Tag: Time

Coronation?

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I don’t have any pictures of the Coronation of King Charles III today as they will all be copyrighted.

I didn’t watch it except for the royal carriage taking King Charles and Queen Camilla back to the palace after the service in Westminster Abbey. The British do create a marvellous spectacle, ceremony or pageant. Not everyone is a royalist in the UK. But we still call ourselves the United Kingdom.

I was amazed at how many people slept out in chairs just to have a place there. And the weather was typically British for the occasion (raining).

How do you sum up something that happens so irregularly. The Queens Coronation was 70 years ago and who knows when Prince William will be king? but he is next in line in the succession to the throne. This is despite King Charles having a sister and brothers. The rules of who gets the crown are laid down in history.

This Coronation will go down in history too…

Developing tulips

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The top left tulip and bottom right are both the same type, but the top left one has developed and the colour is coming out. The other still has a green tinge. The top left is a different, more rounded type, but there is a yellow throat to it. Finally the bottom left was a larger pale pink flower. I’m loving the way they are developing.

Summer is….

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An ancient song…

Summer is icumen in

Lhud-e sing cuckoo

Groweth seed and bloweth mead

And springs the wood-e noo

Sing cuckoo

Ew-e bleateth after lamb

Low th after calv-e coo

Bullock starteth

Buck-e parteth

Merry sing cuckoo

Cuckoo cuckoo

Well sing-est thou

Cuckoo, nay stop thou never noo

(Foot/Burden)

Sing cu-ckoo noo sing cuckoo

This is an ancient summer song from England. It’s rustic words are a real tongue twister to sing. Our choir tackle it at this time of year. I tend to sing the burden because it’s a simple repeating line. You need good breathing though because it runs along below the main song and usually starts before and ends after the rest of the choir. We sing the music as a round, normally four groups for the tune singing summer is icumen in.. Summer is icumen in.. One group after the other. The foot/Burden group is usually split into two groups of two and start Sing Cu-ckoo… Sing Cu-ckoo…. Over and over.

As a side note, the first time I saw the song was in the film ‘the Green Man’ with Edward Woodward. The villagers sing this after he is captured as a sacrifice. I always get a little chill down my spine when we sing it! You can probably find it on YouTube…..

Sea face

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Eight years ago I painted this. I based it on a broken terracotta wall plaque that I’d had on the wall outside but I think the frost split it. It sort of reminds me of the green man theme and I think I actually bought it in a green man shop in Pickering in Yorkshire….. It was an acrylic on canvas and I guess I must have sold it as I haven’t seen it for years? You can get inspiration from all sorts of places if you look.

So much changes

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Work in progress

So much can change when you paint! The initial acrylic sketch, then as I painted I realised the eye on the right was too far over, the nose too long, the mouth too big. Having the paint out the eye and restart was hard. I then realised her pupils were not lined up. I’ve refined the nose and tried to improve the shading. I’ve got to sort out the body and arms (her knee was up and in the way), I want to paint nice neat draping cloth instead of jeans maybe add a floral pattern to her top. Her hair is a 70’s perm, but I will work on that. Need a rest now. Three hours work… Thankfully someone reset my phone so it stays on longer, the screen was fading every minute!

Directions

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Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.

I was visiting friends at their new house about 40 miles away and I got lost. My hubby doesn’t like asking for directions so we struggled. I could not find where the place was and I’d forgotten to bring the A to Z map, (before satnav which I still don’t have). After a couple of miles of confusion I pulled over to ask a random stranger. I had moved up from that county years ago and I remembered how helpful they are.

Oh yes dear, said the old man, I know where it is. You go down the road past the speedway track (that’s where I met my wife you know), turn left onto the main road past the church (oh we got married there). Right at the roundabout (where I took my driving test), left at the football ground (my team, I’ve supported them for years). Then it’s second on the left (you can’t miss it, the trees are in blossom down there), and you’re at the street…..

After that long conversation we found my friends house easily. I was happy we had stopped. It reminded me of the type of people in that area, always friendly and talkative, engaging and funny. It was a positive encounter.

Green

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Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt green. I did two versions of this, one a drawing, the other filtered through photodirector. I was going to draw vegetation but then I saw a bright green patch of verdigris on a two pence piece. The colour was amazing compared with the old dull coppers.

I had just done a post about coppering up. Finding loose change to spend, which is why I happened to look in the tub of coins so I used them as my inspiration.

Leaving work

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Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.

Things happen and suddenly you have to decide what to do. Your life can carry on the same old way or you can adjust it. Mostly though that happens when you get a little older. That’s what happened to me.

I knew I would be OK as I was taking a calculated step, but what I didn’t bank on was Brexit (why?), then the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis, and health issues.

So would I do it again? Yes of course. I know I’m not probably as well off and secure as I would have been, but I know I’m happier. I won’t describe why I left, but I wasn’t happy. Things changed and I could explain, but it’s in the past now. All I know is that I feel more confident, it has definitely helped me grow as a person.

What’s next? I’ll keep trying to make things work. I have to. I wish anyone else who has made a similar decision all the best and good luck.