What are you doing to me wordpress?

Are you turning into instagram?

What are all these new buttons?

Easier or more complex?

My brain is struggling

To keep up with unwanted changes!

I was driving with gears

Now you’ve given me an Automatic

taken away the clutch

but not told me where the brakes are!

Is that fair?

I’m a blogger

not a programmer

or coder

or whatever

these newfangled things are?

Thanks?

1/10 so far….

Press the button!

Press the button? Or not!

Hubby was being keen about helping with the house as I’m not feeling very well. This discussion happened when I asked him to put the washing machine on spin….

Set the dial to Spin and drain, number 15.

He did it fine.

Now press the on button.

I was watching from the living room and saw and heard the musical notes it plays when it’s switched on. Now press the start button….. Musical notes indicating he’d switched the washing machine off..

No, press the on switch again, then press the start button, it’s on this side of the dial…

He switched it on again, then pressed the little screen that shows you what program the machine is on… So I shouted, not that one, the button..

He switched the machine off again! No don’t do that! By then I was getting frustrated, but after forty years together he should be able to switch a Washing machine on.

Leave it switched on then press the button on this side of the dial!

Exasperated, I watched as he switched it on and went to move the dial…. This side I called… He went to press another button that allows you to change spin speeds or the temperature. NO! NOT THAT ONE! I really shouted this time. The one on this side of the dial BELOW the one you are pressing….

Clunk, whirrr…. SPIN!

HOORAY!

Positive and negative

Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt.
Finally did a positive/negative self portrait after trying to think what I could do. I used the edge of a page cut off and added to the centre of this to make an interesting division.
Sometimes the challenges are really hard to do. I was going to draw a battery! Not exactly interesting. The negative side of the photo really lacked detail even when I tried changing the exposure.

Faeries

At Trentham Gardens there are a collection of wire woven fairy sculptures. They are dotted here, there and everywhere. Each time we visit we see new ones. One was even dipping down into the lake for a drink. There seems to be a warrior queen on one plinth and lots of them are holding dandelion seed heads. I tried buying a kit and making my own.. I didn’t make the best one.

Otter sculpture

We are thinking of getting a tree stump carved in our garden. We had to get it cut down to about seven foot high as it was over growing a part of the garden and making it shady.

This sculpture was in Trentham gardens today. There were quite a few other ones but this was my favourite, especially since it is next to the river Trent which has got a lot cleaner over recent years.

It was a short but tiring walk. Trentham gardens is worth a visit for a day. There is also a retail village and a monkey forest on the site. But do check what is open before you visit.

X

Black Swans

Seen on our walk round Trentham Gardens this afternoon. Two black swans with red beaks, they were gathering nesting material by the side of the lake. They were not bothered by us being close, probably be ause we were not threatening them and they won’t have seen many people over the last few months of lockdown. I’m not sue what species of Swan they are. They had a few white feathers and a white line on their beaks. I wouldn’t have said they looked and different, it was not obvious whether they were male or female. It was a pleasure to see them today.

Portraits with splodges

Ten minute portrait studies with black paint splodges from bubble wrap. I used watercolour and black ink pens for the portraits. We did some minoprint a few weeks back but I found gluing down bits of paper then drawing over the top difficult so tried this instead. It also makes you consider where to paint the face!
We were using found items to add interest. My favourite is the pot of brushes obscuring the face of one of the sitters.

Plum blossom

View from the kitchen window. This is the little plum tree ar the bottom of the garden. There is a cherry tree trunk in front of it and branches from that obscure the view. I decided to leave that out. I painted with watercolours. Palest first, then the pale greens and blues. It’s hard to fit the dark colours in without leaving white edges but I have never used masking fluid to hide the paler areas and I don’t want to start now.

X