The canopy looks like a rabbit.

I was sitting in the library and looked out the window. I noticed the trees were still bare. Then I saw the shape of the canopy over the front door. It suddenly looked like a rabbits head. The letter Y at the end of library looks like a rabbits ears. I thought back to making shadow puppets on the wall, it’s so strange, a bit of Pareidolia?

Light

Lighting detail on the ceiling of Hanley Library, Stoke-on-Trent. I love the design. We were singing “this little light of mine” at a monthly choir practice and it really chimed that the image went so well with the music. It’s as if the sun is encouraging people to read and to use the library to enjoy all sorts of experiences.

Playing the kazoo

My purple kazoo

During one choir performance we all had to get out a kazoo and play along with the song we had been playing. I’ve had it in my bag ever since and when I fished out my sketchbook today I found it again so I seranadedvthevart group with tunes like the starwars theme, Dr Doolittle, the Bare necessites and a few others. I had everyone in stitches.

By the way I looked up the spelling of kazoo. AI SAID:

The correct spelling of the musical instrument is “kazoo“. The word refers to a simple, handheld musical instrument that produces a buzzing sound when the player hums into it, according to Dictionary.com

G-loss

I’ve joined a small writing group in my home town and we are being given prompts to write about. I’ll write up another one later but here’s a poem I did on the spur of the moment when I misheard the prompt Loss as Gloss:

Gloss over your loss

Hide it behind your mind

Don’t let it take hold

Your thoughts must not fold

Into a melancholy way

So be quiet and say

My life will be OK?

If I can find my way.

Five?

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Are these everyday things? They are to me…

Art Groups I go to regularly. Being creative keeps my mind calm. When I’m painting or drawing I can put other feelings behind me. An art education improves creativity.

Having clean water to drink and use for washing. I realise many places don’t have the luxury of clean water. Even here there is a problem with some water companies, but at least it is clean and  delivered by pipes to almost every dwelling.

Media, again the luxury aspect. TV, radio, Internet. We mainly have all these in the UK although some are more hit and miss in more rural areas where mountains and hills can block transmissions. We possibly take it for granted.

Our health service. Free at the point of use. Yes it is overworked and underfunded. But you don’t have to pay unless you go private and no one goes bankrupt paying exorbitant fees. I hope it survives all the problems going on in the country.

Finally Education. We are lucky that most pupils stay on till senior school and beyond to college and degree level. The pandemic had a detrimental effect on attendance and some children are being home schooled. I think that’s a mistake but as long as they get a good widespread education then hopefully they will be OK.

So this post is a bit random but all these things mean a lot to me. Art is my main one though.

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt “dark”

We live in a city, it’s impossible to see many stars. I just wrote this for Esthers challenge dark.

Darkness is needed for astronomy. We used to drive out at night to try and see meteor showers or comets, or stand in the garden under the shadow of the hedge and try and see Jupiter and it’s moons (we used a telescope) and even Saturn and it’s rings. We saw both planets. Once we drove under clouded skies to chase a massive meteor shower of up to 100 meteors an hour. But we never got out from under the layer of thin low cloud even though we drove at least 40 miles.

On another occasion we went out and drove into a wood so we could see a beautiful greenish comet. That was amazing.

Finally we recently saw the aurora borealis. An amazing thing to see in the UK.

Purple Swan

Another digital drawing done with the Artrage app a few years ago. I think this was possibly done using a stylus, not as a finger painting. Why purple? I like the colour. It seems to include blues and reds within it, so that it can be cold or warm. If I could change anything on this I would probably erase the short stubby legs and just have it swimming with a reflection underneath it instead. Somehow it looks like it’s standing on ice…

Absent

Only one tulip so far this spring. The rains been absent this month and although there are leaves, no flowers are in bud. The one that has flowered is a lovely pink. I will have to take a photo of it.

Has your spring (or autumn) been good so far this year? I feel like I’m missing it with so many things to deal with. Take care all.

Eight years ago

Fond memory of a cat doodle I did eight years ago. This was on my Facebook memories today. There are other drawings but I won’t put them on here. I might use them later but I think this is the cutest one. The little bottle oven and tea set are the connection with where I live, the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent.

I have lots of sketchbooks around the house with doodles in. I should find them all and look through them. What will happen to them when I’ve gone I wonder?

Kiss!

Six years ago I played the Mock Mayor of Newcastle under Lyme and hubby played my mayoress. It was based on the idea of having a fool in charge for a day. Like the idea of the lord of misrule. We had fun playing with the idea of being able to order pies for everyone, or ale and cakes. The crowd would have been let in the local pubs for free. The point was that ordinary people were given the power that they normally lacked for a short period of time. Hubby loved the day. He always enjoyed acting. His great booming voice grabbed the attention, and he could be heard above the crowd. The photographer took a picture of us kissing, me in a massive white wig and staff and cloak and him in a straw hat and a psychedelic tee shirt and one of my dresses. We had 43 years together. This shows our love.