Tag: Blogging

Lifeline

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So many years ago, 2003 was when I did this art work. The hand print was a photocopy of my hand I think. Then I used photoshop to add colours using flood fill and a drawing tool. Finally I used one of the texture tools to break the image up into shards.

16 years on its at my studio at Spode. I really want to do more experimental stuff. I have been trying to get in the front room where my computer is but it’s full of my partners train stuff which I don’t want to move.

Life can be complicated. You have to have give and take. That’s what my lifeline was shining I guess (although I don’t believe in that kind of thing).

Wasp

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Wasp! I’ve stood on one and been stung before now. I don’t like them but I can live with them, except when they built a nest in between some bricks and started coming out into the kitchen when they emerged. I got up one morning and there were a few wasps flying round the kitchen. Two many to catch and I didn’t have any fly spray so I had to hoover them up in the vacuum cleaner. I felt guilty about it. Then over the next week we had more every morning. I had to book pest control in the end.

Now years later I just had a huge wasp fly into the living room. It must have come in from the garden when my partner went outside.

The cats ears pricked up and he started looking up and jumping onto cupboards to try and catch it. I don’t think chewed wasp would be good for him. Then it flew onto the window behind a net curtain.

I shouted my partner as I could not reach. A plastic tub and a magazine were used to trap it, now its free flying around outside.

Phew! Strange how insects can be so upsetting. Wasps are useful for eating pests and pollenation. And thankfully I didn’t have to vacuum it up!

X

Escaped cat!

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Last night my cheeky little cat got out. We think it was when my partner went out to check on his bike. I went to bed quite late thinking she was upstairs curled up in a cupboard on some blankets.

6am, I came downstairs for a coffee. The male cat was being friendly, but the female was missing, which is unusual because she usually gets up and has a drink of water if I’m up. I called her. No response. She didn’t come to me. I thought has she got out? I shouted by the back door, nothing, I shouted by the back door again. I closed the door then heard a miaow. Was it inside or out? Outside!

Poor cat ran in soaking wet. It had been raining cold rain all night. First she went for food. Then water. Lots of cuddles later she is back upstairs curled up in the cupboard.

My worry is she only got half her vaccination last year. I’ve been trying to get her to the vets. But she sees the pet carrier and runs. I really hope she hasn’t picked anything up while she was out. I will have to and get her there again.

X

A handsome dog

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A friend was doing some work on our garden today and he bought his dog with him. This is him sitting in the Land rover. He enjoyed coming out and seeing us working along the alleyway.

He has such a nice friendly nature, he put his paw up and wanted his chest rubbing. Then he let me scratch him behind his ears. I loved him pushing his head into my hand. He even licked my nose.

I know he’s a collie dog and he should be herding sheep probably. But it was just nice to meet a friendly animal. He only barked when the Land rover left, because he didn’t want to go!

Kittens

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Two years ago we had four tiny kittens, only a few weeks old, eyes barely open.

So cute…. a few weeks later they were climbing the curtains and up the wood chip wallpaper in the front bedroom. Sneaking downstairs (they were born in the front bedroom). Climbing up inside my trouser legs (ouch). Playing with string, cat toys, a plastic ball with bells in. As their teeth grew they enjoyed charing each other and nipping and pawing waving tails.

The joy of kittens. Unfortunately they grow into full size cats…. But all four  went to good homes. Two boys to one home, two girls to another house. All of them are happy and healthy.

X

Balcony

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Wherefore art thou?

High up on the wall of the Brampton museum and art gallery is a lovely balcony. I want to visit the room and look out over the parkland in front of the museum but I think its probably a store room.

I think it’s a sweet little touch to the architecture of the place. I’ve visited before but never noticed it until today. Probably because the strong sunlight and shadows picked it out against the brickwork.

Modern architecture can be startling and revelatory, but details like this should be cherished.

X

Ow my legs

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Ow my legs! Our female cat loves sharpening her claws on my legs, she sticks her claws in my trousers and then arches her back and pulls down. Sometimes she gets flesh too. I found blood trickling down my leg earlier on today. I love her to pieces but as soon as I realise she’s doing it I have to brush her away.

She rushes round and plays all the time. She fights with our boy cat but only in play, she puts a paw on his head or he puts a paw on hers and then she pushes him away with her back legs. One thing neither if them do is the strong fast kicking movement so neither of them get hurt. And they only nip each other, there is no going for the scruff of their necks. Basically it’s like slow motion wrestling followed by fast chasing.

X

Ache

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I have that sort of portentous ache that feels like I’m coming down with something, perhaps a bug? I’m not sneezing yet but my throat is sore again. Perhaps I’ve been overdoing things, just feeling tired and aching.

Trouble with the Internet is that you can seek sympathy instead of just getting on with things. It is good to moan but it’s also probably annoying to hear people going on about how they feel  Is it appropriate to complain?

Well I guess in one way it’s informative. I won’t be doing much today because I’m not well. But whose business is that? I’m talking to strangers, to people who don’t know me. One may be sympathetic another thinks get over yourself.

My health pales into insignificance compared to people hurt or killed by cyclones or murderers. Life feels personal to me. But I am one individual. Life is more than that.

X

Xie Xie, thanks in chinese.

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I was just sitting in my local Chinese takeaway restaurant and decided to draw one of the fish they have swimming round in a large tank. When I had done it and the food was ready I showed my drawing to the lady behind the counter. I explained that it was a quick sketch as the fish kept swimming. It looks a bit worried but that’s just my drawing.

I asked how to say thank you as the food there is always lovely and the people in the restaurant said xie Xie and wrote it down next to the sketch. They are Mandarin speakers. I had asked if they were Cantonese. But they said no. The words are very similar in both languages but that the writing of Chinese script is the same in both languages (dialects). I think I remember reading that in a friends blog here, that even if the words are pronounced differently the script is the same.

Anyway it was a tasty supper and it’s nice to communicate even if it’s only with a few shared words.

Thinking about it the words I have learnt in other languages like Greek and Thai all tend to be the ones meaning please and thank you. I must have been bought up right!