It would have been…

His birthday,

He was no fool

We would have had on this day

A walk by a pool?

It would have been a grand day

Even if it rained

The sun is shining today

But he’s not here, my friend.

I’m sitting feeling lonely

His life came to an end

He had so much to give

Love and hugs, not only

A great wish to live!

April fools day

The Peak Wildlife Park posted a prank on Facebook today. It reported that some of their Humbolt Penguins had taken flight today and if anyone saw one or found them in their garden they should report it to the park (to check their migratory habits?).

Of course Penguins don’t fly, (and they don’t migrate either as far as I know, but I added that bit), so it was obviously an April Fools joke, but it’s nice and gentle, not rude or unkind. I remember an old one on TV when they reported that the spaghetti trees were being harvested and another one on a children’s TV programme about dehydrated water!

I haven’t seen many jokes today but I liked one about flat pack Easter eggs from IKEA, (chocolate bars), may your April Fools day be fun!

Peak Wildlife Park is at Winkhill, Leek ST13 7QR, UK. Details can be found on Google.

2004 drawing

Facebook Memory

Sometimes things just pop up on my status and I don’t remember when I drew them. In this case the memory was from five years ago, but the comment said I drew it in 2004. I think that’s right because I wasn’t doing many pencil drawings a few years ago. I think this was from a monthly drawing group. Friends met up at a pub and we would draw each other or customers. I have the Sketchbook somewhere in the house. One of a miriad of them.

Celtic?

Digital drawing in response to some celtic knot drawings I did thirty or forty years ago. I started with Artrage, then used photodirector app and incollage, finally I used a filter in Instagram. Sketching the patterns was easier for me back in those days, but by using digital technology I can create more complaxity.

An art school?

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

I’d like to be able to open an art school for anyone that wants to be involved. If I had the money to open it, it would be free to artists and art enthusiasts.

Would I name it after me? Possibly. Or call it the CMB art school. I would like to think that it would encourage creativity in all aspects of art. I have an idea of saving a derelict building for perpetuity and the school would be housed within it.

I would also try and involve local schools to seed the idea of arts and crafts in the children’s minds. It’s a pipe dream. But I like it.

Two soups

What makes you laugh?

Have you ever seen the “two soups” sketch on the “Victoria Wood as seen on TV” sketch show?

It stars Julia Walters as an elderly waitress.

Two diners are seated at the front of the set, chatting and choosing from a menu. The waitress comes out of swing doors at the back of the set, apparently the kitchen. She is white haired and elderly, she slowly stumbles towards the diners. She takes their order and licks a pencil and proceeds to write it down. I can’t remember all the dialogue but it is funny. The decision is they will have “two soups”.

A bit more conversation happens while the waitress totters off to the kitchen, she is very wobbly with age.

After a wait she comes out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of soup, one in each hand. They are held loosely and because they are sloping the soup is gradually pouring out of them. She approaches the table and the bowls are clearly empty. She plonks the dishes down on the table. “two soups! ” she proudly announces.

It’s hards to explain but it’s so funny!

Missing cat?

Where’s he gone? I’ve whistled and shouted him. He was around this morning. He’s probably asleep somewhere. I’ll have to put some food out for him and the other two… Or get some catnip out to attract him. I’m getting worried but I think it’ll be OK. It’s just that feeling of missing something, a silence when you expect noise. I don’t want to lose anything else at the moment. I haven’t heard from a friend recently and I get the same feeling. I’m over thinking probably. Easy to let things get to me. But I don’t want a prodigal cat. X

Fears

Today is a hiding day. Lots of thoughts and fears roaming around the inside of my head. I need to get things done but I don’t feel like doing them. I’m going to give myself some slack, just a few hours to feel safe.

Yesterday I was more optimistic, I got some things done I’d been putting off. I’ve even started my gratitude book again. And later I will go out as the cats won’t have anything to eat if I don’t. But yesterday afternoon something happened that put everything into another perspective. And I just froze. I’m only hinting, I’m not going to say, and I think I will be OK, it was something mental not physical. I’m OK. I will be OK.

Cadmium colours

Back in the eighties hubby brought a whole load of cadmium colours back from the company where he was doing chemical analysis. I had about eight coffee jars full of cadmium ranging from pale yellow to red to deep maroon. But I didn’t know how to mix them, it was before Google and I had them on a shelf for a year. I also knew Cadmium is a heavy metal although these colours were pigments so hopefully they were safe.

Then a fellow art student asked about them. I agreed to give them to her. I know she used them in many paintings! I often wonder if she used them all, I haven’t seen her for forty years.

An artist!

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Not when I was five!

Give me crayons, give me colouring books. Books with paper covered in dots that you wet with a paintbrush and colours emerge.. Dot to dot books, pages with squares on that I could turn into patterns. I might have been a bit older than five for some of these, but I always wanted art things for my birthday or Christmas. I must have heard of artists because I always wanted to be one. I got an etch-a-sketch machine to draw with, I loved that.

My sister wanted to be a musician, she eventually borrowed a violin from school. I got jealous because my parents said I was doing art and they couldn’t let me have a musical instrument, so I overtightened the strings on the violin and they snapped ( bad/very guilty memory!)…

Now? I’ve been an artist all my life. I started drawing when I was a child such as historical people in tudor dress, Asterix the Gaul, horses, clouds, all sorts of things. I still do that, anything is interesting to me.