As I walk

Posted on March 28, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, grandma, Life, March winds, Memories, Photo, Spring, today's tree, Tree, Walking, WeatherLeave a comment

As I walk I’m looking at trees, I’m waiting for the buds to burst, the leaves to stretch and expand. But we need some rain now to get the buds to swell. Then I will have more idea of what these trees are.

Oak before Ash,

In for a Splash.

Ash before Oak,

In for a soak….

The old rhyme of what to expect from the weather this Spring…

Also the weather has been very windy after a quiet start to March.

The saying for that is :

In like a Lamb

Out like a Lion.

(it can be vice versa), old weather saws that my grandma told me…

Cat map?

Posted on March 28, 2021 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cat, Celtic art, Drawing, Fun, Illustration, Life, Map, mapping, Maze, saxon hoard, saxon pattern, StaffordshireLeave a comment

I drew this years ago. A celtic style cat. I did a full colour acrylic painting afterwards but I don’t have a photo of that and I think my sister has it now.

I was trying to think of a subject for an illustrated map we have to do for college. I’ve been visiting a local lake recently and there is a hedge maze there. You cannot see the shape of it from the ground and it would be interesting in mapping it out, but I don’t own a drone camera! Then I thought the map might be based around ideas of the Staffordshire Hoard found in this area a few years ago. This was coins and gold sword ornaments and other pieces of treasure. I might base my map on these Saxon patterns. Then I did my original thesis on pre Christian celtic art, and that’s where the idea of a celtic cat came from.

Decisions…. What to draw…. Hmm

Today’s portrait session.

Posted on March 27, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white, Faces, fine liner, Fun, Ink pen, Life, Life drawing, Mono prints, Portraits, SketchingLeave a comment

Today’s sketches…

Today’s sketch portraits, I used cut up mono prints that I had made for the print workshop earlier in the week. I glued bits down then added black calligraphy pen and fine liner, then graphite from a graphite stick. I had to unstick one bit of paper and redo it because it was wrong and overlapped bits of the drawing. …

Today’s trees

Posted on March 25, 2021March 26, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Gnarley, Life, Photo, Poem, Poetry, renewal, Rhyme, Spring, TreesLeave a comment

Gnarley trees in the graveyard

Stand and wave hello

We walked beneath their boughs today

Watching them slowly grow.

Allowed to reach maturity

Their girth spreading wide,

Leaves will be opening soon

Bringing them back to life.

Spring and Easter come again,

The end of winter strife.

Between?

Posted on March 25, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, bun, Cake, Fork, Life, Painting, Plate, Sketching, water colour sketch2 Comments

Tonights #bandofsketchers prompt was between. OK, my choice was between Cadburys Creme Egg cake and a nice hot cross bun…. Er, yes….. Both? I used a little Watercolour box I found on top of the microwave. It’s several years old and only has ten half pans of paint with a tiny brush. But it’s good quality paint.

Easter, a moveable feast

Posted on March 24, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Calendar, Easter, Easter egg, Easter holidays, Life, Moon, Spring, spring break, Why?Leave a comment

When I was a child I looked forward to Easter, not for religion, although I did understand about Christianity, but because of the Easter eggs we used to get (I was a child, forgive me).

As I got older I realised that Easter wasn’t on a set day, like the 25 December for Christmas. But it seems to be that it has to run Friday Saturday and Sunday and is linked somehow to the Jewish Calendar? But also to the phases of the moon, so Easter drifts a slowly, then jumps around. Any time between late March and April if I remember. It used to make the Easter break at school a bit odd too. If anyone knows the correct reasons let me know?

Cat…ching up

Posted on March 24, 2021 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Cat, Friendly, furry, Hubby, Life, Purring, Rushing, Time, WalkingLeave a comment

After a morning on college work we finally got out in the sunlight for an hour.

Instead of walking up the hill we took the car to the top, then walked around the circumference on it. We walked down, then climbed back up again. Rushing because I thought I had another lecture at 5 (it was actually 6) we managed to get back to the car and home by ten to.

My hubby encountered this charming cat, fluffy and friendly, on top of a wall in between a row of terraced houses. The cat was purring loudly and having a lovely time, it was a shame he had to leave it as we walked on up the hill. We only managed a couple of miles, but it was great to escape for a while.

They are getting rid of classic editor!

Posted on March 24, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged classic editor?, classic version, Life, too much to learn, why change? Explain? Tech support? Why? I pay for thisLeave a comment

My minds in a whirl! I’ve been happy with the old classic editor.

WordPress happiness helper? How will WordPress feel if all the classic users leave, stop paying? It is only a website after all.

Apparently old blog posts will still be editable with the classic scheme.

Why have we got to do it? Don’t we have any choice in the matter? Not all of us are tech savvy. I will have to keep asking for tech help if I have to change. That will cost more time and money. Enough said ?

Pears in sunlight

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bowl, Colours, Fruit, Gardening, Kitchen, Life, Light, Pears, Photo, Spring, Sunlight, Weather2 Comments

I could crop this photo to tidy it up…but the bits of blue sky reflected off the sink and the red bowl, top left, seem to add interest. I have windows on both sides of the kitchen, dual aspect I think they call it? So I get lots of light in the kitchen on sunny days as the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Spring is coming, I can feel the warmth in the sunshine. The trees are about to come into leaf, buds of blossom will be bursting, pink and white clouds. I will have to get out and prune things like our buddliea bushes. They are thugs! And the pears? They remind me we should get our crop from our pear tree later in the year….

Sleeping mask…

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Band of sketchers, Breathing, Breathing mask, Drawing, edge, Life, Sketching, Sleep aponea, TiredLeave a comment

On the corner of my bookcase in the bedroom sits my breathing mask for sleep aponea. Tried to draw it..#bandofsketchers prompt ‘edge,’

I have something called sleep aponea. When you sleep, your throat relaxes and can close up. I didn’t know, I just knew I was very tired, to the extent I started to fall asleep at work. I found out sleep aponea can cause weight gain, diabetes, heart problems and other issues. I didn’t even know I snored as my hubby is deaf.

Wearing a mask is not always comfortable. If it comes loose it feels like a tale force wind blowing in your face.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life