Glass cat

It still amazes me that my friend Phil made us this ginger cat, leaded light window above our front door from a design I drew out for him. It’s proper stained glass with lead holding it all together. It’s about 27 years old. We had it done because the half moon of glass that is above the front door was only single glazed and this does help the draught a bit. I’m so glad I had it made. X

Hubbys tricycle

I need to move on. I’m not going to ride this and I’m not sure if anyone will buy it. It’s a trike conversion. The back wheels and stays are bolted onto a bike frame so it can be adjusted to different sizes. We refurbished it, adding new wheels in 2022. A friend has stored it for me for over a year but it’s not fair to expect him to keep it.

So with regret I will try and sell it. If anyone here is interested I’m in the North Midlands of the UK. I’m willing to sell for a fair price.

I hate AI

Something is creeping into the Internet and it really irritates me. I guess hate is too much but it’s annoying.

I just saw a short video where a white meringue turns into tiny polar bears and peaches start wriggling about, then a large lobster changes into something alien and a white and yellow parrot sits happily in a frying pan where an egg is being fried.

The images all look perfectly realistic, and if you didn’t know you could imagine they were real, but I see a grotesque version of reality, like Heironymous Bosch has returned from the past and has created his AI vision of the Garden of Earthly delights.

AI can be very disturbing and it’s getting everywhere. It’s like looking at someones hallucination. A strange trip into a distorted mind. I want it to stop. Human imagination can be simple or warped, but AI? It’s just too fake for me, for some reason I can recognise it and I don’t like being tricked.

Driving to Plymouth

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Can be wet and windy!

In the 1980’s we went to visit a friend from college for the first time. It was a journey we would make every couple of years until  he moved up to the North of England.

We lived in the Midlands and I’d learnt to drive about 6 months before. I was driving a Morris Marina.

We took the M6 then M5 motorways until it ran out and changed to an A road. We stopped off for breakfast at a service station because the journey was about 240 miles. I hadn’t been on a motorway very often and as we came out of the service station  I ended up on the North bound slip road! I did something illegal. I reversed back down the road and then took the South road!

Luckily the route was very simple, we got to Plymouth, and the house we were visiting was a few hundred yards away from the motorway junction. I remember we took bicycles on the roof of the car so the rest of the week was spent cycling to beaches and visiting various interesting places. The trip back was uneventful!

This was pre satnav and we used maps to navigate. To be honest I still use an A to Z if I want to find somewhere. But my driving is restricted to short journeys these days.

Nursery rhymes remembered

I had a little nut tree

Nothing would it bear

But a silver nutmeg

And a golden pear

The king of Spains daughter

Came to visit me

And all for the sake

Of my little nut tree.

Funny how your mind looks for something interesting when it’s got nothing to do. I used to know a lot of nursery rhymes when I was a little child. This one I would say is well known? But who knows this one that I used to sing when I was on a seesaw.

Seesaw, Marjorie Daw

Jenny shall have a new master,

She shall have but a penny a day

Because she can’t work any faster!

I want to try and remember more. A couple in Manchester or Salford? Collected a lot of rhymes and children’s songs in the early 1900s. I think their surname was Opie. I’m sure there’s more information about it on line. They found that a rhyme sung in the south of England could travel to the North of Scotland in about two weeks by word of mouth (pre telephone).

Sore throat.

I’m feeling rough today, I have a very sore throat, but I also have a very achy back. If I bend forward I’m getting shooting pains down my leg. I feel shattered and I’m trying to look after myself, drinking plenty of fluids and taking pain killers. Last week I managed to go shopping, and I noticed lots of people were coughing and sneezing, I guess that’s where I caught whatever this is?

Sorry to be moany. I need to get things  done tbat I had planned to do today, feeling frustrated. I  guess I’m looking for sympathy, I want to be fit and healthy, rant over!

An AI filter business

Come up with a crazy business idea.

I’m getting irritated about seeing silly AI spoofs coming up on my social media feed. Most of them are about aliens or apocalyptic situations. Or non scientific ideas wrapped up in fakery to mislead people so my idea ™ (©) for a business would be an app to block them. Just press the button for a small charge and all fake AI and CGI would be removed from your feed, I think it might be an award winning idea.

Tree across the road

The tree across the road a few years ago. Covered in ivy. This was drawn for an old #bandofsketchers prompt. The prompt was ivy.

I haven’t been doing these challenges for a few months. I think I ought to try again. It seems a shame that I stopped but life has been getting me down. Art is a great cure for sadness I think. I’ll try again soon.