Childhood memory

I used to climb up the sides of an old slide like this not the steps to get to the top. These was tarmac underneath that I could have fallen down onto, but I didn’t. Goodness knows why I did it. I also used to hang upside down from the top bar of the swings. I would climb up via the three legs holding up one end and then climb over. I don’t know why I stopped, maybe I was told it was not a thing girls did!

At the end of term at school we used to play pirates in the gym. They would pull the wall bars out and lock them in place and there were three or four ropes hanging down from the ceiling. The challenge of pirates was to play three dimensional tag. I would climb up the bars or a rope and if anyone tried to get me I would reach over and climb onto the next rope! I often was the last person standing (or hanging!)

Photo courtesy of a friend, hope that’s OK?

Egg?

Egg doodle using a newer version of Artrage that I’ve downloaded onto my new phone. Glad I’ve got this one, but other older apps I can no longer find. I will keep looking. It’s frustrating that the gallery images that I’d saved on those apps have disappeared, but you learn and transfer skills to other apps. This is meant to be an Easter egg. Can you tell? Lots more tools on this version, no opacity tool though so you can’t reduce the strength of the pen with a slider, and the old choice had a dry pen, and three other style of pens that I can’t remember now? But fun none the less.

Digital doodles

Spring and flower themed digital doodles using ArtRage oils. Then edited in Photodirector for one of the four images and layout app to create symmetry for all four. Finally I stitched them together in layout and have published the variations on my Instagram account. I could imagine this as a woollen blanket.

Old TV

When I was young we used to see

Children’s programmes on tv

Chigley, Trumpton, Camberwick Green

Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb were seen.

Then came the Herbs and a dog called Dill.

Parsley the Lion, I remember him still….

The theme music that we would sing

The Clangers, and Magpie, fun they’d bring

Puppet shows galore there were on TV

Like Stingray and Thunderbirds you’d see.

With Bill and Ben

Wild flowerpot men!

So much to remember from years ago

When I was a child…Memory fast not slow!

Big little kitty

This cat is big! He’s the biggest cat we’ve ever had. And yet he’s gentle and much more loving than he was when we first took him in.

He was known as ‘the outside cat’ at first. But we gave him a name and gradually he touched our hearts. He had been abandoned by his previous owners and was thin and a bit standoffish at first. For a long time he was outside and my other two cats stayed inside, they were rescues and we didn’t want them to stray onto the main road. We were also concerned they might catch something from the new cat.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since we let him in the house, and the other two out. Basically I would lock the cat flap so he could come in to eat but I would have to let him out so the two couldn’t go. But even then he was getting bigger and he would push and push on the cat flap until he broke it! We glued the split cat flap back together with a layer of plastic and sellotape. But eventually I got another flap and cut it down so the door to it would fit into the original mechanism.

Since then, this cat has thrived. He jumps up between us when we ask, he’s gentle with the other two (he eats as much as both of them put together though!). I love them all, but he has a special place in my heart.

Need more….

My craft stall

I’m running out of minature paintings, I’ve sold a few and given some as presents. They are all different and I need to paint some more. What to paint? I’ve done anything from a Morris minor car to the planet Jupiter. I’ve also painted the moon, birds, flowers, hearts, patterns and giraffes in the sunset. Cats of course and stained glass windows.

They are more craft than fine art I think, but if someone wants a tiny painting, matchbox sized, they don’t need much space to display it! It can go on a shelf or a bookcase, or anywhere else. They are not expensive despite the time it takes to paint them. I just love sharing art.

Waiting for coffee

Hubby yesterday, we had gone over to Middleport pottery so I could draw with the Stoke on Trent Urban Sketchers group. We decided to grab a cup of coffee but the cafe was very crowded and I’ve just got over a cold and didn’t want to catch another or worse. I decided to sit at one of the big round tables outside and so took the opportunity to draw my hubby and the canal and view behind him. The pointy thing about a third of the way in on the right is a church steeple but my ink brush wasn’t thin enough to get a point on it! Anyway I was pleased with the results.