New paintings and regular art updates.
I feel like I’m sinking down into a hole. So tired and aching. Viruses are horrible – how can something so small, barely alive, cause pain and misery? I am fed up of having this sore throat My voice is gruff and hoarse.
I have food in the fridge that needs cooking but I don’t feel like doing anything, but I can’t leave it for another day.
Still I guess it’s not as bad as some illnesses. I will get over it eventually. I guess I’m basically feeling sorry for myself.
These plants are growing outside in a box and my husband bought them in to show me as my cold is no better and I haven’t been outside because I feel too poorly.
What are they? They look like bluebells but they are not curved over like British ones. They might be Spanish bluebells which grow upright, with thicker stems. But bluebells don’t normally flower till April or May? Also the flowers are sticking out sideways. I guess they are actually a form of hyacinth? They don’t have many bells on them but they do smell like hyacinths. On the other hand they are not like the ones we had on the windowsill and are nothing like grape hyacinths that we sometimes grow in the spring.
So my question is to any gardeners out there…. What are they?
The cat lay on the mat,
paws curved under his chin.
Soft black and white fur.
Ready to purr ….
His eyes are sharp
His claws are sharper
A miaow of satisfaction
comes from his mouth
Asleep, but ready for action.
Old Belladonna Green watched as the moon rose. It was full and glowing tonight. Just the right time to be abroad for some witchery…..
She stood on top of the hill looking down at the old town. What enchantments could she weave to change people’s lives tonight?
She was a solo witch. A bit like solitary bees. Not part of a coven, but quietly making a difference where she could. The world was too modern for her really. No apprentice had been to see her for twenty years and her stock of charms had worn out long ago. Yes she could go to the local magic shop, but the stuff in there was mainly tat. Who wanted to buy a whoopee cushion to help indigestion?
And the Internet? It spread such falsehoods that no one knew what to believe anymore. When texting arrived she almost gave up. As it was she had to be very circumspect about what she did. All those satellites and droney things. She was good at weaving invisibility which she needed to keep out of sight of CCTV! More than once she had been forced to take the form of a black cat to avoid detection.
She looked over at Larch Street. A small row of terraces which were humble but cozy.
Oh yes. Mr Hughes, he needed some help, he was losing his hair rapidly…. She climbed up the drainpipe. She was still quite nifty at climbing even though she was 74… As she had thought, the bedroom window was open to let the cool moorland air in. She pushed the sash window open and deftly stepped through. Her soft shoes made no sound… She had a pouch of green herbs on her belt and she moved over to where Mr Hughes was sleeping. Gentle fingers massaged the green goo onto his head, he snored and turned in the bed, putting an arm round his wife. Belladonna stood back, approving her own work, then swiftly left the way she had come.
As the alarm clock went off the following morning Mr Hughes went into the bathroom. He was rather shocked to see in the his face in the mirror… A full head of hair…. But why was it blonde?
My heart is thudding in my chest. I just heard something outside and now I don’t want to go to bed!
I put our empty milk bottles outside near the bins. They in turn are pushed up near the gate at the side of our house. The bottles are glass and they are out of the way so you can’t see them at night. About 10 minutes ago I heard one get knocked over. Then the shadow of a figure walked past the glass in the front door. I’d got the living room light switched off as I was preparing to go to bed.
We had my husbands motorbike taken a year ago although we got it back. We also had a bicycle stolen a couple of months ago. This has bought all those memories flooding back.
After a couple of minutes I turned on the living room light and looked out the door up the hill. I saw the figure of someone in a white hoody wandering slowly up the hill. What bothered me was he turned round and looked back. He was too far away to see features – about 100 yards so I doubt he could see much of me. But I’m in a dilemma. I’m tired out because I’m ill. On the other hand I want to stay awake a while longer in case he comes back. Logic tells me this is unlikely because he knocked over the bottle and secondly because I now have the light on and I looked out at him…. .
I hope he feels as spooked as I do! I have turned the radio off so I can hear any other sounds. We are having a ground anchor fitted for the motorbike and getting a heavy duty shed to store the bikes so hopefully that will deter people in future. A lot of these things are not planned but are done by opportunists . But I’m not going to bed yet!
Update: decided to ring the police. They will get someone to keep an eye out for him if they are in the area.
Butterfly
The black and grey ones could be turned into prints to go on bags, badges, coasters or tee shirts. That’s what I would like to do, create designs for printing onto things including cards.
I was contacted a few years ago by a company that would have done it for me. But when I looked into the ratings for them they were not good. People were not getting things delivered on time. Artists were not being paid. The quality of the printing was not up to scratch. I decided against working with them but I would like the opportunity to do something like that. I’m chatting with a friend about what to do.
Goodnight, x
When a cat wants to look out of the window they don’t care what’s in the way. A few days ago I found one of my cats with their back half on the box of bird food and their front paws on the window ledge. The bird activity at the moment is quite busy because of the warm weather we have been having. It was 18 degrees Celsius yesterday in this area and has been 19 degrees in the Midlands today. The highest temperature in the country today was 20 degrees the hottest since records began for a February day. The normal temperature is about 5 to 8 degrees at this time of year. Last year when the beast from the east was here we were getting lows of minus 5 degrees.
Part of the reason for all this is the fact that Britain is in a temperate area. We have winds that arrive from all directions, and depending on the direction we get lots of varied weather. At the moment we have had a high pressure area situated over us so we are in a quite stable situation. There is a big dip in the jet stream so warm air is being pulled up from the south. We are actually in warmer air than in Greece at the moment. The pressure is due to reduce and we are expecting cooler air and some rain later in the week.
Anyway I was talking about birds but got distracted. My husband bought a woven birds nest yesterday that wrens can nest in. We are expecting blue tits to nest in the garden this year and we also get blackbirds that nest in the hedge and the ivy on the house. The only problem is this warmth is bringing insects out but their food plants are not flowering yet. We need it to be cooler for at least another month .
The cats enjoy watching the birds, chattering at pigeons and sparrows. I’m glad we don’t let them out in the garden. But we have many cats that visit so we try and keep the vegitation cut enough but leave some cover for birds to hide in.
Anyway I’m feeling pretty bad at the moment with tonsillitis so I think I will just leave this ramble here.
X
I wrote this poem in response to the prompt “light”. I am not sure how to do ping backs so I will put a link of it on Megha’s page. I am not sure if I’m doing it right. Anyway here is the poem:
Photons, floating through space
At breakneck speed.
Tinier than
The tiniest seed…
Particles or waves
Does anyone know?
It took scientists like Einstein
To try and show
That light is a constant
But only in space
In air it actually
Slows its pace
(slightly)
It pings and zings
It refracts and glows
Holograms shimmer
Insubstantial as mist.
Light is strengthened
and made to Lase
A coherent beam
That can burn and amaze
Light is part of the greatest equation
E=MC2 bright burst
radiation.
Feel like I’ve swallowed glass
Green sharp spikes
lance through my neck.
Swallowing gunge
My nose is burning
My eyes are running…
away from the pain
Limbs ache and feel heavy.
Gargle of salt in water
to ease the hot stabbing.
Shivers and shakes make me want to sob.
Where’s my breakfast, he says…..
I’m watching a programme about artists and bankers. A massive amount of money passes through the system and the super rich pay hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds or dollars to get hold of fashionable art. The programme is about collecting art and how much its value can inflate over time. But the art market can go down as well as up. Someone may be a fashionable artist now only to be dropped in the future.
Much of it seems more like luck than judgement. Art investors collect from many artists to cover the risk. Apparently artists were treated in the same way in the past. Canaletto painted 100 paintings in 9 years, his art became famous but he had a workshop where he had assistants to help him finish his paintings.
People looking at the art may find some of the images in the programme very bad. But like the emporers new clothes that does not seem to matter. In fact sending art abroad can mean you don’t have to pay tax. There seem to be some very dodgy practices that the programme raised. The whole basis of the show seems to be how to make money for the rich. Art is an industry and artists need to know about it but it would be very unlikely to get taken on by a rich patron. There are still artists struggling to make ends meet who do it for the love of art.
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