New paintings and regular art updates.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was Invisible. I imagine the invisible man would have to be naked if he wants to wander about. Or would have to wear bandages or makeup. There was a series on TV with David McCallum. If he drank you might see the coffee going into his stomach-Etc! Until it was actually absorbed. I got the stomach too high up in this sketch.
I’ve just been to the gallery where II have some of my paintings today. I thought they would be asking me to take some of my paintings away because they have been up too long, but they only wanted me to take one of a poppy field. But I do need to do some new paintings, to swap out with the ones I currently have there. I’m trying to think of spring images, maybe flowers? This is a Vinca. I was also thinking of doing a painting of a Blue himalayan poppy (mecanopsis) or other similar ones like Helibores. Also maybe snowdrops or daffodils. We will see.
One of my Christmas presents was a night light, about 18 inches in diameter that is based on the moon. It lights up as a full moon but you can also set it to gently run through phases like the real moon with a remote control.
Last night I couldn’t sleep. The nightlight gives enough light, if you sit up in bed, to read a book by. So about six am I got the novel I’m reading out and read for about twenty minutes. Then I lay down to try and sleep. I reached up to turn out the light with the little switch at the base of it. Oops! I pushed too hard, the large plastic domed moon slid off the little nail it was loosely hooked on, it slid sideways as I tried to grab it, and bump! Hit my hubby on the head. He was fast asleep but shouted out wha? Then fell back to sleep. This morning after hooking the moon back up, I asked him if he remembered being hit by the moon. He replied he wondered what had happened? I said the Moon fell on him!
You know when you wake up in the middle of the night, feeling hungry for a light snack and you don’t have much in?
I had some ready salted pringle (saddle shaped crispy things) an old bit of cheese and a few baby beetroots left in a jar. So I sliced a few bits of cheese, then one of the baby beers into bits and stuck them on the pringle. Voilà baby beetroot and cheese on horseback!
I realised though that the beetroot stained my fingers red so switched them so the cheese was on top. Strange but tasty…
I think of daffodils and crocuses at this time of year, or snowdrops and later tulips. But an often overlooked plant is the Helibore. The flowers tend to droop their faces towards the ground and they have larder five lobed leaves. There colours can be a mottled grey green, white with green splotches or a greyish pink. This is a manipulated image to show how interesting they can be. Lift up a flower and be captivated by its hidden subtle beauty.
One day I want to see
Shimmering Northern lights
Lighting up the sky
The Aurora Borealis, bright.
Green or red or white…
Different colours, different elements
Curtains of particles
Flying on Earth’s magnetic field
Falling to land at the poles
Glowing glory
Suns power manifested in air
My bucket list wish.
Seen in England last week
But hidden by clouds….
I’m still trying to keep my gratitudes diary going. I’m on day 205. The idea is you look for three small things to be grateful for. Then you write them down and it turns your thoughts to a more positive way of thinking. I’ve found it hasn’t solved my anxiety or feeling down, but I definitely think it’s helped my mood. I might be in pain, but it helps me take my mind off it.
Today’s three gratitudes? Going out for a little walk in open sandals for the first time since splitting my toenail. I went with my hubby so I felt safe. Secondly, listening to ‘the infinite monkey cage’ on BBC radio 4, thirdly having a pan au raisin and a cup of tea after shopping….
Last night my hubby went out in the garden to put some bird food out and almost tripped over a hedgehog! He said it seemed to be asleep at the base of the cherry tree. He went out again and took a bowl of cat food. This morning the bowl had been tipped over and the food was gone.
When we see hedgehogs I think of spring. It’s still pretty cold and we may get some snow, but they are coming out of hibernation.
DON’T FEED…. milk and bread, hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. They also don’t get enough calories from so called ‘hedgehog’ food. Apparently it’s just meal worms and pet food manufacturers are just trying to make money. You can feed them cat food. Ours seem to like fresh wet or dry cat food. Also nake gaps in wooden fences at their bases to allow hedgehogs through into your garden. .
We had finished tea and my hubby took the plates in to the kitchen to be washed up. He shouted through to the living room ‘are you cooking something else?’… ‘No’, ‘well you’ve left one of the gas rings on?’ I didn’t realise I had and I walked into the kitchen just as he lifted the Wok lid up off one of the gas stoves burners at the back. He’d only just turned the burner off and as he lifted the Wok lid by its plastic handle he let out an involuntary ‘ow!’ Turns out when I poured some pasta into the big pan of mixed veg and salmon I was cooking on the front hob, I must have dropped the wok lid over the back hob without switching it off. Because the gas was on low, and the lid and handle are heat resistant nothing caught fire, it just got very hot. If the pan lid had any food clinging to it, it would have caught fire, and because I can’t smell things properly we could have had a real problem. Thank goodness hubby spotted my mistake!
It’s just after 5am now. I got up because my toes hurt (gout?) on the other foot to the one I had broken my toenail on. Long boring story…
Anyway it’d still dark so I’m sitting here by the light of a standard lamp and trying to sleep with my foot uncovered so there’s no pressure on it.
But through the window I can hear the lilting song of what I think is either a Robin or a Blackbird. I haven’t heard them in the morning during the winter, so I guess spring might just be on the way. It’s lovely to hear them, possibly marking out their territory in the tangled trees and bushes we call our garden. Mind you they have to be aware of the local cats. Mine are all inside snuggled up, but I hope they are singing high up in the branches. X
Mallaband-Brown