6 years ago

I haven’t done anything like this for a while, this was six years ago. I drew this in a free app called ArtRage oils and I really like the graphic feel to it. Varying the pen sizes and textures seemed to work well with dark shades and metallic tints. I must try and do something new. I like trying to create exotic birds.

Pumpkin cat

I carved this pumpkin cat last year for Halloween at Etruria Industrial Museum. It is meant to be a black cat if it was lit at night. I think they used battery tea lights for safety. I think I carved three or four with different designs. Memories of a more cheerful time. I should say be careful carving out pumpkins. I thing I cut a finger slightly while I was doing this x

Kittens

Facebook memory, cheered me up. Three of the black and white kittens our female cat had. She was a rescue cat, and her previous owner mentioned she might be pregnant. I think they must be over five years old now, they all went to good homes. I miss them, but if we had kept them there would have been six cats in the house, which was too many for us. But as far as I know they are all safe and happy. X

Gallery problems

An old painting from a few years ago

My phone is doing strange things, especially when I’ve tried to upload images to my Facebook page today. I decided to optimise some of my photos because my phone memory is too full. Usually the images that I have shrunk stay on the phone and the others are deleted. But thus time everything doubled up. I tried deleting the old ones, but I had to restart the phone and my images seemed to get mixed up. I tried finding them and although I did the gallery kept reverting to the older ones. I guess I need to buy a new memory card? I don’t know if I can sort it out otherwise.

Gemini

Half of me was wrenched away

Just six weeks ago, today

Now you’re gone through that door

And I will see your face no more,

We weren’t close, but still I knew

My life and yours, linked as two

Souls that shared a single birth

Both of us, a childhoods hearth.

Still I think you will call me up

We’ll talk a while over a cup

Or two of tea, and a scone

But really I know you’re gone.

I can’t forget, but I will begin

To think you’re in the sky, a star, my twin.

Missing fog

No not missing in the fog, just missing fog. I lived in flat many years ago and we were half way up a tower block. I remember looking out of the kitchen window and the clouds were below me. When I walked outside I was in fog. Cold and grey, but it made the world interesting and indistinct. Sometimes driving home at night we would encounter fog patches or banks of fog. Driving in and out of them made me very cautious. There were stories of people following the rear lights of cars into people’s drives because they hadn’t realised that the car had turned off the road and they had been following to find their way around.

These days we don’t seem to get much. Is the air dryer so mist does not form? Is the humidity of the air too low? I miss the fog

I took the photo in Hanley Park a few years ago. I really like the wonderful blurred areas of part of it, unfocused and softened. I like the way it removed colour, making the image monochrome. I miss fog…

My muddled brain

Flashing like a beacon, connected in all different directions, emotions bursting out into the world. Thoughts spiralling. Pain, anxiety, calm, hope, dreams, fear, sadness all mingles. If I can find a thread to pull me through all of the entangled ideas. The tears keep falling.

Today I reached out and so many people reached back to me. I feel overwhelmed with their support. I need to hope things will improve. I think the friends I have made that hope more real.

Etch-a-sketch

Who remembers these? I loved mine and by twirling both buttons together I found I could draw curves! I used to draw mazes. I remember turning it over and the shake of the silver dust as it covered the trace of your sketch. Also the twanging of what might have been elastic bands moving a stylus? Against the screen. It was just a tiny dot. A bit like a computer cursor! I’d love to get one again!

Fairies

When I was a little child I used to look out of the window at the rain falling in our back yard. We had blue brick paving that became shiny as it got wet. As puddles began to fall the raindrops would splash up in circles. I decided that they were tiny fairies dancing in the rain.

When things happen in life you remember things that you haven’t for years. I’m glad to retrieve this memory.