Tents moment

Posted on January 25, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Anglesey, Car, Fish and chips, Food, frame tent, Holiday, Memory, red wharf Bay, Tea, tent, Wales5 Comments

I put a five man frame tent up once with my hubby. We’d borrowed it because ours was worn out. It was only when we had finished putting it up that we realised the curtains were on the outside! It took another hour to redo it. The thing was huge with complicated bedrooms to hang from the internal frame. It had taken an effort to get in the boot of the car it was so heavy.

We were on holiday for a week at Red wharf Bay in Anglesey, hubby also managed to back the car over my best saucepan, which was annoying because we only had a couple of small pots to cook in until we could buy a replacement. I think we went to the local pub down by the bay and had delicious fish and chips and a pint of beer for tea. (So there was an upside after a frustrating afternoon).

Finally in progress

Posted on January 25, 2025 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged another painting, Art, Ceramic, Fine Art, Flowers, Pottery, Teapot, Work in progress2 Comments

I started this at art group last November and I hadn’t touched it till today’s art group. That’s about 2 months. I feel guilty that it’s taking so long but with illness and one thing and another it’s taken me this long to get going again. It’s a work in progress and I want to try and get a better feeling of three dimensions to the teapot.

I working the pattern out as I go along and I need to take into account the lighting aswell. It’s been four hours and I didn’t want to stop, but the session only lasts till 2.30pm

Wooden

Posted on January 23, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beech, Carpenter, elm, Grandfather, Life, Memory, Pine, symmetrical, Walnut, Wood2 Comments

Sliced wood. How do you make a veneer for furniture? Cut through a slice of wood four times, glue it onto some backing wood like pine and add three more pieces rotated so the result is a symmetrical pattern.

This is what my grandfather, who was a carpenter, did for my mom and dad as a wedding present. He gave them two wardrobes, one large and the other smaller. He used a carcass of probably elm or beech and then used Walnut, polished and stained to a dark glossy finish. They were beautiful. As a child I used to go and look at them. The pattern and colour enthralled me.

Not brilliant.. Doodle

Posted on January 23, 2025 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Ballerina, Digital drawing, Doodle, Drawing, Fairy, Playing, proportions, Sketching, solarizeLeave a comment

A doodle from a few years ago. I just found it on my phone, I was playing with colour and texture, using an app to solarize areas. But clearly I wasn’t concentrating on proportions! This fairy Ballerina has very large legs and one large arm, and the other arm and the head are tiny. The body is too small too. I think its a case of looking at one part too closely instead of viewing the picture as a whole. Anyway I thought I’d share it as a bad example of doodled digital art.

Full memory again

Posted on January 21, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, deleted, files, Media, Memories, Photos, Posts, Time, WordPress5 Comments

My phone is full of photos and my WordPress account is too. I want to add new images but my blog tells me my media file is full. What can I do? I have to delete previous photos from my previous posts.

So if you read one of my blogs and it doesn’t have a photo to illustrate it, that’s the reason why. I could delete the actual blogs but I don’t know how to do it?

Winter sun

Posted on January 21, 2025January 21, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Dusting, glass ornaments, Ivy, January, Light, Memories, Sunlight, Tired, Window, WindowsillLeave a comment

Sun glancing through the stairs window in January. I don’t have a window cleaner and the ivy is growing up and in the way and the glass ornaments on the windowsill. But I like the chaotic jumble of colour and shadow. I’m not very organised about anything anymore. By the time I’ve walked upstairs I’m ready to fall over. Dusting? I haven’t done that in a while. I need to get my act together. Anyway not much else to be said.

Christine

Posted on January 21, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged baby names, bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-21, Care, Compassion, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1824, Memory, Name, nominative determinism, Thinking, TimeLeave a comment

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

From ancestry.com

Variations Christina, Khristine,

Christie

From ancestry.com

“The name Christine has its origins in the English language and carries the meaning Follower of Christ. It is a feminine name derived from the masculine name Christian, which itself originates from the Greek word christianos. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages and has since remained widely used in various cultures around the world.”

And yet when I looked up WordPress free image library to find something to illustrate this only four pictures appear. This was the prettiest one, but really not relevant!

I suppose the name has always had some influence on me, even though I don’t really call myself Christian I follow a lot of Christianity’s rules. I believe in compassion, care, equality, freedom, respect, charity. I think the world needs to try and work towards all these things.

Maybe being called Christine is like nominative determinism, the name pushes you into certain paths? I don’t know but I think it influenced me.

Dawn branches

Posted on January 19, 2025 Posted in Uncategorized, MemoriesTagged Trees, Time, Memories, Waiting, Life, Photo, North, South, Branches, Year, Hemisphere, incollageLeave a comment

Dawns coming a little earlier everyday. It’s almost a month since the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere (getting dark slightly earlier in the South).

I only really feel the year has turned when there’s still a bit of light in the sky at 5pm. I remember work days when I would go to the work in the dark and home in the dark. I’m just waiting, hoping for sunlight and warmth.

Glass ornaments

Posted on January 18, 2025January 18, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Glass, glass blowing, holidays, isle of wight, Lens, Memories, paper weights, SunlightLeave a comment

I collect glass paperweights, I have them in a windowledge but out of direct sunlight because if they cause a lens effect they can create a fire! Some people have had this happen and I don’t intend to experience the same.

I started collecting them in the 1980’s when I was given two in exchange for a painting. I must have 20 or 30 dotted around the house. They are very dusty, I don’t move them much because they are quite heavy.

If you ever get to see glass blowing it’s worth it. I found it fascinating when we visited a workshop on the isle of Wight one year.

Four years ago

Posted on January 17, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bacon, brown sauce, Cheese, delicious, Food, Memories, Oatcake, Ode to the Oatcake, TastyLeave a comment

According to Facebook memories four years ago I was feeling rough so my dear hubby went out and got me a cheese and bacon oatcake. It doest look appetising but with cooked bacon and mature cheddar with a hint of brown sauce, the Oatcake was folded in half, hot and tasty.

We used to have the occasional oatcake over the months, it’s a local delicacy. As the artist, author and poet Arthur Berry wrote :

Ode to the Oatcake: 1980

Let us pay homage to the Oatcake.
Or Otcake or woodcake as the old men called them.
The Oatcake is not a cake at all really.
Not like the fairy cake or the Eccles cake.
Not a cake in that way.
More of a Potteries Popadum [sic]
A sort of Tunstall Tortilla.
A Clay Suzzette.

Mallaband-Brown

Category: Memories