What is it?

I think it’s a crab eating a shell? I want to do a painting of a crab as a late Christmas present. Basically I didn’t get my act together in time for a birthday present and then I promised to do it as a Christmas gift, and now look what’s happened! It’s been a hard year for me physically and mentally and I don’t seem to have the capacity to do things like I used to.

I must stop moaning and get on with things. But if you get a Christmas card off me in mid January, let me apologise now! X

MAILER DAEMON, failure notice?

What does mailer daemon even mean? When you send an email to a company after they have given you a SPECIFIC email address, you copied it down twice, then it comes back with a failure notice? Is it that they want you to fail, to think it had gone through and they are dealing with it? So annoying! What to do? I went online and found an ‘info@’ email address. I have forwarded the email there. I hoe it gets through. I included the email address I had been told to send it to. Let’s see what happens?

Leafy

Oh for autumn

Gone away

Not to be seen

For another day

Plants die back

Leaves fall down

Winter comes

And freezes the ground

Warmth has seeped

Away from here

Brilliant sun

No longer near

Frosts and fogs

Are here this year

To chill your bones

Cold winds you hear.

So come back autumn

Come back spring

One more summer

To make me sing.

Finished at last

This took a long, long time. I can still paint but shaking isn’t helping. If I put things on the easle it’s a bit better, but sometimes I have to hold the painting to add details, then if I try and paint my left arm and hand shakes and the canvas wobbles. So I have to redo things. I wish I wasn’t getting old. Painting means such a lot to me. Then typing, the phone wobbles side to side as I stab at the keyboard. Thank goodness for predictive text! Anyway I hope this little dogs owner loves this painting, she’s been really patient. X

Lights switch on

Before and after, the local Christmas lights switch on at the top of our hill. Everyone counted down and then… The gentle lights came up on the Christmas tree. Not overwhelming but restrained and pretty. We ate a mince pie that were being handed out. The local brass band played the carols and people sang along. As the Carol service continued children took their places as characters in the nativity. Two tiny. Little girls were the angels and there was a flock of shepherd’s. Well done to the organisers who created a warm welcome despite covid. X

Art box

I thought I’d post another picture of my old art stuff. I’ve certainly collected a lot of art equipment over the years. The pastels have dried out but the pencils are still OK. The watercolours are a bit old and powdery, maybe I can use them in a painting.

Ask me how old they are? I think twenty or thirty years old? Certainly not when I was at college, but not long after that.

Where is the box now? I think its upstairs somewhere. This photo was taken a year or two ago. I have a tenancy to find things, then put them somewhere ‘safe’ again. Which means I’ll probably not see them for another ten years! Life….

Reading

A friend here, @stoneronarollercoaster just asked what book got people into reading as a child.

I remember reading Myths and Legends books from quite early on. The story of Pandora box for instance. I remember them when I was about eight or nine. And when I was older I liked the Nancy Drew Mysteries then Agatha Christie stories.

But the main book that got me was when I was about ten I read ‘Old Yeller’ a book that shocked me as it was about a dog that had caught rabies. I remember it was very sad and made me really aware of death. I’ve never read it again. Maybe I should. I’ve been a bibliophile ever since.

Omicron, oh dear

I don’t have the Omicron version of Covid, I did a lateral flow test. But things are getting to me. Mentally I feel run down, fed up, worried, scared even. I don’t want to go out or see people. I missed a few things recently because I’m keeping myself to myself. But I know I’m getting worse. Recent health issues have made me feel more isolated and it’s almost too easy to hide away. Seeing people walking round shops without masks also puts me off….

I will wait and see what happens, but I do think that old addage about discretion is the better part of valour (is that right) might be the phrase that describes how I feel.

Aragorn

One of my old digital drawings on a now defunct website called Sketchfu. I drew it when the Lord of the Rings came out. I have forgotten the actor who played him although I know Orlando Bloom played Legolas. I know the actor also played a long distance horse rider in a film about a horse that races over the Sahara. The horse wasn’t pure blood but one of Americas wild mustang horses. I can’t remember the film name! My memory is getting full of holes….