Sparkle!

Well folks after the weekend I am back, with a half a day before this blog is due so where is a post I made earlier on while I was googling around as you do when I spotted this lovely poem which seamed apt for those of us whole struggle with various aspects of our lives.

Sparkle In Your Eye:


When I look at you, I see the sparkle in your eye, 
It tells me whats true and never tells a lie.
The sparkle in your eye, 
Even when you are sad, never does it cry.
Whenever it expresses its feelings, 
It tells me straight away, 
What you are stealing, 
Without doing a survey.
It tells when you'll fall, 
So I'll catch you like a ball.
It's the sparkle in your eye that says, 
You'll make it in the next couple of days.
The sparkle in your eye, 
Never, ever shall it die. 


By Ulveena Aitzaz from Lahore


Poetry was one thing I really enjoyed at school, reading learning and reciting it in front of the class, traditional European as well as Japanese styles.

A spot of colouring

The weekend was not particularly conducive to going out with strong winds on Friday so with even bigger and strong people than myself struggling I needed to stay indoors which as you probably aware isn't something I like at all, being an outdoor girl.
One thing you can do when it is like this is colour and so I had my colouring book out on Friday.

 Normally when I colour I use Staedtler colour pencils available in the Noris Club 36 colour pack as they respond well to different pressures for shading and don't easily break in the way some cheaper ones found in convenience stores do
They also sharpen well.
That illustration is from the Jacqueline Wilson Colouring Book published by Penguin UK and illustrated by Nick Sharratt who does the drawings in her stories.

365 days around the world of Joanne 2016 style

Usually around of now, I tend to look back at the year and forward to the upcoming year and to me chunks have appeared at times overshadowed by the deaths by many stars we grew up with of stage and screen that started with the death of David Bowie and ended with Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) who starred in the original Star Wars movie in Nineteen seventy-seven.
I know for a good number of us it has brought forward concerns about mortality-our own and that of others and of sort of legacy we might leave behind.
For me other people have always mattered so my focus has usually been more on leaving things for them better than they otherwise would be whither it's more an active step I take or just a matter of being around for them helping them work through some problem or other.
Cyberspace it has to be said has been a bit of a mixed experience for me, not that in getting on for nine years it hasn't been always appeared so with the pluses of Tumblr such as my BFF who I can now keep in really good touch with while sharing thoughts and ideas with each other, the many littles and middles I can share and reblog things with, it does has its negative sides such as conflicts around defining terms that are used then to define who can a friend and who cannot regardless of their posts and personal qualities.
And that's before groups start putting each others members on block lists that makes the playground of my school days sound almost grown up by comparison.
Eventually I found  a group who  felt comfortable with with rules that are fairly easy to follow so unless anything happens I'll stop with them in the new year.
The successor to Experience Project, Similar Worlds, is up and running with  some really great features but to be honest apart from feeling overrun at times with teens with a lack of any real 'common sense' and okay manners, I haven't used it much over than just a means of jotting down experiences, a bit like a dummy run for journal or proper blog entry.
In some ways I actually enjoyed more my experiences interacting on FA this last year with people be it on my journal or on others feeling more like a family to me enhanced for actually being with a few of them last year for having more depth although I'm very regressed usually on there. Anyway I can chat with Sammy easily from there!
That actually reminds me one thing I really want to do a bit more of is drawing with pencil and paper although with spacial distortion, dyspraxia and badly damaged hands through R.S.I. as I have been improving in the last few years and I'd like to do more art with my hands apart from my photography given it's an arts site.
Spending more time with people is something I enjoyed a lot last years especially as I'm getting better at dealing in real time with social situations, the "unwritten rules" and that  thanks to some guidance, feedback and reinforcement.  I do see more of the same perhaps with a  few different people this upcoming year.
I made a series of changes to my stereo over the year having had some *ahem* technical problems that have worked out extremely well for me, to the point I upgraded the stylus on the cartridge which brings lots more information from records I play which I bought a good number of this last year and some cds all of which were reviewed on here.
Music is both an art form I appreciate and a part of my age regression, taking me back not just in terms of specific era but also a gateway into little space  which is why it is blogged on here (and why the last bastion of a 'Big' blog was parked). Indeed I do have to remember on one site I am sharing space with grown ups, use groan up language and so on!
Following a series of changes in how my time was used I have been able to resume more reading which with my learning/developmental disabilities is more junior fiction than young adult so I got back in touch with some lovely people at a site devoted at a favourite author of mine and started to read more, reading with friends even at one site and talking about what we've read which is something I rather like.
I see myself doing quite a bit more reading not least with a few new books I had over Christmas  to read for pleasure writing about them on this blog which is something I'm getting much better at these days.
Here's to Twenty-seventeen!

The lead makes the colour...

Yeah I know, Tuesday isn't it but the groan ups mess my routine up yesterday that left me super tired  so yesterdays post comes a day later than scheduled and I might of gotten it done before bedtime had it not been for Marmalade playing hide and seek over over half an hour, tearing the lower floor of house apart trying to find him. Grrr.
Anyways, as you know Colouring is a pretty big thing with me and a large portion of us too but one problem I have is gripping and pressing on to pencils due to my disabilities.
It's no lie I can sometimes struggle to write me own name  at a times which makes colouring difficult as with most childrens pencils you need quite an impression to get darker shades and they can break real easy.
At the suggestion of Poppie, I decided to get some more pencils.

 

For one thing my pencils came in 12 colour pack so some of the colours I may need aren't there although I'm pretty good at blending colours to create say Fawn -some packs have different colour shades in them too - and these don't break so easy.

They're also designed  so you don't need to press much on them which is a very real boon for some of us and easier to blend.

Jo'ville Upon Mersey

As I said last time around I was going to be off  and so begins this bit of a write up about where I went for the day which as you can tell from the first picture was  very sunny.
We got on a mystery tour bus from our Town that drive us along the motorway turning off to get to this very famous City in England's North West.
Anybody guess what building and where this is?

Okay there's a bit of a clue if you look very closely at the top of the white building, you'll find a unique kind of a bird that was also part of the name of a Tv series from the late 60's and very early 1970's about two single women  sharing a flat in this City.

Okay, I think you should of got it now, even if you're from North America cos we love this place as it rocked the World with four very famous men and a host of others.
That white building is the Royal Liver Building viewed from across the docks in the City of Liverpool and upon arrival, I set out around the Albert Dock area where with all that bunting something exciting was taking place as there were huge crowds even early in in the morning.
No, it wasn't a legion of fans of the Pan-cultural, multilingual Catgirl you know and love wanting autographs but people who had come to the Mersey River Festival last weekend which is why there's a boat in the picture above.

There are many attractions operating around the dock area so they have these  information cubes showing the direction to each and easy to read location maps and you could spend a few days here. As you can tell you also cannot escape the Beatles as the Beatles Story centre is on site although although I missed that place off as I was short on time and so felt the £16 charged wasn't the best use of my money.

As part of the River Festival all kings of boats were featured such as Narrow Boats (aka "Barges") in their bright colours and one of these came from here in Cheshire in a town I know well. There was a Yellow Submarine styled narrow boat you could hire for around £25 per night.

The event also included tall Ships, that's to say ships with humongously big sails and rigging  that in olden times boys would climb in the Navy and other Merchant fleets that would of tired me out if I'd of been around back then.
We called in the Tate North, an arts centre built on the docks, to look at some exhibits and had tea and cakes.

You cannot beat a fairground and here's one with those horses you ride going up and down in lovely bright colours.

Just before lunch we were greeted to the sight of this man being lifted up in the water spraying more of the same while interacting with us all. I was hyper excited by this, jumping up and down waving at him.

There are a good number of eateries around the dock but one side seemed to be a bit expensive so we went to La Crepe Bit on the Colonnades for Fish and Chips which did more sandwiches and fancy stuff but had a day special board including this for £7 per head which is more the kind of price you pay back home in the Midlands for it.
The place was super efficient with orders being taken and food freshly cooked even though it was midday and very busy. Although the portion was a bit smaller than some might like, the chips were first class being firm but not greasy in the middle and the plaice most tasty with plenty of fish rather than batter with fresh peas. I'd sooner that than some of the so-so Fish and Chip places elsewhere. The service was faultless.

After lunch we went to the City Museum, which like most municipal ones in the UK is free looking at an display about the Liverpool Overhead Railway that took people as fair as Birkenhead on the Cheshire side of the the Mersey before it was taken out of use in the late 1950's with a third class carriage you could sit in.

We also looked at a most interesting exhibit on the life and times of April Ashley, a model and restaurant hostess born in Liverpool who was among the first transsexual's to undertake sex reassignment surgery and sadly was outed in 1961 by the Sunday people newspaper for having been born as assigned as a male. She was awarded an MBE in the 2012 Queen's Birthday honours for services for transgender equality. Quite a number of people who looked like students spent a lot of time around it and it is good to see notable local people's lives being told especially when, like her you made history.

We decided to get afternoon tea in the museum where the most gorgeous large portion of light fluffy lemon drizzle cake was served and again the service was faultless. All the proceeds from the Cafe go toward the running costs of the place which is well worth a visit.

We went over the road to L1, the relatively new shopping area to look around that has such essential places as a Build a Bear centre - toy shops are a must for me - and a HMV store where I got my copy of Frozen (the awesome Disney movie) and some great outdoor craft places. HMV also had a decent selection of lp records too.

One common theme was just what the heck, how polite everybody both staff and public were throughout that day as well as the near absence of any kind of litter in the streets (I saw a lot of people putting litter in the bins) and the clean public  restrooms.

Down in our wood

Things in my wood are on the go now so I thought this week, we'd look at some pictures starting with these Bluebells that I came by while walking a few days back, covered up from bity things.

Here you can see all that lush green foliage where the birds locally have built their nests from twigs.I just love hearing birdsong.

Meanwhile over in our Meadow there's plenty of life and you can make a wish with the Dandelion 

And this lovely blossom was out too

Finally in my garden  these flowers are have a great time and look so pretty.

Technical note: all shot on Canon  A470 digital compact with just a touch of exposure correction and cropping, that's all.

Never forget

Junior Art

Most of us encountered art either around us on maybe on the things people bought us such as books, packaging of toys and so on.
As you slowly and for some of us definitely slowly developed your fine motor skills  you may of started to doodle on pieces of paper, done some colouring before doing art in the nursery or infants class usually around the things you know starting say with faces of siblings and so on.
Later on in juniors you'd of had lessons where you might be given a subject to interpret and draw which in my case included drawing things like branches, pussy willow, acorns and flowers that we'd seen in nature study. In my case we went outside to draw them too!
A while ago I did draw some Canada Geese in pencil as I'm a bit of a techophobe when it comes to using tablet and computer software and here is the picture.

Yes that's a Hello Kitty pencil I used to draw it with!

Literary edition

I think I'll begin this blog with a few words on the death of Maurice Sandek who was born on June 10th 1928 and who sadly died Tuesday last (May 8th 2012).
Maurice you see was a writer and also a children's illustrator  when he wasn't doing that, he work on stage sets and  a few other things.
As stories go he give us a big one "Where the Wild Things are" which was later adapted as a play and a good many others.
Maurice knew childhood sadness all right having lost many of his family in the Holocaust but he also knew of children's resilience and the the ability to find fun in the most trying of situations.
He'll be missed.

Having converted  a few book vouchers I had as birthday presents for my bigger self for something well, you know - littler - is so easy you'll wonder how come more don't, I've finally gotten around to reading them.
I think we all know I love Jacqueline Wilson's  work so I bought three books with four stories  with a bit of a common theme that of emotional ups and downs.
Dustbin Baby is a title for 'older readers' by which I think they mean people my age and is the story of April Showers attempt to piece together the whole history of her life through all the carers, foster parents back to the teenage boy who found her in the bin all cold and lonely.
It's a very moving and thoughtful  story that does have a happy ending.
The Bed and Breakfast star is the story of a families struggle having fallen on hard times  told  mainly though Elsa, lost their home and goes through the revolving door of no homes available and dumping grounds otherwise know as Bed and Breakfast accommodation that  is run down for welfare benefit claimants.
Elsa is a happy go lucky kind of a girl who we learn misses out on her education but in the end is the heroine raising the alert as the fire risk accommodation actually catches fire!
The Suitcase Kid talks about some that ought to talked about handling family break with Andy having to spend alternate weeks at each parent, custody battles and new step families.
The Lottie Project on the other hand is Charlie's discover of her Victorian twin through a school history project where she discovers as bad as her life is her twins is much worse.It also tackles the difficulties of employment for single parents.

Colouring

This week I've been thinking about colouring.
Colouring is an activity most children do from an early age when you take a drawing with the outline image in printed usually in black and colour in between the lines.
Colouring can be helpful in improving your hand to eye co-ordination as you learn to colour in tiny areas neatly.
It's also quite useful in encouraging you to exercise your own imagination, by choosing what areas to colour in whatever colour you prefer although for some subjects  you may prefer to follow the examples such as drawings of Disney Princesses.
It came to me a few days back in part through an ongoing conversation and also while listening to a podcast, that I did very little colouring when I was younger and by the time I'd reached nine it was deemed to be 'childish' although I did draw in colour trees and houses cause that was called 'drawing' which was said to be 'okay' for me to do.
Colouring is in my opinion one of the easiest ways of getting into a younger headspace especially if you live away from any local  littles community because you can do it pretty much anywhere making very little demands on apartment space.
You'll need a supply of coloured pencils (mine are Hello Kitty ones for extra cute appeal), an eraser to remove mistakes, and colouring books that you'll find most newsstores stock so you can get out of your chair and go buy it in person as after all it is for you!.
I tend to keep mine by the computer as a stress relief tool when the interwebs go wonky but generally after changing to my littles clothes, I either lay on my front on the floor or across my Hello Kitty festooned bed with the book and pencil case out in front of me. You could if you wished, sat at a desk to do this too as if you were in a play group or school setting.
I find it very relaxing just lying there colouring completly free  from any groan up stuff that may be about affecting my head.

Soccer's World Cup 2010

Well the World Cup is over for England as this girl clearly shows blowing the final note!