What shall I say?

Who shall I speak to? Will they listen to me? So many questions to ask.

She stood in front of the microphone and wished she had written the thoughts down. She had known she would have to speak at the funeral, but had shied away from her obligation. The death of her friend had been a shock. He was only 60 when he passed away. She remembered an old boss of hers telling her off. They don’t pass away or pass on, they die said the woman.

No, she would say pass on. She would say sadly missed. She would say that his passing had left a hole in many lives. She had not seen much of him recently. Things had been bleak, people were not going out as much as they had. A cough could be enough to panic friends into staying away.

The funeral was only sparsely attended. The few people that were there were well separated. Women wore veils over dark coloured masks, the men wore cravats and masks. Good old fashion design getting involved in the workings of life and death. Things had to be chic.

So many questions to ask and then try and answer. She would struggle for words. But she would manage it.

Where to start?

New year, new blog ideas? I’ve been writing and adding images here for over three years and I’m bothered I might be getting boring. I have tried explaining simple cience here, written short stories, shared art, and posted photos. But is that what people want? I am a captive of my own thoughts, I try and be cheerful, but sometimes I can be a bit down, if you know what I mean. So January? I need to think about what I’m doing. Any thoughts, let me know?

Amaryllis and Roses

On the windowsill a pale white/pink Amaryllis about to burst into flower and a minature rose, salmon pink and lovely. A present from my hubby for Christmas. They are looking lovely this JANUARY 2022!

Now 2021 is gone, its done. It will never come again. I hope 2022 is better, we see sense about the climate, we do everything we can to stop the spread of Covid. That we start caring for each other and make more of an effort to help those with the least resources.

X

Cost….

My friend is offering a beautiful print for sale and as a limited edition (not the image here, it has similar colours). I would love it, and it’s at a fair price for an artist to charge. But all I could think was, car tax and other bills are due in January. I have to realise I cannot afford it. Now I feel guilty for just enquiring.

I realise I don’t charge enough for my art. I have this strange idea that I want my art to go to a good home, so I undersell, swap art, or offer ways people can pay in installments. But I’m also doing other artists a disservice. If I charge less, how can they charge more? I think it might be my upbringing. Having a belief in myself? I guess it’s just how I am.

Deleting photos again.

This was the neighbours leylandii trees a couple of years ago. I think I wrote a post about the shock of seeing them being chopped down. They were very big, taller than the neighbours house and right next to it, but I don’t think trees should go.

But then, my media files were over 98% full tonight. The tree photo and several more have had to go. And yet I’m preserving this here… But just to make the point. The blog post is still there. Its too much of a challenge to remove them.

So if you see posts without photos (almost all of them do have my own artwork), I apologise but I want to keep this going…

Boxes

#bandofsketchers prompt today is box.. I drew a couple of boxes. The slatted one at the back is one I keep art equipment in, the other one with the Christmas decorations on top contained the Teddy bear and other presents from my sister. I didn’t realise it had this nice lid until I took the things out of the box. Metallic felt pens and black ink fine line pen.

Mince pies and stollen

It was just me and my hubby together for Christmas, but that means no pressure to get all the trimmings done! I haven’t made a trifle yet, I will probably do so for New year’s day. We had a £3.80 chicken for our Christmas Dinner (a medium turkey crown in sainsburys was £27.90!) We had a few beers and I made pigs in blankets to go with the chicken. I also roasted all the veg including the sprouts. There are plenty of left overs for sandwiches today and I don’t have to think about turning a turkey into a stew and a curry later in the week. The one thing I miss though was having a party with my sister, but I’d rather make sure we are all safe.

Owl keyring

I was keeping my hand in drawing even though it was Christmas day. Funny what you find to draw. I was doing the cooking so I could have drawn the food, but I was not doing the main meal till later on Christmas day night (If that makes sense).

It meant I could either draw or watch TV. But you can only watch so much TV. If it wasn’t so cold and wet and windy I might have been going out for a walk. But there’s always tomorrow. My hands are always restless and ready to draw, sometimes are better than others but you can’t beat drawing and sketching.

So what to draw? I was given this owl keyring as an extra Christmas present, I might just use it as a decoration though, its got coloured stones glued to a gold coloured body and I think they would soon detach if I carried it around. I have a mobile hanging in a window and I might try and attach it onto that? Next question is should I colour it in? I quite like the simplicity of black and white, so for now thats how its staying. I might work on it in photoshop. Not decided yet. anyway I’m posting this at 5.30am after yet another sleepless night. Aches and pains and whirling thoughts. I know I should not be looking at screens, but its either this or watching TV news…

Midnight hour

As the last few minutes to midnight tick down I wish I was at a midnight service for Christmas. There isn’t one this year, and it makes me sad not to be able to go. It’s the carols that really get to me. I think Hark the Herald Angels sing is my favourite. I remember being in the school choir. I wasn’t very good, I think they used me for volume!

Stay safe this festive week, and kee well. No doubt I will add to this blog tomorrow… I don’t think it will be very exciting though!

Panto hat

This large papier mache hat was made for out pantomime a few years ago, it was about a meter wide. Painted to look like an old Spode pottery design. With roman or grecian patterns round the cup. I wish we could be certain that the pantomime we are rehearsing at the moment. This is a photo I found on my phone because I’m trying to clear off some of them to make more space, but I’m keeping this one.