@unitedutilities why have you not stopped this leak (that you caused)? Permit number etc on photo. The water has been gushing out now for 12 days and your workers have only been for about 30minutes total in that time. There is a big mess outside a number of houses.
Iโm rather fond of quirky old fashioned words. Here are some of my favourites:
Skedaddle
Nincompoop
Highfalutin
Malarkey
Comeuppance
Skullduggery
Kerfuffle
Flummoxed
Thingamajig
Tomfoolery
Shenanigans
Hoodwink
Blethering
Hullabaloo
Curmudgeon
Whippersnapper
Bamboozled
"I thought I'd failed as a mother when my 28-year-old son came home last Christmas and announced he was "taking up quilting to deal with stress."
His father immediately started making jokes about him turning into his grandmother, asking if he needed help picking out lipstick next. I watched my son's face shut down the way it used to when kids teased him in middle school for being too quiet, too gentle, too different from what everyone expected.
He'd been struggling since his divorce, sleeping on our couch, barely eating, scrolling through his phone for hours without really seeing anything. The quilting started as therapy his counselor suggested, something to keep his hands busy while his heart healed. He ordered fabric bundles from a therapeutic crafting group on the Tedooo app where other people shared stories about sewing through depression.
Three months later, he finished this. Blues and browns that somehow capture everything he couldn't say out loud about losing his marriage, his house, his vision of the future. Every stitch precise, every pattern deliberate. When he held it up, I saw my little boy who used to bandage injured birds and cry during Disney movies.
"Don't post it anywhere," he said. "People will think it's weird."
But this isn't weird. This is my son rebuilding himself one square at a time, refusing to let anyone else define what strength looks like. If more men had the courage to create something beautiful with their hands instead of tearing things apart, maybe the world would be softer."
Credit : Angela Graham
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Lancs Artist of the Year 2025
@LancashireCC is on the lookout for our best landscape artists.
Submit your paintings, sketches or collages depicting a Lancs vista in spring, summer, autumn or winter.
Apply by 16th June 2025
Info: https://t.co/cy70eYFysl