Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt. What to draw for hope? I saw the sunset yesterday and hoped one day I would see a beautiful starling murmuration. But as I drew it I also thought of the Greek myth of Pandora and her accidentally releasing all the ills into the world until only one thing was left… Hope.
I wonder if the name Pandora is linked with the word Pandemic? As with many myths it seems like a woman always gets blamed for causing the trouble! By the way it took over an hour to add all the dots!
A sprout tree, that’s what my hubby bought for Christmas Dinner. I wasn’t sure how to cut the sprouts off this knobbly stick. I don’t have sharp knives so they are hard to cut off. When I tried the springiness in the branch they were on I suddenly had a sprout popping up the air! It flew up and landed on the floor, rolled sideways, and ended up under the fridge freezer. Cue some scrabbling with a spoon to get it back out! It happened again with the next one so I realised I needed to hold the sprout with one hand and cut it off with the other. I didn’t want to use the whole sprout tree today, ten ot twelve sprouts are enough, but the branch was too long. I could not cut it in half so hubby snapped it across his knee after I’d tried to cut through it.
I part cooked them in the microwave and now I’m toasting them with out Christmas chicken (the turkeys for sale were four times more expensive).
I was keeping my hand in drawing even though it was Christmas day. Funny what you find to draw. I was doing the cooking so I could have drawn the food, but I was not doing the main meal till later on Christmas day night (If that makes sense).
It meant I could either draw or watch TV. But you can only watch so much TV. If it wasn’t so cold and wet and windy I might have been going out for a walk. But there’s always tomorrow. My hands are always restless and ready to draw, sometimes are better than others but you can’t beat drawing and sketching.
So what to draw? I was given this owl keyring as an extra Christmas present, I might just use it as a decoration though, its got coloured stones glued to a gold coloured body and I think they would soon detach if I carried it around. I have a mobile hanging in a window and I might try and attach it onto that? Next question is should I colour it in? I quite like the simplicity of black and white, so for now thats how its staying. I might work on it in photoshop. Not decided yet. anyway I’m posting this at 5.30am after yet another sleepless night. Aches and pains and whirling thoughts. I know I should not be looking at screens, but its either this or watching TV news…
He’s a lone Teddy bear looking for a home. Green jumper with shamrocks on it, sitting forlornly on the chair. What’s he doing here? Don’t worry about him, he’s actually a present to me! I think he will be happy here. He has Ireland on his jumper so he’s come across the sea. He came in a box, shut in a small place, but now he’s released, free to roam about the house. I think he will sit with my other two bears, upstairs in our bedroom. I don’t know if he will have adventures but he can gossip with his fellow bears up there!
Funny questions, why do they ask. Looking at social media I see questions like this quite frequently. Some people answer, others say it is a way of gathering information. I’ve started giving weird answers. My answer to this was: the rightious indignation of honey bees.
I like words so it’s fun to make up strange answers. Why should people know what I ate for lunch? Or which side of the bed I sleep on. Or how long ago I ate a biscuit? An hour ago…. There I go sharing personal information again… And my password for everything is not drowssap either!
This large papier mache hat was made for out pantomime a few years ago, it was about a meter wide. Painted to look like an old Spode pottery design. With roman or grecian patterns round the cup. I wish we could be certain that the pantomime we are rehearsing at the moment. This is a photo I found on my phone because I’m trying to clear off some of them to make more space, but I’m keeping this one.
‘Nah’ he said, ‘it’s not going to snow on Christmas day!’
His daughter looked upset, but her mum said ‘Dad is always right about the weather.’
She went upstairs to bed, it was Christmas Eve and she was 7. She believed her Dad but really truly wished for the snow to come. She wanted to get up and see if Santa had been yet, but it was only ten o’clock and Santa didn’t arrive till midnight. The stairs light was on and she tried to stare at it to keep awake. But she couldn’t keep her eyes open…
Suddenly she woke. The stairs light was off and she didn’t know the time, but there was a strange silence outside except for.. A scrabbling sound on the roof. A slithering sound, a tap and a rattle. What was it? And the sky was a funny orange colour. She had never seen it like that before? Soft noises tickled her ears again. She had a chimney in her room but the hole where there used to be a fire was boarded up. But she could hear something..
She looked out of the window, moving the net curtain to one side. The sky was still orangey grey and what looked like feathers were floating down… Was it? Snow? She put on her slippers and silently went downstairs. She saw it was five o’clock in the morning. Still dark and far too early for her parents to be up. Instead of looking in the lounge to find out if she had presents she walked through the kitchen and stepped out of the back door. Snow! Yes!
Suddenly a trickle of snow fell from the roof above her. Then a little avalanche. She heard scrabbling again so she looked up…. Just as the reindeer and sleigh leapt up from the roof and flew into the sky!
Today’s # bandofsketchers prompt was wrapped. My sister visited and dropped this off today. Its wrapped, but I can see what’s inside…. Looking forward to unwrapping it!
Mallaband-Brown 