My Memories From 2021

I wanted to share my memories from 2021 as Christmas is almost upon us and the year draws to a close. In this post I look at COVID and family, our daft bunch of pets and my art, craft and blogging activities.

My Memories From 2021

COVID

I had hoped COVID would not impact on our activities in 2021 but, alas, that was not to be.

Vaccinations

Barnet Boy and I both had our vaccines. BB had Astrazeneca and I had Pfizer. I wrote about my experience of Pfizer in my blog. We had hoped that this would mean we could finally visit the oldies in the UK but our second jabs coincided with a large rise in cases in the UK. This put a halt to travel plans once again. We both have our third booster shots at the end of December.

Oldies

BB’s Mum was 100 in September and it was sad that he couldn’t go over and visit. However, we did get to have a nice video chat with her on her big day. One of my memories from 2021 is a big one involving my parents.

Monthly Videos

Since COVID began, I have created monthly video diaries for my parents with the latest news on the animals, the countryside, wildflowers etc, etc. I have a wildlife camera and so that provides lots of footage so they are able to see the porcupines, deer and wild boar forage at night. They love the videos and I enjoy making them for them. They kept saying how lovely it was to ‘see’ me on these videos when I introduced them and chatted to them throughout about what they were seeing. Of course, I couldn’t ‘see’ them.

Video Portal

That all changed in August when I bought my parents a video portal and my sister set it up for them. That first video of actually seeing my Mum and Dad smiling and laughing was wonderful. It was the first time I had ‘seen’ them since December 2020 although Mum and I had spoken on the telephone every day. It was very emotional!

Now the videos with Mum are daily and we catch up on all sorts of things. We show off our latest on-line purchases. Plants are paraded in front of the camera as we watch cuttings grow together. Our dogs join in from this end and ‘Nanny’ talks to them from the video. She keeps telling them they are lovely boys, I think it helps that she doesn’t live with them. Note, they are lovely but they are also, to steal a phrase from Monty Python, very naughty boys.

Big Announcement From My Dad

I have had a few video exchanges with my Dad but he is very deaf which makes it awkward for both of us. We have a tradition of morning text exchanges. But, in big news, my Dad has finally announced he is finding it difficult to hear. As my sister said, ‘hang out the bunting’. We have all been saying it for years and he has denied it. We can’t quite believe he has asked for his ears to be tested! Now we are all impatient for the test to take place, but of course, with COVID that may take a while.

Animals

Outside Cats

I am pleased to report that the outside cats are all well, with only a few minor problems during the year. The alpha female, Scruff, the ‘toothless wonder’, is thriving and is managing to eat and rule the roost with just two teeth left. Tippy and Rabby, who are not brothers but have a real ‘bromance’, both spent some time in the sick room here at the house. Tippy got quite poorly from an infection and was brought inside so that he could be medicated for ten days. A few days later Rabby hurt his leg and was brought in for treatment too. My Mum is convinced he hurt himself so he could join his mate inside! They are both fine now of course.

Inside Cats

Malteser and Lucy

Malteser (who has asthma) has been really well on his medication and special diet. Lucy is suffering a bit from arthritis but aren’t we all? Both of them are 11 now which is amazing. We still remember the day they were dumped outside our house as tiny kittens. Of course there were three of them, but Giacomo died many years ago.

Stevie Mouse

In August, Treacle attacked Stevie Mouse and scratched her eye which caused an ulcer to form. Her eye was in a dreadful state and at one point the vet thought she might lose it. Luckily all the treatment and TLC worked. It has left her eyesight worse than before, but of course that is why she is an inside cat in the first place as she can’t see properly. We are left with the legacy of having to put artificial tears in that eye twice a day.

Ms Stevie Mouse features regularly on my Facebook page. Why not take a look? Remember to follow me for the latest news on my art and blogging activities.

Treacle

As you can see from his attack on Stevie Mouse, Treacle has been the center of both attention and controversy, but when is he not? We should have called him ‘Trouble’. So it seemed quite appropriate that he should grow a horn on his head …

Subcutaneous Horn

It was a joke to start with as we thought the hard thing we could feel in front of Treacle’s ear was a small thorn sticking out of the top of his head. When it wouldn’t move we realized it was a growth of some sort. Over a few days it grew at quite an alarming rate and really was hard, like a finger nail. I arranged to take him to the vet to have it checked and removed. And of course he disappeared on the day and didn’t return until the next day, when the horn was no longer there but there was a big hole! The vet thinks he caught it on something. Anyway, with nothing to test the vet could only speculate based on my photographs. He said if we were lucky, the whole thing had come away and it wouldn’t grow again. But in his experience these growths were often cancerous and might come back. If it did it would have to be removed for biopsy. Well, many months later there is no regrowth so I think we have been lucky!

Art

Re-opening My Studio

We have used the money we have saved from all the visits to the UK on house maintenance this year. This has included installing an air conditioner/heater in my art studio. Redecoration and some rearrangement of furniture has meant I can now enjoy my studio all year round.

New Paintings

This year I have created several paintings including one that took me many weeks called ‘Protect The Children’. This features highly in my memories of 2021 as it was an emotional piece to create as it was my reaction to various things in the news at the time. I wrote a blog about my process with that one. The original hangs in my home but prints are available.

I have also been experimenting with acrylic pours and have thoroughly enjoyed creating some fun pieces. Most of them are available to buy as prints. My studio walls are very decorative with them all hanging on display.

Currently, I am exploring what I can achieve using a hammer smash technique with acrylic paint. The results are very promising and I will be writing a blog about it in the New Year.

Hobby Art

I set myself various tasks this year including creating a wind chime out of old spoons. Another fun thing to create, even allowing for sore fingers, was making a decoration for our bedroom using my old jewellery.

My latest piece of hobby art is taking a long time to create as I am working on garden wind chimes using old CDs and DVDs. But with a difference! I am painting the individual CDs. These are going to be colorful, bright and eye catching. And I will eventually write a blog on how to do it when I have done it (if you follow me).

Photography

Given the lack of travel, my photography has been less this year. It is also inevitably focused on the countryside near where we live. Having said that, there have been some good photographic opportunities that I have made the most of. I am always fascinated by the changing seasons so that is reflected in my photo art for this year. Most recently, photo art from early December showing our late season color.

I also bought a light box for my studio this year which I have started to play with. It allows me to do some different type of work as you can see.

Blogging

As always, my blogging activities have been enjoyable. The usual mix of art and craft related stories, medical issues, music and more. Some of the blogs are triggered by the sort of things that irritate all of us in daily life – like there never being a charged battery when you need one. I think my personal favorite blog this year is actually one that started a short series of three, looking at the question can reworked music improve on the original?

Blogging Challenge For January 2022

Well that concludes my memories from 2021. I have set myself a big challenge for January 2022! I am going to write a blog per day for the month. It is a great opportunity for me to explore some of the subjects I have been meaning to write about but haven’t got around to yet. And much more of course! So, I hope you will join me on my blog in 2022.

Thank you for your support and the many comments I have received over the year, you are much appreciated.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Thank you for reading!