An olympus trip camera

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?

Hubby and I were cycling along on our tandem in the middle of the countryside. We were passing through farmland one spring when he suddenly braked to a stop. He had seen a camera in the ditch next to the road on a clump of grass. We think it must have fallen off the top of a car?

There was no one around to ask who it belonged to, so we decided to wind back the film and get it developed. The thought was to try and identify the owners. It was a nice camera with just a dent in the metal ring round the lens, it was worth a bit of money and it would have been sad to lose by the owners. It might have had important memories attached to it.

We waited a week for the photos to come back. There were three photos of the landscape, but nothing to identify the owner, no people and no houses or cars.

In the end we kept the camera. I used it for years, taking photos for college, holidays and family events. I always wanted to give it back. I used 35mm film with an iso of 400. It had a good life with us.

Art

What was your favorite subject in school?

I’ve loved art since I was a child. In fact, at school I would finish paintings ahead of everyone else in my class. One day I painted the wooden bit of my pencils to match the coloured part of them. I actually got in trouble for doing that. But I was bored. I got sent to see the headmaster (I was about 7),but ran into the cloakroom and hid. I was fetched back to class in tears and very upset. So much so my class thought I’d been smacked for painting the pencils! I was too upset to tell them what had really happened. I still loved art though!

2019 remembered, Biggley!

Trump Mania 2019

I just found this Staffordshire flat back ornament I decorated at the British Ceramic biennial back in 2019.

Whoever designed it came up with a quirky idea of Trump on a boat, legs facing backwards, the symbol of the crucifix and people weeping next to it? A monkey and a possible tea chest. There is a lion as a figurehead at the front.

I don’t remember what it was meant to depict but it’s certainly a confusing image. How did he get elected? Is he running away from the world? Is he a clownish figure? Five years later I still don’t know!

Halloween

I saw a weird thing tonight, I walked past a field and I saw, I think I saw? All the pumpkins were still in the field, but already carved. Each had a grotesque face, and light flickering within them. But the stems were still attached and no smoke or burning smells? Very odd.

Its Halloween and I felt crrreeeped out, but an hour later I quietly walked back. I had to know what was going on. It was only when I was on the path and walking in the opposite direction I saw what I’d missed before….

The sign saying

“Ready carved pumpkins, let us do the work, you take the credit” and “tealights included”.

I wished I’d gone to bed!

My grandad

Describe a family member.

My grandfather was a carpenter. I don’t remember meeting him as I think he died when I was quite young.

He was very skilled and made the lych gate (roofed gateway in front of a church) at the entrance to the local parish church. He also carved the altar rail at the main Methodist Chapel in the town. I imagine he must have been well respected. We also have some wardrobes he made clad in beautiful walnut veneers.

Hearing about him encouraged me to do art. I was told that creativity skips a generation and that I was lucky to have that artistic gene. I also found out I had an artistic cousin that wasn’t allowed to be an artist because her family was short of money, so she ended up working in a factory. I hope she eventually pursued a creative course in life. I feel lucky to have had such an artistic grandfather.

Dragon/ Chamelion

I painted a dragons eye on Saturday and found someone at the craft fair I was at on Sunday was crocheting karma Chamelions. Weirdly the eyes seem to match! How odd. I’m not sure why I bought the soft toy, it might go to a neice. I was so pleased I thought I’d take a photo of them together. X