Tag: Life

Too many books?

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How many books is too many? I was counting ours a few years ago and when I got to over 1000 I gave up. We had books in all the rooms except the bathroom but they have also had to be moved out of the kitchen now it’s been modernised. If I could sneak a few cookbooks in I would, but then the books on trains would follow…

What books do I like?

Biography, Science, Astronomy, Autobiography, Physics, Maths, Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Fantasy, Train books, Novels, Thrillers, Art books. Books about Pottery and Ceramics. Books about photography.

Books I dislike. …I don’t know..

So what do you do when you have a partner who goes out and  buys books from charity shops every week! ..? You send him back with ones to donate.  I have wondered if I should take some to a local second hand book shop but I dont know if they would take them.

I read books at bedtime to help me sleep. Some of the physics ones can send me off in minutes. At the moment I’m reading the Earthsea Quartet by Ursula LeGuin and 1356 by Bernard Cornwell. I have a copy of The Handmaids Tale I bought in the 1980’s by Margaret Atwood, and also The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. One book Richard introduced me to was A Canticle for Leibovitz which is a post apocalyptic story.  It’s very strange.

So yes I love these books, I would never get a kindle or e-book reader. There is something about turning paper pages, without having to charge the battery up just when you are mid chapter, also if you drop a book when you fall asleep it doesn’t break the screen, and yes I have read books in the bath… they can get very soggy!

 

Archery today

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We started going to archery a few months ago, but had to stop because I got busy doing art, or visiting relatives, and Richards back has been playing up.

So we decided to go back today. It was overcast and a bit blustery but we were only shooting arrows over about 20 yards, which isn’t far, even with the junior 16 pound bows we were using. I managed to get a gold and so did my partner, but we were watching the other archers, who are more experienced, shoot 50 and 80 yards.

I decided to have a try at 50 yards, you have to elivate the bow more,  I ended up aiming at the roof of a house. I actually managed to hit the target after trying several shots that either went short or left of the target. As the morning passed we were both getting closer to the gold  (center of the target ).

It’s surprising how tiring it us pulling even a low poundage bow, some if the people there were pulling 40 pound bows. But looking back in history archers could pull far heavier bows than that. They started around age 4 and were given 4 arrows. They then has to practice every day. Archers ended up with massive muscles and deformed backs because of the strain they were putting on them.

At the end of the session we were shooting at the 80 yard target, I was getting tired and my bow arm kept dropping, but despite not hitting the target I was making he distance. My arrows wavered and wiggled as they flew through the air, but they got there. I was shooting with sites but they didn’t help much. I just had to vaguely aim at a clump of trees.

I think we will go back next week….

Bored?

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You know when you are bored when…You decide to take a photo of your empty glass…with your nose because you can’t hold the glass, your tablet and press the shutter on the screen at the same time.

Today consisted of sleeping in till late, cooking lunch, taking some rubbish down to the tip, going shopping, tidying up and reheating yesterdays left overs for our evening meal.

Some days are just boring.

The best thing about today?  Hearing an abridged version of Jaws on Radio 4. Two and a half hours long, some wonderful descriptions in a frightening story, it was read out by a narrator rather than having a cast of characters. Brilliant.

But you say why are you bored?  Why not do something?  Basically because I get tired, and I get down. I don’t think I’m depressed exactly, just looking for my mojo to come back. Sometimes life is like that, especially when you start getting a bit older. The safety of the house is like a warm nest. A warm blanket , easier to snuggle down and ignore the world. …

And the world is wonky at the moment, the politics is bonkers, right wing politicians seem to be ascendant, poverty is increasing. Even the age that people die, which had been increasing in this country has suddenly seen a down turn. And don’t ask me about Brexit (if you have even heard if it) its not something I agree with and 52 percent of the population here voted for it…..climate change is happening, animals are becoming extinct……is it any wonder that as the ×÷=t hits the fan I just need a duvet day sometimes?

I remember as a child going on a march with my mother, I was only 5 or 6 so I can’t remember why, or what it was about. I remember seeing and hearing racism when I was a child and questioning it… now I hide away, turn my face away, look at stupid kitten videos instead! What changes us, what forces impinge on us to stop us caring as much as we did?

I want to be more caring about homelessness, unemployment, benefit cuts, modern day slavery, credit crunches, cuts to education and the NHS. Austerity, privatisation, plastic pollution, nuclear accidents, inflation, food banks, cuts in Police, increases in zero hours contracts.

It’s all too much. They call I compassion fatigue, I call it compassion exhaustion….

We need, all of us, to be more caring, for everyone else, not just ourselves. I’ve tried to help people in my job for years, it all got a bit too much.

So yes, maybe it’s not actual boredom, but an inability to focus because there is too much going on to deal with. Withdrawal from the outside world seems preferable at the moment.

X

Writing….

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Late last night I stared to write a little story about this woman I had drawn, it was called Charlis and it was about her rescuing her village from a flood using powers that she did not realise she had. It was not meant to be a superhero / comic type story, I was hoping it would be deeper than that.

I had got about half way through   (it was only short) and was concentrating on the plot when my tablet ran out of battery power and closed on me. This morning the story has gone.

I find it difficult to write stories, to put myself in other people’s lives. Doing something like this is quite daunting, would it be too verbose?  too convoluted? did it make sense, could I take people with me into the story?

I can’t remember half of what I had written, and I don’t want to inflict something on you that might not be any good.

So what should I do, recreate it, is it worth the hassle?  I tend to write things spontaneously, without any planning.  Late night writing when you are tired is not the best way of going about things. I don’t think I’m much of a writer, I don’t feel my words flow, I am just learning. At least I have age and some experience to fall back on.

I will ponder on this. …

 

Weeping Window

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We visited Middleport pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent today to see “weeping window” a memorial made of 11,000 ceramic poppies placed on a bottle oven in the pottery. The poppies are some of the ones that were on display previously at the Tower of London and have been travelling around the country for the last couple of years. You are supposed to book a visit but as the number of people going to see the display has reduced we were allowed in without booking. We had to park on a designated car park as the local streets have parking restrictions at the moment and you could get fined.

The poppies commemorate the worth anniversary of the 1st world war,”the war to end all wars” which sadly did not stop humans fighting over and over again as they have since our ancestors first fought many thousands of years ago. Many if the poppies were made in Stoke-on-Trent so its good to see them come home although there was a fight to get them.

The display of poppies cascade down the oven, spreading out on the ground, representing blood and the fallen soldiers that were killed in the war.

I drew the scene but had to slightly shorten the bottle kiln to fit it on the page. I also struggled to represent so many poppies. We then visited the rest of the pottery, including the steam engine although it was not working today. There was quite a crowd so I only sketched it briefly.

On our return to the car park there was a large poster with the poem by John McCrae written in 1915. I decided to draw my own version of a poppy to go along with it.

Middleport pottery is very interesting, there is a museum on site, plus artists and ceramicists with their own studios. The tea shop was very busy but we managed to get a table. There was also a display by students from clay college who are doing a two year full time course to learn the skills of pottery making before they are forgotten.

Although the weeping window display ends in mid September the pottery is well worth a visit. It’s surprising how much goes on round here!

Bump in the night

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Ever since I was burgled years ago I have been very sensitive to hearing sounds at night, especially when they should not be there.  Hearing car doors open, or little thudding noises attract me towards the front door!

The neighbour bangs his windows shut late at night and that makes me jump, then the cats race round chasing each other, like a herd of elephants up and down the stairs….

But its the little subtle noises outside that get me, not the noise of someone using our wheelie bin to put their empty beer can in….but the creaks and groans from the tree branches near the house, quiet footsteps passing the front door. Then a sudden screech of brakes as a car comes down the hill too fast.

We have whistling windows so when its windy you can hear the whoosh of air hitting the house, I actually quite like that. Occasionally there is the sound of cats fighting, or the strange squeal of foxes. All this in an urban area.

Sometimes I go outside with a torch,  I imagine I am scary enough to frighten an intruder off…. the only thing that happens then is I end up walking on slugs or snails as the garden is quite overgrown……

What noises are right and what are wrong?  The gate opening is wrong, rattling noises by the side window, the metallic clunk of the gate bolt moving…..milk bottles by the gate rattling are all wrong…,what’s right? Birdsong late at night, don’t hear it as much at this time of year. Friendly voices of people passing on their way home, not the rowdy shouting we sometimes hear.

I realise there is a lot more going on out there than I thought. Better than tinnitus though!

Night all x

Laughter

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Someone (a friend) saw my rather serious selfies and asked me to take some photos of me laughing. I’ve never done that before and so I was a bit surprised but I said yes….

These are the results including me with a straight face.

I’m imagining having to do a passport photo and choosing to do it with me laughing, how much fun would that be? And instead of “filter faces” where everyone has to have perfect skin and features and hair why not have do this instead? fun…. life is too serious sometimes.

I’ve got one photo of me somewhere that had me wearing a stick on moustache, and others in hats, also in face paints. Life is too short, life is often hard and boring, sometimes we need to break away from its difficulties….

When I was a child I won a funny  face competition at school. I used to pull faces all the time, when we grow up we forget all those things!

So go ahead, even if you don’t post it, pull a face now, or roar with laughter, or just giggle. ….relax and be free of social pressures for a second! Laughter is good medicine .

I might just do a painting of these. There are some sculptures I saw on tv of a man pulling faces……not sure who did them or why, but he showed his humanity.

X

“That spiky things flowering…”

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Conversation:

‘What thing?’

“That thing on the corner”

‘What thing on the corner!  Where abouts?’

“On the corner , you know…”

‘What’s that?’

“The spiky thing”

‘On the corner?”

“By the willow”

‘What willow?’

“On the corner”

‘Oh hell…..what are you going on about?!’

“You know”

‘But I don’t, that’s why I’m asking’

“Its spiky, got yellow and orange berries”

‘Pyrocantha!?’

“Yes!”

Silence. ………

‘What are you doing? ‘

Noises in the kitchen……..

‘Hello? Whats happening?’

“Just mending my steam engine!”

😠 ‘argh!’

Is it like this in your house? It is in mine.

Self portrait from a selfie.

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Taking a selfie is bad enough, but trying to draw yourself from it while trying to hold a sketchpad and a tablet computer in one hand and an old felt pen in the other is quite difficult. I did try and use pointillism to do the shading but I think it didn’t really work well. Somehow the eyes in the drawing are looking at me, when in the photo they look up and to the right. The other thing with selfies is you see yourself the right way round, where when you look in a mirror everything is back to front, in mirror image.

I had been trying to take a photo of my reflection in a mirror but the tablet keep getting in the way. The only decent way to take it was by holding the computer tablet to one side but I ended up with the toilet in the background because my decent sized mirror is in the bathroom!

Anyway I don’t generally do selfies and its been a few years since I did a self portrait, but this was a bit of an experiment.  I like painting people and drawing them. Soon the life drawing class I go to will be starting up again. Then I can get in some proper practice.

Till then I’m going to try and do a few more quick portraits, this took about 15 minutes.

 

Design

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With cuts in education it appears that arts subjects are getting lower take up’s these days.

Students have to do more “useful” subjects, like Maths, English and Sciences, plus probably a language. Then if they go on to college or university the temptation is to go for more academic courses, especially when a 3 year course is going to cost upward of 30 or 40 thousand pounds.

I went to a Polytechnic, many years ago now. I got a maintenance grant and didn’t have to get a loan (they didn’t exist then). The costs were paid for by taxation, which was higher in the past. This made sense because that money raised by the exchequer sustained the education system as well as other services such as the NHS.

Things gradually changed, governments changed, their ideas changed and the rules changed. Where once there were grants now there are loans, where once there were bursaries, now there are loans. You may not have to pay them back until you are over an earnings threshold. But student loans are at 6% interest per annum, when inflation is between 2% or 3%. In other words the loans are a form of future taxation. Only low level, but over the years it takes to get a good job that persons debt is due to spiral. Is it any wonder that Art subjects are being dropped….

But Art is important, if you look at the patterns on these dresses, the design of the dresses, even the frill on the lamp shade? Someone designed that….

Artists may not get paid much but they make the world more beautiful and interesting. Artists can be innovators…look at the art of Leonardo da Vinci, he not only drew and painted, but came up with designs for tanks and helicopters and planes. They were not built because the technology did not exist to make them, but the ideas were there.

Art and design can be done on computers nowadays, press a button?  No you still have to have someone to draw out the designs. Without art the world would be a boring, grey, sad place.

So if you feel like doing art….do it!