A twist on Snakes and ladders

BASIC, Health, Learning, Leisure, Life, Memory, Pleasures

Salford , 30th July 2019

Basic and spinal injury centre, Salford.

We’ve all played the board game of snakes and ladders before

Snakes and ladders board game cartoon illustration

The idea is you roll the dice, go up the ladders and down the snakes

all very straight forward , but has anyone tried playing it the other way round ?

Where you go up the snakes and down the ladders ?

It’s just as fun – and requires a lot of concentration – as you hit a ladder at the top and find yourself going down it instead of up.

We played it both ways – the reverse game is a lot more challenging.

The attention puppy

BASIC, Life, Poetry

Sometimes my mind goes wondering

Bright shiny things distract it

And it goes off on a wonder

It’s like a little puppy dog 🐶

And like every small animal

Dog cat or bird…it needs training

So I do my best, to keep its eye

Instead of letting it fly high in the sky

Breaking tasks into manageable things

Before it wonders off and spreads its wings

Memory

BASIC, Concentration, Memory, Poetry

Salford, Tuesday 15th May

Since my last episode with my IV shunt, I’ve become more appreciative of what makes a memory

the smell of cooking of an apple pie in the oven

the sound of my favourite music 🎶 on the wireless

the feel of my iwm fleece, that I wear when volunteering

All these things meet up in the information store in my brain where those clever little neutrons in my head store them for future reference in this vast library 📚 of learning. There’s two other sections of this library, one holds a giant encyclopaedia of facts……the semantic section, whilst the other contains a multimedia extravaganza, full of music, pictures, film, tv and photographs

now since my shunt was revised, there’s been a bit of a mess in the semantic section, and it’s sister branch the episodic section….which holds memories of events and such. It’s not that I’ve completely forgotten about certain things, I just have to go back a few pages to remind myself of things

photographs help. Show me a photo of a place I’d been at and I’d be able to tell you the who the where and when the photo was taken. It’s probably the reason I’ve taken an interest in using a digital camera, for a visual cue usually triggers a memory of an event

and of course there’s the memory aids – Those colourful notebooks full of my random thoughts and scribbles. Now i’ve set myself up on wordpress i’ll occasionally share the ramblings of what i’ve picked up in the day, but it always pays to go back to the source – even if it is to source out that chocolate cake recipe i picked up in cooking demos.

Photo Challenges

BASIC, Photography

Salford 13th March 2018

Over the last few days i’ve been taking part in a photographic challenge

#challenge30 involved taking pictures with my trusty second hand Nikon DSLR camera on thirty subjects – each with their own unique title.

i particularly enjoyed taking photos from an abstract view, changing simple items into something else.

The pictures have been stored on a gallery on flickr’s website and you’ll find them here

Capturing Something new

BASIC, Photography

Experimental

It’s quite amazing the effects you get when you concentrate on something

Turn on a humble lightbulb and point your camera at it

Reminding yourself (of course) to knock the flash off

If the camera has a mind – it was certainly concentrated on this as i moved about the bulb

Capturing the light – like a genie in the bottle

Jams and Jaguars

BASIC, Cooking, Photography

#CFFC #LetterJ #BASIC

A couple of photos taken from sessions at BASIC Clicks, the photography group i belong to at the Brain and Spinal injury centre in Salford

for starters – here’s the Jaguar .

And here’s some pics of some Jam (Raspberry) and Lemon curd, common thread ? all items were photographed at BASIC. The Jams were made at Food for Thought, BASICs Cafe – they’re tasty on a piece of toast or a crumpet!

Lemon Curd – Ready for Spreading (p) BFK 2017

Raspberry Jam and Lemon curd (p) BFK 2017

Creating something special

BASIC, Colours, Photography

Brain and Spinal Injury Centre, Salford

20th October 2017

Returned to the home of BASIC Clicks to create some lit up photography

here’s my favourite shots

The portacabin was dark during the creation of these shots

Orb – setup shot for the other shots (this one in the light – others dark)

Marble in Light

Planet

Fireball

Mars Fragment

Cameras – Sony DSC – H300, Nikon D3100

Equipment – Backcloths (Dark), Tripods, Seashells, Glass Ball, Fairy lights

An ode to a Heron

BASIC, Birds, Canalside, Home

Salford 21st September

One of Inky’s better known works, about a feathered resident of Salford Quays Waterside and Manchester ship canal. Anyone is free to read this – but if you wish to re-use please contact me – thanks!

The Heron stands perched,

In the middle of the bay

Dreaming of fish, a stones drop away.

He stares at a red bridge, and buildings of glass

Thinking of morsels, he will amass.

Balanced precariously, on a bright orange ball,

He dreams of fish, and tries not to fall.

Flapping his feathers, and drying off rain.

He ponders of Fish, again and again.

Geese making noises, as they fly all around

The Heron does nothing but stand his ground.

Flapping his wings on the orange coloured buoy,

A sea trout or carp is his favourite joy.

Lights gather round the watery hole,

A moonlit supper our flying hero’s goal.

No salt or pepper, or toad in the hole

He dives for his fish and swallows it whole!

Stained Glass Window

Art, Arts, BASIC, Places, Pleasures, Poetry, Religion

Salford 18th September

Poem borrowed from my page at Allpoetry.com

A tale a bit crafty, a bit religious, but all by me

Artwork created at Craft Sessions at Brain & Spinal Injury Charity in Salford.

As the Sun comes up,

its light shines through

the panels of coloured glass

angling the now coloured light

painting a picture,

of scenes on a floor

And as the sun shines,

through that brightly coloured window

reds cast with yellows

and greens cast with blues

as molten lead holds on tightly,

keeping the picture alive

Duck window

Poetry Workshops

BASIC, Pleasures, Poetry, writing

14th September 2017

Great British Write off – a book i’ve appeared in!!!

Today i’ve had my hands in the soapsuds helping out at BASICs Cafe, Food for thought.

I’ve also been assisting in helping to run a poetry workshop in the conservatory.

we discussed what makes a poem and the different kinds of poem you could write

covering everything from Rhymes to Acrostics, Haikus to San-sans

The Inkwell

from inkdrop – poetry, places and events

BASIC