Hanging around…

Looking out of the kitchen window and the hanging basket I have taken photos of over the months is still surviving. A lot of the flowers have gone. There are still five or six different plants with flowers on them. The other hanging baskets are wilting. But it’s almost the shortest day (tomorrow) how is it coping!? If we ever get a cold night or snow it might die back. In any case I will post again if it’s still going.

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Christmas cards?

To send or not? If it were not 2020 I might have sent a lot of my cards via email, or drawn things to add to Facebook or Instagram. But because I can’t visit I’ve decided to send cards. I hope it’s safe. I think they should be OK and I hope they won’t spread germs? But it does make me think and wonder. I am washing my hands after I’ve opened the mail, (and washing any shopping that comes into the house). Life is strange. I wonder what the consensus is about this. Would you post online or in the mail?

Running horse

After chatting about drawing horses and the gait they have when they walk, trot, canter and gallop, I tried to remember how I used to draw galloping horses. This is a quick three minute sketch on the Sketch app. That’s why the legs are a bit muddled. I added a bit of shade underneath to sto it floating… Might get some pencils out instead of drawing them digitally….

Horse in snow

For as long as I remember I’ve drawn horses. I used to read horsey books. I’ve only ever sat on a donkey when I was a child and I’ve sat on a horse and been led on a walk a couple of times too. Sitting up on a horse gives me vertigo, and I certainly don’t think I’m built for it. But that said, I do love horses.

I used to draw them all the time when I was little. My bedroom wall was covered with either drawings of Asterix the Gaul, Elizabethan men and women wearing ruffs and dappled grey horses. It was always dappled grey. I used to watch show jumping on the TV (horses jumping over fences) and looking at the way they moved. I got so good I even sold one for sixpence when I was at junior school….. I felt really guilty!

Over time I have stopped drawing them as much, but sometimes I just have to draw them…

Ooo! Chocolates

They arrived today, from Leek, in the Staffordshire moorlands, in a big box. Bang, bang, bang on the front door this morning. I dashed downstairs and opened the door. The postman handed me a box marked fragile. What could it be? The writing on the address was very similar to that of a friend, so I assumed it was something from him. But no, there were six Chocolate boxes that I’d ordered for Christmas presents. They are handmade and in beautiful boxes tied up with ribbons. They will now be posted on to family. I might save a small box for us. X

Structure

Looking out the window she saw a strange metallic structure had risen overnight. Where once there had been fields beyond the treeline now the metal was greeting the dawn. It must be 50 meters high, would it be filled in like a building or was this superstructure it? What was it?

Slowly as she watched the metal started to glow. First white hot, then blue hot. She saw the structure growing, upwards, sideways, forwards, and backwards. The light settled and she saw it had grown like a crystal, now it had reached the trees….. She waited… Would it expand again?

Blossom time

I keep finding old photos of my drawings over the last few months. This was day 25 of our Urban Sketchers challenge to draw pictures in lockdown. Over the months I’ve had more drawing practice than I had for several years before.

I notice the tricycle, that had to have new back wheels one of the old ones collapsed and the other one was almost rusted through. And the copper coloured windmill that fell apart in a heavy wind!

The blossom was pink and white cherry and pear blossom. Billowing and beautiful, we had abundant fruit this year. Only five or six months to wait before it comes back.

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