Noise pollution

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Two tankers draining slurry from Portmeirion, the local pottery firm. This is the third day they’ve been doing it. The sound of diesel pumps and engines is so annoying. Have the TV on to drown it out. Usually on a sunny day I’d be in the garden. But the fumes from the lorries goes everywhere. I need to do stuff. The house vibrates when they do this. It might not be very audible in the video. But if we didn’t have double glazing it would be worse! I know they have to do it to keep the business going but this is too much today! I took videos of them from inside the house, with the door closed and the door open. On the one with the door open it was twice as loud. The diesel fumes are being blown away by the wind.

As I write this the pumps have just been switched off. The engines are still running…. No! It’s started up again, must have been changing tankers? The trouble is there is never any warning. They start about 9am and then go on all day. Yesterday and Monday it was just the morning. I want to scream. Would post video but takes up too much memory.

Covid 19 SCAM, BEWARE!

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Bad bad people 😡😡😡 ………And so it begins!……
‘Good afternoon I’m calling from the NHS track and trace service. According to our system, you are likely to have been in close proximity to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. This means that you now need to self-isolate for 7 days and take a COVID-19 test.’
‘OK. Can you tell me who that person was?’
‘I’m not able to tell you that. That is confidential information.’
‘Right. Um… so ….’
‘But you do need to be tested within the next 72 hours. So can I just get the best mailing address so that we can send a kit to you?’
‘Ok (gives address)’
I just need to take a payment card so that we can finalize this and send the kit to you.’
‘Sorry – a payment card? I thought this was all free?’
‘No – I’m afraid not. There is a one-off fee of £50 for the kit and test results. Could you read off the long card number for me, please, when you’re ready.’
‘No – that’s not right. This is part of the NHS so there’s no charge.’
‘I’m afraid there is. Can you give me the card number please – this is very important, and there are penalties for not complying.’
Puts the phone down.
This is how scammers work. And vulnerable people will fall for it.”
Don’t fall for it…!

Please share.
COPY and PASTE

Just a warning for everyone in the UK, be careful don’t fall for it, stay safe

I copied and pasted.

Its looking at me

I looked over at the sofa and saw, my bag was staring at me, its stone eyes glaring? I knew there were sharp talons underneath. Any moment it could fly up and attack me. And yet it was my favourite bag? What could I do, I couldn’t look away, I did not dare sleep. I would have to watch it until dawn. Until I would be safe.

The owl hooted in my mind, a mournful call, a gentle sound, my head nodded, sleep was coming. I shook myself to wake up. The owl glared. I was trapped.

Cat washing

Cats are hard to draw when they are washing, they move from one position to another and when you are trying to capture them on a drawing tablet its harder because of changing tools mid drawing. My hubby just chimed in that its harder to draw flying bats! True, I just haven’t seen any recently.

Anyway I will try and do something different next time. I’m just a bit stuck in a rut today, so please excuse my lack of posting today.

Happier times

Just found this view of my studio wall, a selection of smaller paintings I did a few years ago. I wish I was still going there. Maybe by September I can get back in there? I’m paying rent for a room I’m not using.

I’ve got paintings to take down there, maybe when I finish this semester I can get back to it? I’m glad I’m busy, I’m glad I’m being creative. I just need to get my act together more.

Anyone else struggling with being organised at the moment?

I’ve just noticed how many times I’ve written ‘I’m’ here. I wonder if its bad grammar….

Watering can

Todays Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge was ‘metallic.

I decided to draw our zinc watering can that hubby has kindly left in the middle of the living room floor after watering the plants infant of our house.

I decided to draw in my Artrage app as I don’t use it often enough. Its the pro version so you have lots of tools, including pastel, pen, brush, a roller, and lots more. It took a while to get used to it. Because it has metallic colours it meant I could get some interesting effects on the can, and there are also settings so i gave the background surface a canvas look.

Artrage oils drawing

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Just did a drawing in artrage oils. It’s a drawing ap where you have a few brushes and a pallette that makes apparently oily colours. You can turn up a metallic look between 0 and 100.

This was done with a thin, dry brush tool. The marks are short so you are forced to draw lots of marks to cover an area. I could have changed it but this gave some uniformity in the mark making. Then I tried to add dots like halftone but because I was drawing with my finger it’s not very accurate. I changed the metallic effect up in some places. It sort of works.

X

 

And back to cats, patterns and photo editing

Sometimes when you ‘tidy things up’ with photo editors, you lose some of the character of your art work. Yes it may look more interesting in one way but you can lose colours or small details that you might have struggled to get into the image in the first place. I guess it’s a matter of choice. The first photo here has been enhanced slightly with filters in Instagram. That’s because the drawing I did originally is about twenty years old and hangs on our stairs. The inks I used to draw it have faded so i had to try and restore it slightly back to how it was. The second is another one that I’ve adjusted in Photodirector.

It’s down to personal opinion if you like them or not?

X

Hedgehog in the shed

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I just went out to check if there were hedgehogs in the shed. One was eating cat food but scuttled over to the corner as I shone my light in, so I took a quick photo and came out again. It’s quite a cool night so at least the poor thing has some shelter, food and water in there. There is a smaller one somewhere so we might have Hoglets soon. I think the shed needs tidying up a bit. Hubby seems to leave everything on the floor, but as long as there isn’t anything dangerous for the hedgehogs to eat they should be fine. I’ve got details now of the local hog charity so I might get in touch tomorrow. X