New paintings and regular art updates.
Drawing from April, tasks I hate. Yet again the sink is full, not just with crockery but with bits of food two. After two thousand times of asking my hubby to scrape leftovers into the bin, is it any wonder I get fed up with having to clean up the mess? Then there is the water problem. Splashing it everywhere, the seal round the sink is starting to break down. The sink was only put in about three years ago! It’s really annoying. Is this what men do to avoid chores???
Books, books,
Glorious books
Never too many
For stirring the blood
So follow me
follow me
Up to the library
And there we
shall wallow
In glorious Books!
(after the song ‘Mud mud glorious mud’ by Flanders and Swann).
Sunlight streaming through the window Shines on Christmas cards and books, ornaments my sewing kit. As the sun rises it also travels south in the sky in winter. Then in the afternoon it appears to move downwards and West. So because of the way the earth is tipped on its axis the position on the sky moves in arcs that tip further south in the winter and further north in summer. So the sun appears overhead eventually.
If the Earth was rotating on a vertical axis at 90° to the plane of the solar system, then day length would stay the same all over the world. 12 hours day and 12 hours night. There would be no seasons. There would probably be no poles as all parts of the earth would receive the same amount of heat from the sun.
Instead the tip of the axis means that the day length changes over the years. So at the solstices the earth has turned to have its poles either closest or furthest apart from the sun. It’s also complicated by the earth travelling in an elliptical orbit round the sun. In the summer in the North of the world the sun is actually slightly further away from the earth than in the winter.
Anyway enough of celestial mechanics. Don’t get me started on the moon! Happy Boxing day. X
There are lots of film versions of A Christmas Carol by Charles Darwin. Of them there are several that I really enjoyed. One with Sir Patrick Stewart starring in it, and also Micheal Caine in Muppet Christmas Carol. But my favourite is Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim.
Made in Black and White in 1951, it tells the story of the transformation of the miser, Scrooge, following his haunting by first, his deceased partner Jacob Martley, and then the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
Over the course of the film Scrooge learns that his ideas of how people should live are cruel, uncharitable and miserly. He suddenly realises that he can change.
Alistair Sim’s portrayal of Scrooge is a revaluation. He goes from mean and grim to happy (and giggling). His face shows his emotions, you can see what he is thinking. It’s a wonderful piece of acting.
This was used as a prop in the local village hall pantomime a few years ago. The hat was a large teacup and saucer made out of wire and paper and glue. Once it was made I had the task of painting it with a classic spode pattern of Greek or roman figures. I might have some more photos somewhere, but this gives you an idea of what I was painting. It was held in place on the panto dames head with a big blue ribbon and bow. I miss rehearsals for the yearly panto. It was restored about ten years ago after several years absence. The largest ausiencevwe had was 180, and we do four performances over Thursday, Friday and two on a Saturday. I miss the stage fright and the fun. We used to do the performances in February to coincide with the school half term.
X
Before I got a drawing tablet for my computer I used to draw with a mouse. This drawing was put on Facebook in 2014, but I’m sure I had a wacom tablet by then. I actually think it’s around ten years older and that I saved this image on one of the numerous times my hard drive went down. The picture must have been drawn on a basic program, but I can’t remember which. I know it’s a mouse drawing because of the wobbly lines…… I still like it…
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all my friends here on WordPress. Keep safe and wishing you a better 2021.
X
Three year old digital drawing. Dots and swirls! The closest to a tree I will have this year. The cats climbed up the last one so I’m not risking my old glass baubles. Plus my cats are bigger this year and with three instead of two… Disaster would be bound to occur.
Did I ever mention the Christmas eve my husband tripped over after too much beer and snapped the tree in half? About twenty years ago. I stayed up and tied it together with tinsel, rehung the baubles and but the lights back on it. When he got up in the morning he thought he had dreamt it happening!
The plastic catch inside my drivers door should look like this…..
But it now looks like this because it snapped. It’s hard to find a replacement. My friend has looked at ebay for me but there are lots of variations. At the moment all I’ve got to open it with is a cable tie I have to pull forward to actuate the lever. This was done by the nice man from the AA, who I have to say was here in a few minutes. I’ve booked it in to a garage and I am not scrapping the car for the want of one small catch, even if I have to import it! Watch this space.
If you are going to Kent or Dover at the moment? Don’t! Lorries and trucks are stuck there because a new variant of Covid19 have been found in the South East of the country. Because of this the border with many countries have been closed. Trucks are not able to get home and so there are queues of them on the M20 and they are being parked up on old airport in Kent. They are parked I but with poor facilities, not many toilets and no food or water!
The worry is that even when the border is reopened there will be further problems as Brexitis about to happen at the end of this month. That means there may me further pfoblems and delays. I do wonder about the mentality of the English and often despair!
Mallaband-Brown