Scotland research network, said, “Dementia is not a normal part of ageing – it is caused by brain diseases we can tackle, but we need more investment in the research that will give us answers.” Source: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2127563?UserKey = Four years ago, my father died following a long and cruel battle with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.  Watching the steady disintegration brought about by these and similar diseases, which tend to get bunched together under the umbrella term 'dementia', is an exp...

My dreams have been bizarre this week, weird versions of what I watched on DVD before going to bed.  For example, in my version of First Knight , Lancelot was determined to protect King Arthur's pie crust from Malagant, who wanted it as a symbol of kingly power.  They decided to settle things through a jousting match. Lancelot tried wearing the crust on his lance (similar to how a lady might tie her scarf to a lance) but it kept falling off as it wasn't a complete circle, as Arthur had eaten that bit. In my version of  13Hrs , the rambling old house was guarded from the werewolf by the army.  The soldiers were dressed in neatly-pressed desert camouflage trousers and black semi-transparent shirts which showed-off their fabulous physiques, and they were ridiculously camp.  None wanted to fight the werewolf in case they damaged a carefully manicured fingernail or spoiled their lovely shirts. The joys of having had a flu fever, hmm? As an old ...