Attendance Allowance

A friend suggested I should apply for this.  I have never claimed a benefit in my life other than child benefit many years ago.

She also said it would help towards the  payment of the cleaner and gardener we now employ.  The cleaner comes once a week and goes through the part of the house we inhabit like a dose of salts.  The 'gardener' comes when he can and before the grass needs a scythe.

So I down loaded the form and the advice on how to fill it in

Which you need.  Never ever have I come across a form which is so unuser friendly.  But I persevered.  Then I became so severely depressed with the stuff I could not do and required an attendant to help me with I almost added suicidal to the list. As it made me think of all the things I could not do but got round.....one just does doesnt one.  Bright light I bought a golfing peaked cap. This cuts out glare from above. The sky. I can still draw and paint, drive, use the computer. 
 I make sure I am facing the person I am speaking to and listening to.
No good on the phone tho!

COPD
Osteo arthritis
Cataracts
Loss of hearing.
Hypertension.

One just copes doesnt one.

Help with dressing/undressing.  I cannot do buttons so I dont wear anything that has buttons.  I cant do zips.  So I 'forget' they are there and wear a baggy jumper. Osteo Arthritis (OA)

I cannot open jars, bottles, cans.  So I do not eat or drink anything from them.  Fortunately wine bottles I can manage....(OA)

Cooking smells make me choke.  I do not cook. (COPD)

I need the zimmer to walk anywhere, shops, doctors, etc.(COPD)

Thats if I can get in as still so many shops including my opticians do not cater for those in wheel chairs or with wheeled zimmers.

I cannot read small print.  So food labels , drug labels and instructions I just chance it.(Cataracts.C.)

Make up?  God knows what I look like after the morning plaster on of. (C)

Still managing the loo.  Shower, I like to have someone around but can manage on my own so long as they are in ear shot if I fall over the bath edge getting out, or cannot turn it off.
(C & OA)

And so it goes on.

And on and on.

If I were a dog or a cat I would be down the vets and now planted under a tree.

The attendance allowance is mainly about personal care.  Which I had not really addressed.  One just bumbles along.  Adapts. When one has to fill a form in and focus on what one can no longer do it is horrific.

My sight. The optician can no longer prescribe glasses so I am on the waiting list for the operation for cataracts. Fortunately I passed the part that says I can still drive.

Hearing.  Not much of a problem for me but drives every0ne else mad as I have to ask them to repeat , repeat, repeat.  Now on another waiting list for an audiometrist (?).

Osteo arthritis.  No cure. Progressive. 

Hypertension Controlled by drugs.  

Sense of humour just gets me in to trouble So for now has disappeared. May be back blogging but not for a while. 

Bear with me. Apologies. But thats why we blog. Letting it all out.

Land of the Big Sky.

Dawn and dusk are wondrous sights at this time of the year.

l do not see much of the Dawn but of course the Dawn Patroller does.

I do see the sunsets. One above tonight.  One below last night. Taken by me....

The DP was also up in the early hours of the morning, pre dawn, taking photographs of the eclipse of the moon .

And the subsequent red super moon.  No wonder in Pagan times they made a quick sacrifice to appease the gods. And it worked as the moon returned to its normal colour.  But we know we dont have to do that anymore,( unless someone has particularly annoyed you)  Any excuse.  In your dreams so long as you keep it there!

It is still fun down the shedudio.  I have my view of the sky from there.

Although from this angle it does look as if I have no view!  

This one hopefully shows I do have a view of the sky.

Inside - my latest painting.

 Bearded tit from a photograph by Norman Watson.  A rarity this far up North. Too cold for them, so another sign of global warming?

Oh and with a bit of the big sky in it.  The Dawn Patroller won best photograph in a local exhibition.

Just keep looking up.  There is a big sky up there.

North East Open Studios. Closed.

Each entrant is given 2 of these signs. Well it isnt enough.

I am number 50, in the middle, and in the middle of nowhere.  The others on our mini trail were in villages.  

But I did have visitors who found me, not as many as I would like......

 Here I am holding forth (note the artists smock!) as to how I do it, while the seated one eyes up the home bakes.

Note the one on the right is watching the birds outside..........

At the end of the nine days I was well and truly shattered.

But I sold some paintings, lots of mugs!  I also got a commission.

For a painting of a Turkey.

Says it all. 



 

North East Open Studios. Day 1

The first day...

 

I opened my studio at 10 a.m.  This was me at 11 a.m.  

Just after 11 people began to arrive.  And never stopped.  I had all on to eat at  - around - lunchtime.  

I had some lovely shortbread and sweeties for the visitors.

Although looking at some fellow entrants facebook pages it was more a bake off than an artists studio.

Come on!!!!

After 10 years running a bed and breakfast, once retired, I gave up baking for ever,

The delicious shortbread was donated by a lovely friend. The sweeties came from Tescos.

For once I was not annoyed they were bringing in Christmas stuff in in September.  Those large tins for a fiver that we end up eating far too much of.

I much prefer painting.  And the idea is to meet the artist.  So this one managed to do a bit.

Back at the drawing board tomorrow and serving coffee and teas and smiling and chatting, most of which I dont find difficult.

Setting up for NEOS.

It is a good job this North East Open Studios is only once a year.  

My attempts at displaying my wares is not the best. 

I had the idea of having my paintings put onto mugs.  Well impressed. Photobox. No they are not sponsoring this post. (But I am open to offers as I have spent so much with them!)

I was so impressed with the mugs - and the packaging - each in its own box, I selected more and more. So if you are related to me and get a Christmas gift from me no clues as to what you will be getting.  All the ones that do not sell.

Although I have already sold two of these via my facebook page. Buchan Birds and Beasts.

 
 Trawled through the browsers.  Some removed and gone to the drawer of infamy.

 Thanks to the DP the outside has been weeded, tidied and plants purchased for me to pot up.  I now have a grand entrance!

Framed paintings hung.  Although one did fall off and had to be re-framed, so with that and photobox purchases, the tax man can not bother with me.  Already in the red.

Still its more about being part of it all.  Welcoming people in to my sanctuary, making teas and coffees, providing home bakes.  Demonstrating how easy it is to paint!  You can make a mark on a piece of paper?  You can do it too!

Yeah.  8 days I have to sit down the shedudio.  From 10 til 4. 

Might catch up with all the work in progress...................

Left on one side while I set up for NEOS.

 

Where did August go?

Is it me and old age?  Whizzed by. All the local Galas, every village has one. Many last a week, all done.  Open days. Lifeboats, gone by.  

 Barley harvested.

 Northern Lights, Aurora, with us.  Apparently always there but depends on the clouds, the moon, whether it is visible with the naked eye.  This was.  2 nights ago. From our dining room patio door we watched it. Dancing.  Later, after we had gone to bed, the red bits joined in.  Was also visible last night.  But - well, one can get a bit blase......!!

Then there is now the imminent advent of North East Open Studios.

So a fair bit of tarting up to do.

 
Four shedudios. We four are the Hidden Corner Artists and have created a mini trail to lure people to visit.  Mine is the last picture.

So. Roll on September.

 

Sad.

Some of you caught the post I did yesterday evening prior to my removing it.  

Basically yesterday evening I had a visit from the police.

They had received an anonymous tip off that I was driving without being able to see properly..  The anonymous tip off was made 3 months ago following my April post on having cataracts.  Said post written in my attempt at humour when being presented with an unpleasant fact.  

Of course I could and can see perfectly well. 

The fact it took the police 3 months to speak to me about this shows how serious they treated an anonymous report.  

Which is how we should and do react to anonymous comments on our blogs.

However a visit from the police at 8p.m in the evening meant it took them a while to convince me they were not here to report a death or serious injury to one or more of my nearest and dearest.  I am sure that my anonymous enemy is rubbing their hands in glee at that.

My knee jerk reaction to all this was the post I wrote last night and to stop blogging.

 But then, on reflection, some of the other details the police gave from this anonymous 'tip off' made me and my partner  realise I knew full well who it was from.

Whether I am right or wrong on that I care not.  I will not allow anyone to prevent me living my life and doing or writing what I want to do so long as it does not harm anyone and shows due respect to all. If I can raise a smile even better.

 Perhaps the sad individuals who need to get a life should follows the same aspirations.