People sketching

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When I was out sketching a few weeks ago there were lots of other people drawing. After I finished I took this photo of my friend drawing the same view I’d done. He was working in charcoal and pencil I remember. The day was overcast with patches of blue sky. The ground is covered in concrete, but the way it is breaking up I think there are probably cobblestones underneath. There is a large area of cobbles around the corner where you enter the Middleport pottery complex. In the backdround you can see a small wooden crane which was used to load and unload barges. Forty years ago my hubby worked at another pottery, he actually used one of these to lift packed pottery ware to load onto a lorry. He said you could lift a big weight easily because of the gearing on it. The one he used was cast iron. It had a band brake and a pawl and ratchet to hold the load in place as it was swung over the lorry.

We are not that far away from the past, history is not that long ago. A lot of the old industry in the area was using old machines and equipment, because they had always done things that way and it probably saved a lot in investment. Even now there are lots of pottery molds to be found in the area. Sadly a lot of them get smashed. Losing our heritage. Do we really want to wipe our history out completely?

Gratitudes

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What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Five things that are everyday things?

1. Washing up liquid. Not used to the excess, enough to clean plates and cutlery without polluting the waterways. You can buy ones that are ecologically acceptable. It makes me happy that I can have clean plates.

2. Clean water, to drink, for washing and for bathing. I so lucky to live in a country that mostly has this, although the infrastructure is aging and even here there are some droughts and water shortages.

3. Are Cats everyday objects? I have to say they give me great pleasure and happiness. I’m not saying they are perfect, they can be mad, silly, crafty, cheeky. And they are pretty ubiquitous.

4. Electric light. I wish more people could have this, to be able to see at night without using smoky candles or oil lamps. I hope more communities can get solar power. It’s been shown that school children do better when they can see to do their homework. And maybe more solar power for other necessities.

5. Toilets, it’s a little bit delicate to talk about, but we are again lucky to have them here. They help reduce illnesses and ideally people could be given them. I think you can twin with communities through charity to raise funds to build them in poorer societies. I don’t know the details unfortunately.

Myself

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I was looking for this drawing because there was a prompt on one of the Art groups I’m on that asked people to post #thisisme. I looked and looked for this and could not find it, and yet its on my WordPress media gallery! It was originally drawn for a college project ‘I’. As you can see it includes a self portrait, a canvas and pencil and brush, some poppies, an x-ray, books, an old pottery, a cat and finally the willow pattern on a plate. Each thing means something to me. It was drawn in 2020 so I have changed slightly since then. No bits have dropped off but I’m not as well as I was. Life eh? Gets to us all….

Teary eyed

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I found this on my phone and once again remembered. Those thoughts came back again, sadness, guilt, loss. To lose a sister, it’s not right. When it’s a twin it might be worse. I don’t know. But as our birthday approaches, will I be OK? I somehow feel this should be both of us. I want to get to my next birthday, but the idea seems wrong. I will keep going but I’m not sure I will be happy on that day. And it’s not just me, it’s the rest of the family. I guess we will wait and see…. Sorry to post this but I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.

Why?

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Some of my icons on my phone are a horrible browny bronze. I wish I could find out how to change them. I’ve looked at themes and I can change the background but not the icons. I’d like to set my own but I have no idea how. Does anyone know how to change the settings? Is it simple or very complicated. Meh, it’s a first world problem! Ignore me.

It’s funny how you can be so attached to your phone that it makes such an impact your life!

Password protected?

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A friend has just posted here and the notes with it say the post is password protected. It says go directly to the post.. But when you click on the post it says ‘you are not authorised to view this post’

So how do I view it. I tried to link to his site but it wouldn’t work. Should I post to another of his posts to tell him? I hope he (I’m assuming it’s a he?) sees this and either changes it or posts how to open it?

Lots of questions. I sometimes see posts that you can read but that you cannot ‘like’ I suppose that is fair enough, except its like ghosting yourself? They won’t know if you would like to appreciate their writing.

So anyway, sorry to witter on, you know what it’s like, you just have to ask sometimes!

Coffee pot collage

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Dragons on coffee pots, well one pot, but I was playing with pattern. It was my parents, part of a wedding present I think. It was left to one of my sisters and I took photos last year as part of my final major project for college. I’m not sure if it’s beautiful or ugly, it’s certainly interesting. When you play with images like this you have to choose a favourite. I will rotate the images four times to see which is the best aesthetically, but I do like this one.

Shivering

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It’s still cold and wet, the rain has been falling all day. We are expecting our fuel bill again soon, so I’m keeping warm by stopping in bed under the duvet in the morning. I’m fine there with a book or my phone. My hands get a bit cold but I could buy some thin gloves. It’s mad that things have got so expensive and at the same time the weather has stayed cold. But unlike the photo, blossom and leaves are starting to show as a green and white fuzz on the trees. The forecast is for a 10°C rise in temperature at the weekend, up to about 19°C. We will see…..

High school?

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Describe something you learned in high school.

I did go to Sixth form at school, but it wasn’t a separate high school. I think things have changed in the UK since I was there. I guess different places in the world run their school systems differently and now Sixth form colleges are often stand alone institutions.

We didn’t have computers when I was at school, they were just coming in when I left. So that’s another thing I didn’t learn! There were typing classes (which I didn’t do) and I think the typewriters were pretty old!

So what did I learn? I did A Levels. One of them was Art, and I loved it. I started to learn about subjects like Pop Art and French Impressionism and Surrealism. It was good to actually learn about the history of art as well as finding out about different techniques. I learned about Andy Warhol and Monet, Cezanne and Salvador Dali. I remember pictures of Campbell soup cans, haystacks and melting clocks. I didn’t learn about female artists though, that came later when I went to college. The Art course made me decide I wanted to do an Art degree, and here I am still being an Artist all these years later.