True Friends Illustration

Friends! Hmmm . . . where to begin?

It's a topic that's very much on my mind these days.

As time goes by, I've become increasingly aware of the value of friendship. And yet each year that passes, the number of people I would call real, true friends gets smaller and smaller.

Some of my good friends have died; frankly, more than I would have expected at our age, especially as we keep hearing on the media that we're all living longer.

Others, from places I used to live and who were maybe not the closest of friends, have allowed the physical distance between our homes to finally let go of an increasingly meaningless 'friendship'. And then there are some who have been unable to understand, let alone support, the fact that I have finally set out in pursuit of the career I always wanted, at the point when most of my contemporaries are winding down into retirement. Sadly, another parting of the ways.

And it isn't easy to make new friends later in life when we can no longer make friends whilst waiting for our offspring at the school gate. And those of us who have retired or work at home no longer have the opportunity to turn work colleagues into friends.

I'm sure they serve a very useful function for some but I for one am not quite ready for the likes of Lunch Clubs for Seniors in the Community Centre! 

But I've come to realise that I'm one of the luckier ones!  I do have a few 'best buddies', true friends who, although they live hundreds of miles away, also live in my heart!

Please feel free to save and print this A4 300 dpi Friendship Quote
or maybe just 'Pin' it?

But loneliness and social isolation is rife amongst older people. 
The replacement of the extended family by the 'nuclear' model has played a large part in that. Times change, sometimes, but not always, for the better.

One day my son commented that there are a lot of 'old people' in Abergavenny! I hadn't noticed it but once he mentioned it, I started to realise how right he was. As I cross the park on my way to the shops, I often overtake older people, out for their daily breath of fresh air. Normally I'm in such a hurry that I bowl past them at a rate of knots. 

But if I can spare the time, I've begun stopping for a chat and I'm finding that it's very much appreciated.

It's easy to get into conversation, surrounded as we are by the beautiful trees in the park as well as the mountains, there's always something to talk about. And of course, we Brits are always ready to talk about the weather! It means I have to walk much more slowly than usual but I think it's worth it to see how pleased people are to have someone to chat with, even if it's only for five minutes or so.

I'm not pretending that these brief, chance encounters are a replacement for a lasting friendship - our paths may never cross again. But they are better than nothing, by a long way!

When I'm busy working, I can go for several days without speaking to anyone. As an introvert with work that I enjoy, that doesn't bother me too much. I also have family who are at the other end of a phone/email/text message - and of course, I have friends online!

Some of the older people I meet on my way to the shops have nobody to talk to and very little to fill their days. But they do love to talk about their family or their former job or career, if only there's someone to really listen!

So please, if you possibly can, spare a little time for the older generation - you might find it more rewarding than you ever imagined!

December/January W.I.P. and Thoughts on Friendship

Just before Christmas I spent a night in the Clinical Decisions Unit of our local hospital - nothing too serious but initially a bit of a mystery. 

And someone commented that the CDU is where they put people they don't know what to do with.

Which is exactly where, in my mind, I have consigned Finnegan the Fish for the time being, I'm afraid! I could, perhaps, make him into a Pisces birthday card for a start but I think he might benefit from some friends, when I find time - and that could result in a new repeating pattern.

It's not that I've been totally lacking in creativity since my last Work in Progress post. When I took down the Christmas decorations, I realised that I don't have a 'Winter' door decoration so I hastily used the Honeysuckle from my garden to make a little wreath and decorated it with Ivy (also from the garden), some artificial berries and fir cones, a burlap bow I happened to have found in a sale before Christmas and a robin that I've had for years. It's a bit 'rustic' (aka 'rough and ready') but I feel that's somehow appropriate for a Winter wreath to distinguish it from the more festive Christmas door decorations.

I've also been planning birthday cards for three of my family who have birthdays in the next few weeks, starting with one of my grandsons who will turn 15 at the end of January. Always hard to think of something appropriate for teenage boys and I'm wondering whether something with fifteen elephants might work. 

With that in mind, I've been using photos from Google Images as models for drawing as I don't know any real-life elephants, let alone any who are prepared to pose for a portrait.

I'm very fond of all elephants and made 'Heffalump' birthday cards for my family when I was in my teens.
But I particularly love the expression of the one in the bottom left corner !

In between times I've been busy using existing designs to create more gifts for Valentine's Day and St David's Day, for sale in my Zazzle stores.

Zazzle introduce new products most weeks and it's hard to keep up with them all. So it's time to do some catching up to fill the gaps -

Nesting Mugs from my Hearts and Roses Collection

Daisy Chain Hearts Pouf from my Daisy Chains Collection

Welsh Emblems iPhone 6 Plus Case from Posh & Painterly Cymru

Blue Faux Welsh Tapestry Hip Flask to Personalize from my Posh & Painterly Cymru store

During 2014, I noticed that by far the most frequently re-pinned 'pin' from all of my Pinterest boards is a quote about friendship. 

And that's made me think a lot about the concept of friendship for a while; how do we define friendship, especially since facebook widened the definition of 'friends'? What do we expect of a good friend? 

And so on . . .

So I've decided to try to fit in making some illustrated quotes about Friendship of my own. I've begun working on one that has been floating around at the back of my mind for a while. I hope to have it finished to post on the social media later in the week.

There are plenty of 'Friendship' quotes to be found on the internet. But it would be good to have some new, more personalised ones. So I'd also love to hear how you would finish the sentence:

"A good friend is someone who . . . "

(Answers in the Comments of this blog or on facebook/G+/Linkedin/twitter, if you prefer - thank you)