Rainbows

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From Facebook :

A friend who works for the NHS said ” I haven’t seen any as yet but a friend has seen a picture of a rainbow in someone’s window, so, how about we all draw, paint, print one off and put them in our windows?? Something to do if nothing else then as We’re bombing around”….. “in our Ambo we can start counting how many we see!!!
There’s always a rainbow at the end of a Storm and it could show that we are all standing together (2 metres apart lol) to ride this storm out!!!
Then when this IS all over, and it will be, we can all have rainbow parties (any excuse for a knees up!) to celebrate “….

I though what a wonderful idea. I did one of my own which is in my front window now. It may not be much, but it made me feel more positive.

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Above our door

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I designed this about 25 years ago. A cat resting in the window above our front door. My friend Phil Shaw who was a carpenter also knew how to make stained glass, so I drew out the pattern and he made this up for me. It’s been there ever since and I love it. When we had our house double glazed I wanted to have this incorporated into a window but they couldn’t do it, so it remains, behind the single glass window. Letting the sunlight in. Coloured patches on the carpet.

Have you opened the window again?

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Ooh its cold in here?

Have you opened the window?

Again?

Well I wanted fresh air!

So go outside!

You are heating up the atmosphere…

It’s minus 5 out there..

That’s why you’re wearing your coat in the house?

And the heating is on full…

And the extra heaters are on…

Are you mad?

Is it any wonder I get annoyed?

Life changes.

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Thinking about how much life has changed since I cooked toast on our gas fire.

In the 1970’s we had electric central heating installed downstairs in our house. This was installed by our council. But my mom would not have it on because of the cost. We used to sleep with our outdoor coats on top of our sheets, blankets and eiderdowns to keep warm. In the winter there was always frost on the inside of the bedroom window. Sometimes really thick ice.

Now my home has double glazing (single at my mom’s house till the 1980’s). Central heating. The water is usually hot, where we were only allowed to put the heater on for an hour at night at my old home.

Also computers were just coming in and calculators were introduced when I was a teenager. Now they are everywhere. “go online” is the mantra.

Electric cars? Maybe imagined in the 1960’s to be everywhere by the turn of the century, and people really thought there woukd be flying cars.

Bad stuff now… Too much plastic… Too much pollution. But there were shop wrecks like the Torrie canyon and the Exxon Valdiz that poured millions of gallons of oil into the sea and destroyed sea bird colonies.

What else? Our phone, when we got it was a big green one, with a hand held ear and mouthpiece attached to the phone body by a curly wire. The phone itself had a dial with holes lined up with numbers on it. To dial a number you put your finger in a hole then pulled it round the dial until you got to a stop then the dial turned the other way and you dialled the next number… Now, well we have mobile phones, hand held computers like in star trek.

Other things, better medication, more cures for cancer, more treatments, more, older people.

The thing is, the more we have, the more we want…. Catch 22….

Blue green yellow… and a bit of orange.

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Have you noticed a theme? There are yellows, blues and greens floating around my last few posts. Maybe I’m heading towards spring colours to avoid the start of autumn turning into the drab greys of winter.

Two of these pieces of glass are replacements for the bright yellow bowl that the cats broke, let’s see how long they last!

I’d like to go back in time sometimes. There are so many things in the world that are going wrong. We don’t need to live in interesting times x.

George

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George was a good cat. If he climbed on windowsills he would carefully place his paws so he didn’t knock over the vases. If he climbed to the top of the bookcase, somehow he would not knock the books down. Even if paint was spilled on the floor he could avoid walking through it. Oh George was a clever cat. He could be seen in the window of the house. Not looking out, but looking into the room. A twinkle in his eye.

George had one bad habit. He chased the goldfish in the bowl. It would hide behind the plastic castle in the corner. Waiting for George, who could stare for hours, to get bored and go away.

One day it was cold and grey, the weather was stormy, and George decided to look out of the window and watch the trees waving in the wind. Suddenly a bolt of lightening struck one of the tallest trees. There was an almighty cracking noise, and a huge branch came down hitting the window and smashing it. George jumped out of the way just in time, his paws softly landing on the carpet. But then he saw the goldfish, it’s bowl had been knocked over. He sniffed it as it lay flapping on its side. But, instead of eating the fish he carefully gripped the tip of its tail in his mouth and ‘plop’, dropped it back into the half full bowl. Then he placed himself next to the bowl and watched the fish swim.

I’m quiet because I’m painting.

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I’ve decided to paint this one. I like the reflections and the blues and whites which remind me of the Willow pattern colours. I’ve turned the canvas to landscape rather than portrait and I’m concentrating on the lower two thirds of the photo.

I like the photo, but I wanted to simplify what I was doing. I’m hoping to get a good representation of the clouds and I want to get the flaking paint and the other details in the reflection in the windows visible but subtle. I will try and post updates and I might take a break later to blog.