It does feel good to get things done. Especially if they are something that has been nagging at you for a while.Thank you - it feels so good to have done it. I was beginning to worry that the lockdown would end and I would still be knee deep in paperwork.
Good morning everyone from the azure and light filament that is the dark and dangerous north. I shall sing Blue Savannah by Erasure.
Hedgehogs. Another hedgehog spotted at dark o’clock last night. This time in the front garden and being bothered by one of the mad cat lady’s predators which was swiftly shoo’d away (is shoo’d a word - of course it is - you can read it - it’s a word). Was it Silent Bob or a close pal or relative? Unknown because it was socially distancing itself from other hedgehogs. Exciting stuff, I know.
Indelicate question, what does hedgehog poo look like? Am finding mystery messes. Would be nice if it was hedgehogs, but somehow dont think it is. No obvious insect parts.
A long 4 hour Mountain Bike Ride with DIL and with a 20 minute stop to do a Plein Air watercolour. It very busy and took all my knowledge of Cannock Chase to dodge others, overall we succeeded. Lots of picnicking families at Hot spots, no social distance, grandparents, kids and grandkids everywhere not surprising under Gov ridiculousness.
The ride was through Oak Woods, Pine forest, heathland and the mill race path. We came across the area that saw a devastating fire on Friday, extensive. Picture below is me on a high ridge between Sherbrooke Valley and Cherry Tree Slade, (no Cherry Trees) the other is me finding a spot to do my painting where the fire started, all this beauty and I decide to paint devastation in the valley that runs up past Dickslees Cave.(like the Cherry Tree no Cave).area burnt looks small here but it is a few square miles, terrible.
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So my watercolour painting is another sketchbook Plein Air effort 20 minutes A4. There was something strangely beautiful about this disastrous scene. Silver Birches seemed to glow against the purple/blue/black background, whilst the path remained bright and sandy in the strong sun. I had taken my watercolours to paint Oak Trees, rode through many 800 year olds with many dropped limbs in the high winds yesterday but the burnt area is what I tried to capture.
View attachment 41671
Thank you Gennepher, for the advice and the concern.Hugs for your frustrating tiring day yesterday @SlimLizzy
Give yourself a bit of time out today, a bit of me time.
Give your TO DO list a rest just for an hour or so.
Then go back to it.
Take care x
What a lovely breakfast time read, Chris Packham would be in his elementAh! Tricky question but this may improve your tracking skills https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to/identify-wildlife/how-to-identify-animal-droppings/
Painting for today, a sunset in pastels.
A different paper used today.
I have a sketchbook of different coloured Ingres paper. It is mostly the darker papers. This shade of brown paper is called sable I think. And J used to use this colour a lot in his pastel paintings. He bought Ingres mounting board to do his pastels on. I probably have some in the garage, when he bought stuff, I went and bought the same (or he bought some for me), but stored it for my old age when I would be unable to go to the shops...well, we have Armageddon Apocalypse now, so that's the same thing.
There is probably enough paint (as long as they don't dry out, but the watercolours are always usable even if they dry out) and paper and canvas supplies in the garage to keep me going until I am a hundred...
Anyway, I am much happier with this pastel than I was with the one yesterday. I think I like the Ingres paper much more than the Mi-teintes Canson paper. It was more satisfying to do the pastels on.
This is only small, about 8" x 5" (inches). I have never been able to visually see in cm, I can gauge by guesswork in inches. It took me nearly an hour and a half. By the way J would do a sunset in a fraction of the time, and he utilised so much more of the natural sable brown of the paper as part of the sunset. So he used very little pastel.
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Oh, and that green at the bottom, it's not black, it is a green soft pastel that verges on black. I love it, but I have almost none left now. J and I used to often find artists paint and materials in charity shops, and this was one of my finds in Oxfam. A very very old wooden box of soft pastels. It was an antique really. But I took the pastels out, used the compartmentalised wooden box for something else. The soft pastels were very fragile, crumbled easily, so I put them in dry rice which I hoped would stop them cross contaminating the other colours, but ended up just putting kitchen paper in my plastic boxes of different coloured pastels so I could still use the dust that crumbled off them.
Any way, this dark green at the bottom of this pastel above is nearly gone now. Just a few scraps remain.
I did find the same brand online. It was still going, so ordered a set, but that dark green doesn't have the same pigment intensity any more. I did check why, and it seems that they were not made in the same place anymore, and had been sourced out to China, and so the original pigment had changed. I think this has happened with other painting materials.
Just because things as paints are now made in China doesn't necessarily mean poor quality, I am not saying that. I have some very intense paints and pigments too from China (it is almost impossible to wash some out of your hands, they last for days!).
There endeth your gennepher's art lesson for today....
Happy birthday and may there be many more. Nostalgia eh? Not what it used to be.Good morning everyone from another day of promise in the dark and dangerous north.
The wonder wheel of spag boll with spiralized courgette rode home on a meek and mild 4.5 this am
Not complaining about the radiator setting yesterday but my seedling were not impressed. I think that Mr McGregor needs to either move things round a bit or provide a certain amount of PPE and extra supplies of water.
Video link afternoon tea with our grandchildren later today in order to celebrate grandads “15th birthday” - It must be true because my granddaughter told me and she knows a thing or too about being old.
There used to be a thing, a while ago, before the age of lockdown and stuff. It was called journalism. Best have some koffy.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=916426955466719
Thank you for the link. Seems it's not hedgehog, another possibility is weasel, but have not been able to find any information on them.Ah! Tricky question but this may improve your tracking skills https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to/identify-wildlife/how-to-identify-animal-droppings/
Thank you @dunelmLove the art.
Interesting thing black - at night, it really is hard to blend into the background. Dark green however, blends into the night quite nicely. One reason that Ninja’s should really sort themselves out.
Thank you. I will probably have to wear purple later today, and a hat which doesn’t go in a personal ode to nonconformity
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