Make your mind up time!

I feel that I am facing another of life’s crossroads where I need to determine which route to take next. Maybe because now I have settled into my retirement and have finally lost the ‘work’ mentality – well almost!

A crossroad denotes decision making and my youngest children still hate it when I tell them ‘its make your mind up time’, its much easier to allow others to make the decisions as facing an unknown future of your own making, can be quite scary.

Now that I have my head around the idea of being retired and have sorted out the things that are never sorted whilst working, I am now in the space where I have accustomed myself to the change and pace in lifestyle. I must admit, it’s quite good and there is truth in the saying ‘I don’t know how I found the time to work’.

However, as I said earlier, I feel at another crossroad and I need to decide in which direction my retirement is to take me. In the meantime, I’m going to France with all my family for a much needed holiday. I hope to return refreshed and eager to make those decisions on which road to take next. 

                             Oo la la!!

Jubilee

 

There’s a lot of hype at the moment about the queen’s jubilee year as she became queen in 1952. Queen Elizabeth and I have one thing in common as it is also my ‘jubilee’ year as I will be sixty years old in December. 

In 1952 I was born at home, which was the norm in those days, but there were problems with the placenta. Eventually the doctor was summoned but when he arrived my mum had lost a lot of blood and continued to haemorrhage. Eventually, the doctor was able to remove the placenta and mum was taken to hospital in an emergency ambulance. Apparently, in all the commotion, I was nearly left behind at home. Mum was transfused with six pints of blood over the next few days and it was not known if she would recover. She described the feeling of peace during those few days and as a result, she always maintained that she would never be frightened of dying if death was so serene. She remembered a vision of 6 little angels around her bed, whom she felt were with her during this critical time. Subsequently she did have a peaceful death many years later and as my brothers and sister and I were at her bedside, she described us as 'little angels round her bed'. Deja vu!!

 Now, obviously, I don’t remember the queen’s coronation as I was only 6 months old, but I have heard the local stories and seen old TV footage. Practically every street organised a street party and during our street party, my mum and dad were paired in a three legged race. They fell over and my dad landed on top of my mum and unfortunately, she broke her pelvis!  

So the family memories of 1952/3 are not necessarily of celebration but of worry and hospital. I am not surprised that I eventually chose nursing as my career!!

Vintage

A friend suggested that when I blog, I should pass on my knowledge of painting techniques and craftwork. However, I think there is ample advice on the internet and u-tube already so I decided against adding to this. Perhaps it is because I don’t think of myself as having a technique but paint and create whatever I feel is in my heart at the time. 

For a long time I had wanted to paint a girl from another era wearing a vintage coat and looking over her shoulder. I can’t tell you the reason for this, maybe she is looking at me or you from a different age!

There is a renewed fascination with vintage wear and the girl in the painting is from the 1930’s era. A time before most of us were born but a time with similarities as we are again in a deep recession with high unemployment rates. The main hobbies in the 1930’s were DIY and gardening so not much change there then either!  Gandhi  was protesting for rights of the people in India and we have had Mandela protesting for rights in South Africa. Hitler was planning to overtake the world and we have terrorists continuing to threaten the world.

If I painted a girl of today, looking over her shoulder, I wonder what life would be like in the decade of 2090.

Communicating with the family

Had a wonderful weekend with my family and friends. One full day BBQ for my daughter’s  40^th birthday and a bank holiday ‘girls’ shopping expedition. It is so wonderful to be in the company of my family as the family is the one place you can be yourself and feel loved and supported unconditionally.

All through my long career as a Health Visitor, I was privileged to be invited into the homes of a variety of families and extended families and I value the importance of a good family. I have supported and advised families on a myriad of subjects and have been a small part in their successes and shared in their sad experiences.  In all of these situations I am reminded of the importance of communication as a lack of communication is often the cause and effect of breakdowns and negative experiences.

A child in one of these families was demonstrating problems with her behavior and I had asked the mother to keep a diary so that we could identify problems and techniques. As an alternative to a written diary, the mother had used a cassette to record events but one day had inadvertently left it recording. When she played back the recording she realised how often this child had been speaking to her or had tried to gain her attention and the mother had not heard her. This had not been done deliberately, but the mother was amazed how often the child had unintentionally been ignored. Needless to say, the situation was reversed, and as the communication improved, her behavior also improved.

 How we interpret the meaning of the spoken word can cause misunderstandings and further hurt if further communication is not used in order to clarify or voice hurts. One of my daughters recently attempted to reassure me about a situation in her life but I had interpreted her justification quite differently and it had not reassured me but had the opposite effect of reinforcing my original concerns. Thankfully this was sorted out a few weeks later as it had started to form a barrier between us.

So in my written communication, I celebrate the true meaning of family, with all its positive and negative aspects, its support, its blessings and most of all, its continuing unconditional love. We don’t choose our family but I am so happy and privileged to have the one I have now.

Roses, roses, roses

My late mother’s favourite flower was the rose and so we had many rose bushes in our garden. The rose is also one of my favourite flowers but only the single colour roses. With this in mind I have painted 3 roses at different stages of flowering.  I have enjoyed painting these flowers as in so doing, it brought back many good memories of my mum and I find painting so relaxing that I now feel so chilled and ‘de-cluttered’. These are painted in oil on canvas measuring 12x12 inches.

Apparently the name ‘rose’ is from the French language and is derived from the Latin ‘Rosa’. There are at least 100 species and there are records of their existence from 500BC. That’s a long time! Roses are everywhere – they are featured in fairy stories, on emblems (the Lancashire Rose), in food such as rose hip syrup, in herbal and folk remedies, used in Chinese medicine and in perfumes. I also have a small rose tattooed on my shoulder. How many of us, as children, have made our own ‘eau de toilette’ by placing rose petals in water for a day or two?

Of course, roses have been painted over the centuries by old masters such as Monet, Cezanne and one of my favourite artists, Renoir.

 My trilogy of roses is dedicated to my mother, who introduced me to the rose with all its beauty which I hope I have been able to portray.

Cheers mum!