Paul Purday

2010-08-29T19:05:00.003+01:00

Cathy's Operation

2010-08-25T21:35:00.003+01:00

Cathy has battled with a painful back since being diagnosed with scoliosis of the spine at the age of 15. In latter years the sideways tilt of her spine has increased, and an operation to straighten it at Stanmore Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital was arranged. This took place on 22 December 2009 where metal rods were screwed to each side of the spine to straighten it by 70%. The surgeon was unable to straighten it completely but was able to remove arthritic spurs on the base of the spine which had caused her acute pain and was the main reason for the operation. Unfortunately during her time in hospital she contracted E Coli and did not leave Stanmore until 17 February 2010. I stayed at the hospital for the first 3 or 4 weeks and then commuted for the final 4 weeks (a 100 mile round trip) - about 4000 miles in all and during that awful winter!

Since that time Cathy has had continual muscular and nerve pain which is normal after such an operation, and the surgeon said that the recovery actually will take 12 - 18 months. She is able to walk 20 - 30 minutes every day and finds hydrotherapy one of the most beneficial exercises. She has also lost 2 stone.

Below you will see photos of Cathy before and after the operation. Also, there are photos of a different Jaguar I have bought - an S Type. It helps Cathy to have a smoother car to reduce jarring to her spine. The car is brilliant with a V6 2.7 litre twin-turbo diesel engine and is so silent and smooth. As you will gather, I'm a Jaguar fan!

Before

2010-08-25T21:33:00.002+01:00

After

2010-08-25T21:31:00.001+01:00

Jaguar S Type

2010-08-25T21:28:00.001+01:00

2010-08-25T21:26:00.001+01:00

2010-08-25T21:22:00.001+01:00

BACK TO POETRY AGAIN

2009-05-25T20:05:00.004+01:00

Having written poetry since the age of 7 or 8, I am getting back to it again after a 20 year break during which time I have been engaged professionally in watercolour painting and latterly in writing a book. I am posting firstly a poem I wrote in 1978 entitled "Open Spaces" about my then 6 year old youngest daughter, which received First Prize that year in the Bexley Arts Council Adult Literary Competition. The prize was £100 - not much by today's standard but wasn't too bad then. The remaining poems I wrote in the early eighties. So hopefully I will be writing some new ones soon.

OPEN SPACES

Walking over the wide-open spaces
my six year old daughter said
"I like holding your hand daddy,
it's all warm and squeezy"
and then
"I can always recognise people I know
by the anoraks they are wearing."

The far breeze was in our faces
tugging at our sleeves
sweeping and ruffling the grass,
and I wondered why in one breath
she had linked my hand and other peoples' anoraks.

Out there in the crying wind
which strained to join infinity unfurled,
the hard openness pressed through my heart -
the reality of those wide-open spaces
had not only dawned on me
but had squeezed my daughter's heart too,
the security of the anoraks and my hand
she had needed so much.

One small and young body had found freedom
to exist, to run, to fly.
Flight of a bird fresh from its nest,
but ready to return and nestle the twigs of home.

Far flung against the cotton galleons
I saw her, anorak silhouetted billowing in the breeze -
but soon, like a homing pidgeon she returned,
as though the world was too large
and should encircle her warm and squeezy like my hand.

HOLIDAY

2009-05-25T16:34:00.004+01:00

Cutlass of sea cleanly scythed the pink horizon
No wonder it bled into the blue.
Perhaps it carried the stain of children's hearts
Bleeding freely on their last holiday night.
Perhaps this warm blood entered hearts too young to know
that sand and sea and long, long days
were not the reality their lives were to become
nor ours to remember.

The following morning it ended the red sea
The cold blue steely edge of sky
and cotton-brimming clouds
proclaimed a day so new
that all was forgotten of the pails of sun
that were emptied as castles of gold
onto historic sands.

Grey heads still searched for deck-chairs
in the corner of the sun
Children still chased crabs with their echoing cries.
The future was silent when we said:
"Only a week but a lifetime
of restless waters and drowning days."

THE BUTTERFLY

2009-05-25T16:16:00.002+01:00

Against the sky
You flickered like shadows across our minds
The pleasure of your uprising
heightened our lasting pleasure in you.
Light glinted on your wings
as you swept from star to star;
You played long and melodiously
in the symphony of the grasses.

You found your way
by the light of the languishing boughs
Playing hide-and-seek through the sunbeams
and search-lights of the sun
Dodging the cannon-fire and shell-bursts
of seeds and burning leaves.

You paused as we watched breathless
then flew to the next flower
and all the world sighed at your going.

TO LIVE AGAIN

2009-05-25T15:52:00.003+01:00

You heard the lark above the waking corn
and felt on the ear the lulling drone of insects
passing across the air, born by the breeze
The sounds and loves that yesterday held enduring
and carried forward searching the wind into the night.

You smelled the roses nodding on the fence
Holding forever their fragrance in the long summer days
And you have often sampled since
the same strange delight, passing swiftly
but savoured sadly while it lasted.

You lay on the cool shadowed grass
Searching for four-leaved clover elusive as treasure
Long-lost in the common multitude of grasses
Like the dawn of creation when the earth
was guilded for no purpose but for God
Until a man walked through the green lush pasture
And saw for the first time the great design
of beauty underneath the shadows.

The broad landscape is like heaven
Where the field's crazed network
sewed its celestial patchwork
Bluer at the edge and faded with the wear of years.

You are like the fields - green as grass
Your life is the patchwork and the blue is eternity
The grass dies only to live again
Born by the season's sorrow.

OLD SUBURBAN ROAD

2009-05-25T15:36:00.004+01:00

Houses crouch and frown through the years
Hot wires radiate the telegraph may-pole
Red chimneys climb askance the sky's grey ladder
Pointing lonely, lost
The flurry of fingers, now smokeless
This funeral pyre a hundred snows long.

Inscrutable windows penetrate my heart unblinking;
Iron-grey stare deep as midnight
Holding hostage with menace their puerile occupants
Who unknowing to the lull of television
Relinquish their lives to the shout of darkness.
Some who escape the gloom
Chivy their squares of green and with owner-occupier stare
Lay their lives feet-upward on the turf
And morning-paper grey
They once sipped coffee till their heart-attack.

To walk a stream of concrete like this
Is to wade the town's sullen promise
As if my years clasped tight with packed rooves
Were not free to walk alone.

Sarah & Milo's Visit

2009-04-10T12:51:00.003+01:00

Sarah and Milo flew in from Seattle to visit us from March 4 to 31. It was a wonderful time for all and those near-on four weeks vanished as if on wings! Sarah loved meeting up again with her brother Jon, sister-in-law Caroline, nieces Maya and Violet, and Milo with his cousins. As to the grand-parents......well!! - It was so sad when they went home. Being there in actuality is so much better than viewing on Skype! We are having to get used to a Virtual World!

Milo, Cathy & Sarah

2009-04-10T12:45:00.003+01:00

The Three Cousins Learning to be Fellow Artists!

2009-04-10T12:43:00.006+01:00

Milo

2009-04-10T12:43:00.005+01:00

Milo's Shoes were a Bad Fit!

2009-04-10T12:41:00.003+01:00

Violet

2009-04-10T12:40:00.003+01:00

Maya

2009-04-10T12:30:00.002+01:00

Daffodil 1

2009-04-10T12:29:00.003+01:00

Daffodil 2

2009-04-10T12:27:00.003+01:00

Jon Purday & family

2009-04-10T12:24:00.002+01:00

There's No Business Like Snow Business

2009-04-09T20:29:00.005+01:00

Our other car buried by the February snow. It's a Fiat Panda under there!

Change of Car

2009-01-04T17:19:00.005Z

I've always wanted a Jaguar. So I traded in my larger car for an X Type Estate. I always wanted a diesel so it's a diesel. 48 mpg and loads of torque!
More torque than my favourite 3.8 Jag that I painted further down my blog. Also, it's British Racing Green which is very nostalgic. Boys must have their toys! It's only the base model though.

2009-01-04T17:18:00.002Z

2009-01-04T17:12:00.003Z

Bike Project Completed

2008-12-15T13:38:00.002Z

The addition of lights and retro handlebars complete my restoration. A fully upright riding position can now be maintained for a relaxed ride.

2008-12-15T13:36:00.002Z

2008-12-15T13:34:00.002Z

2008-12-15T13:32:00.002Z

2008-11-23T15:53:00.003Z

2008-11-23T15:51:00.004Z

2008-11-23T15:49:00.003Z

Cycling Again

2008-11-23T15:33:00.003Z

Recently I have wanted to return to cycling for the fun of it and to gain some much needed exercise. A friend mentioned that his old bicycle had been mouldering in his father's garage for twenty years and I could have it if I want. I found that it was a 28 year old Roy Thame with Reynolds 531 frame and forks and needed new tyres and some tlc. I have changed a few things like the saddle and handlebar stem to suit a relaxed riding position as these photos testify. It rides beautifully.

Flowers

2008-08-02T17:51:00.001+01:00

What would a world without colour be like?

These flowers on our patio are Cathy's pride and joy.

Black Bear

2008-07-28T19:17:00.001+01:00

Despite our resolve not to get out of the car when we saw a bear - we did it again! They might be smaller than grizzlies but they are still fiercer than us!

All I can say is, we're still here!

See the video on http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=47o7B1DtWao

Baby Grizzly

2008-07-28T19:11:00.000+01:00

This is one of the baby grizzlies. We didn't feel we needed to run in this case!

See the video for this and the next post on http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nkkxcouaavY

Grizzly Bear

2008-07-28T18:08:00.000+01:00

We saw this mother grizzly by the Banff/Jasper Road in the Canadian Rockies. She was with her two babies. We were standing on the road unprotected about 20 feet from her. My wife said: "I think she's getting stressed!"

Possibly that should have been us not the bear!!
They can run at 35 mph. We certainly can't! But we were too excited to have any fear. We only had fear in retrospect but swallowed by relief when we realised what we had done!

It's Not All Bad.

2007-03-06T15:02:00.000Z

When travelling to a recent Exhibition of my paintings in a Shopping Centre 30 miles away, I noticed that a serious crash had occurred on the other carriageway of the motorway. This obviously jammed up all the roads in both directions because drivers were getting off at all available exits, and I have never experienced a worse gridlock. I was supposed to arrive at the Exhibition by 9am, but I didn't arrive until 10.20am! This in itself was bad as the paintings worth thousands of pounds were left unattended in a busy shopping centre. Then I discovered that my lights weren't working - they had somehow tripped in the Mall ceiling. I was not able to have lights the whole of that day which was dark and overcast! Anyone involved with paintings knows the importance of good illumination. Despite this I had my second best day of sales and no thefts!

I thought of the person that lost his or her life in the motorway crash and considered how most that day were thinking, not of fatalities but simple things like being late for work, or having a painting stolen or losing a sale! The stress that this caused to thousands was far out of proportion to the horror of injuries and death and shocked and grieving relatives.

Then I considered how perhaps a lapse of concentration by a driver can have such far-reaching consequences and such a ripple effect. Bad things can sometimes teach us good things by forcing us to consider the far more devastating effects that there are on others rather than on ourselves. Also it can teach us to not stress about the things we cannot change. In other words live in the Present, for that is the only moment we have at that time. Anything else is our minds casting forward to "what if."

And in the end it wasn't too bad a day despite my gloomy prognosis at the time!

Fishing in Scotland

2007-01-20T15:38:00.000Z

This is more about serenity than fish. A fisherman increases the awe of the landscape more by his presence than his absence.

Sunflowers

2007-01-20T15:33:00.000Z

Sunflowers cheer the most depressed heart or landscape.

Jaguar 3.8

2007-01-20T15:29:00.000Z

This is one of my all-time favourite cars! You can almost smell the walnut and maroon leather.

Lakeland Evening

2007-01-20T15:25:00.000Z

Once again a fisherman is better present than absent. The tranquillity is enhanced by a touch of rising mist.

The cover of my book "The Two Lands"

2007-01-20T15:18:00.000Z

An intriguing adventure of sixteen year old Peter to find the magical golden city. Love and true wisdom win over evil and sorcery encroaching the lands. This is a complete two-part story. Part One is complete in itself, but Part Two continues the quest when Peter is aware of a new deception. He approaches the varied problems, not by overcoming them through force, but by reflective wisdom and the principle of non-violence which he learns with increasing depth from the great personages he meets in the Land. The approach of love and forgiveness is rarely used as a principle in many books. but this story enables non-violence to be the rule rather than the exception.