No mojo

Posted on October 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Buffoons, Covid, Depressed?, Fed up, Life, Random, Thinking, Tired, Tonsillitis, Wishing, World4 Comments

My mojos gone out, I feel down, I feel demotivated. I think it’s living at this moment. I want to just wrap myself up in a ball, put my head under the duvet, hide.

Feeling myself gently rocking for comfort. Hunched shoulders, unable to start things or respond. I put on a brave face, but it’s hard work. It hasn’t helped being ill for the last few weeks. I think I’ve had tonsillitis and I’ve got an achy shoulder, and toothache and they are all impacting on me. Plus it’s getting darker in the evenings and I’ve not done much walking or going out, nerves about the increase in covid19 I guess. We are looking at more local lockdowns? In the meantime the world seems to be ruled by buffoons, orange, blond and barking mad! Is it any wonder I feel off?

Two thousand October photos

Posted on October 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged All in October, Annoying, Fed up, Grr, Humour, Life, Mixed up, Optimised, Photos, Uncategorized, Unexplainable, Unfortunately, untidyLeave a comment

Oh no! I decided to optimise my photos and save some space on my phone because it’s getting full and it would reduce each image by about ninety percent.

Great, plus they will take up less space here…

He problem now is that they are all out of order and the majority of them appear to have been taken on 9 October 2020!

Oh no! Trying to search for one particular photo is now a pain! At least before I could choose a month to go to…..

Might have to delete old photos…. But I like them…

Oops!

Posted on October 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bother, Darn, Drat, Life, Lost pictures, Memory, Oops, Optimizer, Phone memories, PhotosLeave a comment

Remind me not to optimise my photos when my antivirus advises me to! My phone is crammed with pictures, like the one above. But they are all over the place now. They were sort of in date order now anything from last year is stuck together in the file for October 2020. Yes I’ve saved a lot of space, but the recent things I was working on have gone walkabout! Grr

I’m going to have to try and find them again, I’ve got a commission to do and I need those photos! Plus I’ve optimise them, which means they are a lot smaller. And I’ve deleted the originals… But when you have THOUSANDS of photos what can you do?

Grr…

Home made sausage rolls

Posted on October 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Basic cooking, Cook sausages first, Food, Gas mark six, Life, Sausage rolls, Sausages, Short crust pastry, Taste2 Comments

If you don’t eat meat or wheat read no further (or substitute gluten free and meat free).

I wanted to use up some shop bought short crust pastry and some small sausages.

I baked four small sausages in the oven, gas mark 6 about 15 minutes. I let them cool slightly and got the left over pastry out the fridge. I pressed lots of off cuts of pastry togethef with a larger piece so that I ended up with a large-ish oblong. Then I placed two sausages together onto the pastry at one end and the other two at the other end. I folder the pastry over and sealed it by pressing it together. I used a bit of milk to glaze the top. There was a small bit of pastry left over so I wrapped that around some bits of cheddar cheese.

I cooked the sausage rolls for twenty minutes on gas mark 6. The rolls had started to brown. I put them back on for another five minutes.

When I took them out they were cooked on top but a bit soft underneath. I think this was because there was still a bit of fat coming out of the sausages?

The resulting rolls were tasty but I wish I had used shop bought flakey pastry instead.

Rorshach test?

Posted on October 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blue, Dark pink, Design, Fun, Life, Pattern, Photo, Plant life, Sky2 Comments

I can see all sorts of things in this, birds, and noses and smiles. Star jumps, an out of focus leaf… Twins with hair in ribbons, giggling at me. Sunglasses. The human mind is strange. Picks up patterns and interprets them into odd things. Life huh?

Noises in the garden and the shed.

Posted on October 7, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cat, Dark, Disturbing, Food bowls, Hedgehog, In the garden, Life, Looking, Odd, Odd noises, Rain, Sounds, ThinkingLeave a comment

Snuffling, rushing past, got me rattled. Some sort of noise being created by a thing out in the garden. But the gates locked and the sheds shut. Bowls are rattled, things clash, is it the wind, a burglar, a rat, or a hedgehog? I guess hedgehog…. They like standing on the edges of their bowls to get at the cat food we put out for them. Not sure about the rushing past though? I think it’s the cat doing that…. Anyway we had a good walk round in the rain and the dark… Nothing dangerous seen… Maybe we’ve got badgers?…..

Cats

Posted on October 7, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cat, Claws, Fun, Humour, Jumping, Leaping, Life, Play, Scratch, ShoulderLeave a comment

You can’t escape them. If they want to climb up your leg and stick their claws in, or jump across the room to get on your shoulder? Then they will spring athletically with powerful muscles and grip on like grim death!

Food? You want to share? No… But they look at you with those great big eyes and you are hypnotised. But they are such good companions (which means when it suits them, not you) it’s amazing how a three to four kilo animal can pin down a human, who then apologises when the time comes to move them. Dead weight? Surely cats weigh more!

Cats have their own minds. They don’t like being controlled. You can’t pick them up if they don’t want to be. They squirm, and watch out for the claws!

They have their skills, catching rodents. But why do they have to leave you a ‘little gift?’ that cartoon image of a mouse with crosses for eyes springs to mind.

Cat box

Posted on October 6, 2020 Posted in Cat, Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Box, Cat, Fun, Life, Mat, Memory, Oil paint, Painting, Parquet, Stool, Years ago4 Comments

I painted the leather seat if this stool/box about thirty years ago. It used to hold all my old oil paints but they dried out years ago. I unearthed it recently. One of the problems with being an artist I have found, is collecting art materials. I have stuff that goes back years. I tend to think one day things will come in handy. Is anyone else here an artist? Are you the same? Materials cost so much its almost a sin to throw things away.

This is a cat on a mat on a parquet floor. As you can see even then I loved patterns. It’s varnished, but you can see where I must have left a thinners can on the surface that left paint rings…

Old boat

Posted on October 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Carpenter, Grandfather, Life, Lytch gate, Memories, Methodist Chapel, Old boat, Random, Ship2 Comments

My grandad was a carpenter and made this many years ago. I never met him as he had died before I was born. But he carved the lytch gate at the parish church where I came from, and the altar rail in the Central Hall (Methodist Chapel). This is carved out of a peice of oak with bits of thick card nailed around the sides and tiny cannon along the sides. Maybe one day I will get it restored. I think I got my artistic ability from him.

Succulents

Posted on October 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Good for you, Help, House plant, Indoor gardening, Indoor plant, Life, Mood, Plant, Random2 Comments

Houseplants are good for you according to recent research. Apparently just a glimmer of green in an otherwise plain and boring magnolia painted house can improve your mood. If you are locked down in a house or room, having that bit of green can help.

This is a badly watered succulent plant we have at the top of our stairs. I look out over our garden and feel infinitely lucky to have that patch of green.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life