He was a mad cat,
Jumped on kites,
sat in the middle of the road.
Climbed shelves,
ran round the local shop.
Climbed the curtains,
chased dogs
Mad yowling,
Running round at high speed.
Pouncing and preening.
Playing…
Tag: Playing
The letter Q.
Q, such a strange letter,
Comes after P, before R,
But it sounds like it should be
At the end, with Y and Z (zed or zee).
Quick, quiet, quad, Queen….
Why does it come with u?
Quest, quark, quince, quorum….
What does it mean to you?
Alpha, bet, questions.
Really quincunx, quintiles, quiescent, qualified…
It’s a quiz or a quest!
Cats chasing
He looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but two minutes ago he and his sister were chasing each other up and down the stairs, up on bookcases and rushing in and out of the kitchen and bathroom. 
Now his sister is playing with a cat toy and is ignoring him! Does anyone else have cats that have mad half hours? Pouncing and chasing. Basically getting up to mischief and having fun. I wish I’d got some photos!
Learning the trumpet
This is the finger positions fit the New world symphony that Im trying to learn. I can get the lower notes ( I still need to learn which notes are which). One thing with loud music being played outside is that no one can hear the notes I’ve been murdering in here!
I need to get my lips stronger to get a good embouchure. Practice is the only way to do it. At the moment the air escapes from the side of my mouth instead of going down the trumpet. Then there is the moisture from your breath. That’s why you have drainage holes to let it out.
Anyway maybe I will learn it well enough to play to people? We will see.
Colours
When you take a photo do you ever think of adjusting the colours or the hue? It’s easily done on a smart phone. You can use so thing called ‘curves’ where you can change all the colours, tones, contrast and dark and light using one tool. You have a curve indicating the colours and by adjusting the curve in different places…. I’ve taken a few screenshots to explain. First take a picture, then go to photo editor.
I don’t know how anyone else’s phone works, but in photo editor if you find the editing button in editor, choose the one for changing colours. The icon has a curve on it. Click on that and you can adjust the levels, you can see them move on the screen. When you like it choose save. You then have an image that looks completely mad, or subtle, or however you like it.
Shattering
Pixels and glass, an old disco ball changed by using Layout app and adjusting the sharpness, colours and contrast.
Splashing subtle colours around the room, coloured washes staining the walls if the sun glints on it. I know disco balls are not the thing to have in a living room, but it cheers me up. As the sun sets behind the house the light gradually creeps in. First it catches the glass crystals I have in the window and they send rainbow shards through the room. Jittering and twisting across the magnolia plaster. Then the sun drops lower and the disco balls individual glass facets glitter and flicker.
It was from this that I made this image.
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Two cats one ball
I didn’t get a photo of them, they move too fast. One cat plays with a small ball, batting it round the bathroom so it clunk’s off the cupboard and the side of the bath, racing into the kitchen, the living room and back again, zigzaging along the floor, sometimes skidding to a halt and then whizzing off in another direction. Her brother, bigger and more staid, sits by the back door as this goes on. Until she chases the ball under a big green coat hung opposite the back door. It’s long enough to reach the floor. She bat’s the ball away, under the coat and chases after it. He watches, head twisted round away from the cat flap. The ball trickles out, he can’t resist and pounces, she rushes out, sees him with her ball, twists in mid air, catches the ball with a claw and flicks it away, all so fast he can’t react. She speeds off and he chases. So it goes on. Life, fun, two cats, one ball.
Just doodling
when you doodle digitally you never know what’s going to appear. Will it be OK, will it work. This drawing started as something completely different but I played with it, added texture, added patterns. Basically it looks nothing like the original.
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Words
Do you find yourself thinking of a word that just pops into your mind? I thought of a few today. Gestalt, Normality and Defunct all jumped into my head today.
Another day it could be crumble, grunge or fanciful, which is probably what this is.
I think I need sleep when I can dream of words chasing each other through the sky and over hills. Trundling into the sunset where they burst into brilliant petals.
Words are fun, they need using or abusing, but they definitely can make life interesting, exuberant and startling!
Wimbledon
It’s that time of year again, two weeks of tennis on TV. I could sit in a darkened room and watch it all, mens, womens doubles and wheelchair matches. There is a lot of excitement especially towards the end of the tournament and that’s not including the risk of a heavy downpour of rain stopping play.
This year court one has a retractable roof so it offers shelter to players in the same way as the centre court.
Wimbledon can be engrossing, intriguing, spectacular. Human bodies getting bent and stretched into shapes never normally seen in real life. The commentary helps you understand what just happened when tennis balls are travelling across the court faster than you can see.
But I’m getting interested. It’s on in the background. I’ve got things to do. People to see. Switch it off…. In a few minutes, at the end of this game…. This set…. This match….
Mallaband-Brown 