Musical Nostalgia!

When I saw the theme that Kathi Jo had chosen for Lucky Snapping this week, I immediately thought about these digiscrapping layouts which I made in 2008 for a challenge at, a now defunct, digi-scrapping forum.  Matthew and Son by Cat Stevens was the first record I ever bought in 1966, I still love it and at least it isn't something embarassing! Speaking of embarassing...that's me with our cat 'Jasper' round about the time I bought the record.

The second layout features Joni Mitchell's Miles of Aisles.  I think I bought this in 1976, just before I left home to go to university.  When I played it at home as my Dad always called her 'that wailing woman'!  It was a double album and I played it again and again.  I still listen to it to this day, it's a live album and contains a lot of her best work.  I highlighted the lyrics to Carey as that is probably my favourite track, it's one of the more upbeat tracks and always makes me smile.  I continued to buy Joni Mitchell's work, she hasn't done any new work recently, just re-worked old stuff, and I managed to see her in concert just the once.

It took some digging about in my folders to find these layouts, as my digital filing system leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm glad I did.

The Cloak of Invulnerability

I have found it difficult to decide what I can publish for Anne's "vulnerable" prompt and may write in more detail in my art journal, probably in a hidden panel. The reason for this is mostly about the vulnerability of others. The job I have. involves me in supporting people with different levels of vulnerability. I've been doing that for over 30 years, now I manage others to support those who are vulnerable. This, in turn, has revealed both the vulnerability of some of those staff and my own vulnerability. As my boss said to me "no one ever considers that we have feelings too".

In my home life, I also have a role to support family at both ends of the age spectrum, it seems that there is often no space for me to be vulnerable, I must always be the problem-solver, the strong one who copes.

I don't want it to seem like I am complaining, most of the time I am indeed that strong capable person, however underneath the Cloak of Invulnerability, I too can feel vulnerable.

Yesterday, there were some things going on which really got me down. My son came home from work and he came in for an update, I must have let the cloak slip as he asked me if I wanted a hug. It was the perfect response and as we hugged I felt so much better.

So next time you are feeling vulnerable, don't wait till someone offers, ask for a hug and let some one wrap you in their Cloak of Invulnerability. With apologies to JK Rowling.

Posted with Blogsy

Through my kitchen window in April

The view from my kitchen window is a little bit brighter than it has been in the last three months.  Still not much growth, but at least the sun is shining and it was a balmy 8C today!

I even managed to find some daffodils in flower, not on our road but about 1/2 a mile away.  I was on a mission to find some wild garlic which grows in the woods by a stream.

Some of it had been damaged by the snow, but I managed to gather enough new undamaged leaves to make some garlic butter.

No daisies to complete the poem yet though, maybe next week :-)

The View - April 2013

So here we are at the beginning of another month,  starting our April Lucky Snapping Challenges with 'The View'.  The blue skies are somewhat deceptive as there is still a very cold wind blowing and, if you look closely, you can see the snow that remains in the shady parts of the hill.  We missed the snow as we were on holiday in France, but it seems to have been a heavy fall and they needed the snow ploughs to clear the roads.

 

Jennie has reminded us about the Sara Coleridge poem which charts the months and the seasons. Our primroses, took a bit of a battering with the snow and the cold winds but they are hardy little plants and it's good to see their sunny little faces between the crocuses.

You can see that there is still snow lying at the side of the road, it's just too cold for it to melt away in the shadow of the hedge.

Another sign of spring is the sheep with lambs that are in the field next to us.  I think they thought I was going to feed them as they all came running to see me!

 

This one was very brave, but he did have his mum close by!

And here is our first 'naturalised' daffodil bending it's bud over and showing a little tip of yellow.  The daffodils grow up the sides of our road and would usually all have been flowering by now.

Looking forward to April's challenges as I was very busy in March and wasn't able to take part in all of them.