End of April,
the moss is greening nicely
Moist air, no sun
Cool showers..
Vitamin D
What’s that?
Buds burst
and leaves open fully
Spring sprang last week
Next flowers
Soon, fruit.
Mossy
Tag: Life
Summer is….
An ancient song…
Summer is icumen in
Lhud-e sing cuckoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springs the wood-e noo
Sing cuckoo
Ew-e bleateth after lamb
Low th after calv-e coo
Bullock starteth
Buck-e parteth
Merry sing cuckoo
Cuckoo cuckoo
Well sing-est thou
Cuckoo, nay stop thou never noo
(Foot/Burden)
Sing cu-ckoo noo sing cuckoo
This is an ancient summer song from England. It’s rustic words are a real tongue twister to sing. Our choir tackle it at this time of year. I tend to sing the burden because it’s a simple repeating line. You need good breathing though because it runs along below the main song and usually starts before and ends after the rest of the choir. We sing the music as a round, normally four groups for the tune singing summer is icumen in.. Summer is icumen in.. One group after the other. The foot/Burden group is usually split into two groups of two and start Sing Cu-ckoo… Sing Cu-ckoo…. Over and over.
As a side note, the first time I saw the song was in the film ‘the Green Man’ with Edward Woodward. The villagers sing this after he is captured as a sacrifice. I always get a little chill down my spine when we sing it! You can probably find it on YouTube…..
On Air
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was on air… What to do for ‘On air’ …. I had to look up an old microphone for this, except I think its actually modern? It was on a sales site. Anyway it actually says ‘on air’ at the top so I chose it….
Bricks
Bricks or sets? A good surface to walk on, but not for the environment. As the song by Joni Mitchell goes ‘they paved paradise and put up a parking lot’.
Everywhere everyone is having driveways installed, block paviours or tarmac. Repelling water so it runs away quickly instead of being absorbed into the soil. Then the drains flood and storm drains are overwhelmed. Raw sewerage gets released into rivers, which keeps happening. People have been wild swimming in rivers and around the coast for years, but the amount of waste effluent getting into our natural waterways is causing extreme concern for health.
There are new rules to make paving permiable to rain water. But who checks on it. So instead of putting in a driveway think about a more environmental and possibly cheaper option?
Statue scribble
A few days ago there was a news story about a museum that gave children crayons and paper when they visited. Unfortunately one of the children used a blue crayon to scribble all over an old sculpture. I was drawing a female head and shoulders and it suddenly struck me that it looked a bit like the statue. I added lines, and it seemed even more like the scribbled statue. Strange what your mind takes you.
Parsimonius
I must be parsimonius
The door stays locked
Money is a great big fuss
Payments will be stopped.
My purse is not bottomless
The moths are growing big
The dust in there is limitless
While fuel bills they still rig
The cost of living crisis
Has got us by the throat
Money goes by osmosis
Out of a sinking boat!
So now I will spend less
Cutting my money cloth
Mcawber rules I will address
No cash now for froth!
Taking in cats
Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.
Almost all of our cats have been strays or rescue cats. Starting with an old ginger cat whose owner no longer wanted him. I was at the vets with my friend and her kittens. We saw this straggly, ginger long haired cat, he was thin as a rake and it’s owner who was an elderly lady, could no longer care for him. We asked if we could take him in and she signed him over to us. He was quite old but he lived another couple of years with us. He used to walk along the wall between us and the house next door. He knew when I was coming home and came and greeted me. One thing I always do is teach my cats to come when I whistle them. I have never regretted the risk of taking our first cat in, and now after many years of cat ownership I still feel the same way.
Sea face
Eight years ago I painted this. I based it on a broken terracotta wall plaque that I’d had on the wall outside but I think the frost split it. It sort of reminds me of the green man theme and I think I actually bought it in a green man shop in Pickering in Yorkshire….. It was an acrylic on canvas and I guess I must have sold it as I haven’t seen it for years? You can get inspiration from all sorts of places if you look.
Art competition
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
So many times I have missed deadlines for art competitions. I somehow freeze and lose confidence.
I think it stems from a college tutor who told me I would do badly and not get a good degree. I believed him and when I was successful I still questioned my validity. I come from a working class home and I didn’t have the self confidence to dismiss his opinion. I took three years to get over it and forever after I have felt some degree of imposter syndrome. I was once asked as l local artist to judge an art competition. It was so hard, I didn’t know what to do, whether I would disappoint people. The result was announced and I think people were pleased with my choice, but I felt great guilt!
It’s hard to think that those few words my tutor spoke forty years ago, sank deep into my heart. What would I be doing if I hadn’t listened to his poisoned words. I wish I knew then what I do now.
No hedgehogs..
Keeping an eye out
Looking for hedgehogs
Trying to see
The glint in its eye
Leaving out cat food
Lots of berries
Bits of apple.
But it’s been cold
Frosts in the morning
Ice in the bowl
Hope they return.
Hybernating
Mallaband-Brown 