Hubby did this in the 1980’s. It’s still up on the stairs. I don’t know how he did it. Is it a camera on a bench looking up to a lamp overhead and the hands interposed between the two? Or perhaps it’s a mirror on the wall with a tipped up lamp? I don’t even know if they are his hands, maybe he had someone place them in shot? It could be a bowl of water with a light reflected in it….
Do you know I’ve never asked him. Its just a dusty, fading photo. But it’s part of him, part of his idea of life, it expresses something about a younger person. Someone still in there.
I need a lateral flow test kit but I have a problem. I tried to order one off the NHS website but it said to go to your pharmacy. I went to my pharmacy and they had run out. I was going to something tonight but I won’t now as I can’t do the test and we are required to take a test before we go. I don’t think we are very organised in this country. Sometimes things go wrong. We generally ‘muddle through’, but this is important for people’s health. So I will keep trying and hope to get more tests soon. I’m careful, cautious, and want to keep others safe not just myself.
One minute I’m looking at various art online because I wanted to research a particulate artist. The next I’m falling asleep because of being very tired. The trouble is I was still holding my phone and my finger was poised over the keypad. Oops! The next thing I knew my finger was close to an ‘add to basket’ button. I’d almost bought a £200 painting! It was very nice, but I have several bills to pay this month….
Note to self, put the phone down if you are going to fall asleep!
I was struggling to sleep again last night so I got up at 5am to have a warm drink. Sometimes I can sleep in the armchair.
I decided to turn the radio on for something to sooth my nerves. There was a programme called Test Match Special on. It was a cricket match between England and Australia. Australia were ahead three games in a five game series. This was the fourth test match.
The match was likely to go Australia’s way because they were well ahead on runs (in cricket you run between two sets of wickets with bales on top called stumps) . The bowler throws a ball at the stumps and tries to knock the bales off. The batsman has to defend the stumps. They try and hit the ball with a cricket bat. If they hit it they try and get runs. There are two batsmen (or women) at a time. They run between the stumps. You get four runs if you get the ball to run over the boundary line and six if you hit it over the boundary in the air.
Anyway, Australia was well in the lead. England had lost six men out of eleven and were batting. The commentators said that the last four of England’s batsmen had either suffered injuries or not done well in previous test matches. It looked very bleak!
I listened and was enthralled. There were missed catches and the Australians were trying hard, bouncing the ball high and hurting the batsmen (cricket balls are very hard). Lots of calls for leg before wicket (the batsman has his leg in the way and stops the bales being knocked off). Slowly the score crept up, three batsmen were caught or given LBW. (leg before wicket). I couldn’t sleep, this was too exciting! There were two batsmen left. Each round of bowling is called an over (where six balls are bowled) the last two overs came up. The first batsman tried to hit some runs so he could get to the other end and take the strike for the last over, if he did the last batsman would not have to play. But the Australians managed to stop him and the final over started with England’s last batsman waiting to be bowled at or bowled out! They couldn’t win but if he didn’t get knocked out they would have a draw.
Six balls. One after the other. It was radio so I couldn’t see what was going on, I could only listen to the commentary. Five balls to go, the daylight was going, the floodlights were on. Four balls, my heart was thumping. The batsman (Anderson) calmly prodded the ball away. Three balls. If the batsman tried to hit the ball the fielders (the rest of the Australian team) might catch the ball and get England out. Two more chances, the batsmen again stopped the ball. This was the last ball coming up. Australia had to dismiss the batsman to win. The bowler ran up, pitched the ball at the batsman and…. The batsman carefully pushed the ball away (I didn’t actually listen to what he did, I was too busy jumping up and down!) He ended the match safely not out. England drew the fourth test! Not a win, but a hell of a lot better than the previous three tests. The next text match is starting in Hobart, Australia on Friday. I’m expecting at least another sleepless night.
Our #bandofsketchers prompt today was sweet treat in honour of artist Wayne Thiebaud who died recently and who created art based on this theme (he did some beautiful work). Mine is Sweet treats. A bit dodgy because of my shaking arm and I was drawing on the back of a page where ink had bled through. Cup cakes in paper cases with icing and cherries on top…
I like baked beans but I’ve started eating sugar free ones and I wanted to spice them up a bit.
I heated a bit of oil in a saucepan then added a small amount of medium curry powder and turmeric powder and heated it gently.
I had chopped up a small onion into medium sized pieces. I microwaved it for a minute to soften it slightly, then added the heated onion to the pan and cooked it gently for a few more minutes to soften and brown the onion (sweated?).
Then I added the sugar free baked beans into the pan and increased the heat slightly. I simmered the mixture for a few minutes until it was thoroughly heated.
We had the beans with some vegetarian sausages and some reduced fat oven chips. Tasty! No photo of the meal as its already been eaten!
I don’t put salt in because it dissolves and gets absorbed into the food. I put it on if needed when I serve food. Its on the surface and you can taste it more.
Green stars abstract. Using a photo of an illuminated star. Duplicating it then changing the textures. The resulting image is a colourful abstract with an antique feel to it.
Pattern again, I like repeating images and tessellations. Must be the way my mind works… I like to learn and play with things till they look good. X
A glint, a glimmer through the clouds. Blue sky darkening. Sunlight catches the side of the moon, there is a hint of where the Sun is, down and to the right of the moon. About thirteen times a year the moon is in this stage of its phases. I’m not sure, but because most months are thirty one days (four are thirty days, one is twenty eight or twenty nine and seven are thirty one) this adds up to twenty nine or thirty extra days over the year. If we had thirteen actual months, not lunar months in a year, what would we call the thirteenth? Lunary? Lol
I painted this little cartoon years ago. Don’t remember the date but probably 20 years? I think I’d splashed drips of watercolour onto the paper and the cat was a way of using the paper up and not wasting it. Photo taken late afternoon with a dim sidelight on. I could have waited till tomorrow but I wanted to share.
I have a friend that hates cats. I wish I could explain how I love them. Their character, their expressions, their true friendship when you get to know them. They seem aloof, but once you know them they are not…. And they don’t seem to hate rain. I’m often soaked when they come in from a rain shower, but I thought this looked funny. X
Mallaband-Brown 