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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

Hi all,
Spent the morning pottering around garden, which I have let go a lot due to nesting birds. It is too big for me.
Pottering is about all I am fit for after all these years we came up here in 1964 with my job and have been in the same house 55 years.

I have been knackered just recently so I will have to describe myself as one of the low hanging fruit that gets the excess un-deaths down!

Old Brock has been at it again. The sett is about half a mile away and he regular digs a latrine in my grass and leaves a little pile in it to mark his territory. We must be on the edge of his territory. I hope he's not the cause of the mother hare not leaving a leveret in the garden the last few years.

We had a leveret in a form in the daffodils after they flowered one year, just in front of the living room window. The female came twice a day to clean and feed 'him'.
Rather sentimentally we called the leveret Dylan after our only grandson.
Atb
D.
 
Today's art is finishing the Essex Bridge a Packhorse Bridge that crosses the River Trent. It's a very long bridge this painting I did Portrait to try a get some drama, not sure it worked. A4, Watercolour about 2 hours on and off.

Family meal virtual challenge tonight 'Solar System' so one rushed badly drawn picture A3 and a song called Solar System Blues, bright and cheerful ragtime style in the Key of D major. Chorus goes....

I'm living on this planet, third from the sun.
It's blue and like a marble, atmospheric fun.
A moon spins around it, gravitational pull.
It's very Atmospheric, here on Earth.

Then 4 verses. CHorus only sung as intro and outro. Picture....on which Mrs MC will point to the planets as I mention them in the song.

 
Artwork looks great to this non artist with or without drama to you. Solar System Blues all good as well IMHO. I may be a philistine but you are enlightening me. I like the reflection on the water. Thank you.
 
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ianpspurs said:
Artwork looks great to this non artist with or without drama to you. Solar System Blues all good as well IMHO. I may be a philistine but you are enlightening me. I like the reflection on the water. Thank you.
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Thank you, I'm certain you are far from the way you describe but I'm pleased I have managed to enlighten at least one person during my time on this wonderful planet Earth. Below shows why it's scary on horse back as I mentioned yesterday.
 
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dunelm said:
Love it. Lovely composition. Those little dots in the flowers look tricky. I think that there is more to this app than first appears - just a matter of fiddling about with it. How are you getting along with different pressures?
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If I am playing with my hand @dunelm , then I can get all kinds of pressures and strokes with thickness and thinness with the side of my little finger or thumb. When it comes to doing the actual picture I'm concentrating too much and I'm not getting the stroke I wanted that I got when I was playing but I didn't know I was going to get. But I am still getting there, bit by bit.
 

Last night @dunelm was the worst in a long time. The poor cat could feel my pain. He sat on my chest hanging his head in sympathy, and his paw kept patting my arm...
If it had been snowing I would have gone outside in bare feet etc. That stops the pain for a bit...

We all have pushed through things in the past when maybe we shouldn't have.
 
Krystyna23040 said:
@gennepher so sorry to hear that your arthritis flared up last night and that none of your meds or strategies worked. I do hope it starts to settle down soon and you can get some rest.
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Thank you.
It has been playing up all day @Krystyna23040
It is a lovely sunny day, and I have not been able to do anything nice with it
Watched the frogs hopping round my garden.
 

Love this bamboo @dunelm Brilliant!
 

I looked at the photo first @Muddy Cyclist I can see that this would be a very scary bridge on horseback.

Because you have shown us the photo as well @Muddy Cyclist I can see that the reflections of the arches have the illusion of appearing deeper in height than the actual arches themselves, and this gives a more dramatic feeling. And maybe that will give you the drama you are looking for?

When I look at your painting of the bridge, the height of the arches appear higher than the reflections of them in the water. I think. But I am tired so I might not be seeing it right.

I love your dramatic sky, and the foreground is amazing. There is a lot of hard work gone into this painting.
 
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What a Bonnie painting of the packhorse bridge. It has been done extremely well Muddy.
I know the Trent from the Lincs/Notts border, where, when it floods it can be miles wide.
The plaque on a house in Girton shows its massive floods and a rather lugubrious quote: When this you see, pray think of me.

I don't know much of Staffordshire being a Yellow belly.
regards
D.
 
Thankyou, I agree the proportions are not right, I shy away from man built objects as I can never get the effect, proportions or feeL right, maybe a more abstract approach is required as with the oil painting, might give it ago in acrylics or perhaps even watercolour.

Hope you overcome this painful period soon.

Liked today's Orchid well done under such difficult circumstances.
 
Thank you, this Bridge actually crosses where the River Trent and Stowe meet along with a tribute built to enhance Shugbourgh Hall landscape, it's a lovely area. I have seen floods here that hide the Arches of the bridge, amazing that it's stood for so many years. As you leave the bridge on the North side you immediately meet the Trent Mersy Canal.
 

I feel the same about man built stuff and perspective @Muddy Cyclist
I would sooner do a more fluid natural object.

Thank you, and thanks very much for the orchid complement.
 
Good evening all

4.2 today

a scary day in some ways today. mr gee and I had to go to the 'wicked city' 35 miles away to get a car MOT and service done (had to go back to the dealer to keep the warranty).

There for 10.00 am for the MOT and then service and 'come back at 15.00pm, we'll ring you in the meantime if we find anything that needs your input' (presumably input of extra cash ).
The car dealer was very well organised with a one way system for dropping off the keys, 2 metre distancing and screens everywhere. Free masks and gloves available on entry and even though the mechanics were working with the workshop doors wide open they were still all wearing masks and gloves.

Last year we just walked into town and mooched about, shopped and had lunch whilst they did the job couldn't do that this time though
The only place within distance was an out of town shopping park so that's where we spent the time, we did have some things we needed to get, like food for Katie which we often buy and get delivered directly. All screened and sanitised and 2 metre distanced

We also went into Costa coffee to buy some coffee beans with a voucher we got for Christmas. they were very organised with a marshall on the door and a one way queuing system, 2 meter distance behind screens from the staff, sanitise on the way in and then the marshall opens the door for you to leave so you don't need to touch anything

We alternated between going into one shop then takeing a break sitting in the open air away from people for a while, then on to the next. Over the five hours span we were in the car dealers and four other shops, more than we've had contact with since lockdown so it was surprisingly nerve wracking.

I will say that all the shops were very organised, I only saw one person approach a shop without a mask on and she was turned away. Much busier than we are used to but all the distancing and sanitising protocols were well established so I'm hopeful we will remain safe

Car dealer phoned us about 14.30 to tell us we could pick the car up at 15.00pm and it was finished but just being 'sanitised' it had been cleaned and wiped down everywhere when we got it back.

Hope your day treats you kindly

@dunelm - once again a very effective bamboo painting

@JohnEGreen - hope Judith enjoys her 'White Nights' as much as I do

@gennepher - I'm so sorry to hear that you are in pain and hope that things improve quickly for you.
That's a very satisfying and stylish composition you've created with today's orchid painting You have a real gift for creating graceful flow in your artworks with this app.

@Muddy Cyclist - I like your 'packhorse' bridge painting very much, it has a really lovely architectural solidity and the reflections framed by the foreground plants make the composition flow nicely

Art bit -
mr gee kindly treated me to a tin of 12 'inktense' Derwent pencils today so at some point I'll try them out.

this was my first small experiment with using the liquid resist, I wasn't quite sure how it would work and the 'stars' were a bit big I think but it's a learning thing the milky way seemed like a suitable subject for a first try
 

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Sounds like a good day. Love that painting, colours, depth and atmosphere. That resist if it's the rubbery Type is not easy to use on small subjects like stars you did well. I have tried flicking it from all hard bristle brush but it never seems to do what you want. Another way if your paper is robust enough, 100% cotton is to paint in the dark sky or area and then with sharp pointed metal tool or pin scratch the paint off and reveal the paper, I use this technique on water and grasses.
 
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