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

Alien Aspie said:

We did a very unscientific survey asking aspies/auties around the world just one question... "Do you walk on your tiptoes?"

More than 85% answered 'yes'. Whether that has something to do with it I don't know.

The problem we, as neurodiverse people, have is that it is a spectrum and there is not one thing you can point at to identify us. Our 'official' statement is "when you meet one aspie you've met one aspie". We are surrounded by people who want to fix us when most aspies are happy being who they are when they are left to their own devices and not drugged up 'for their own good'.

Click to expand...

I'm reading that as it is common for youngsters on the spectrum to be misdiagnosed as having ADHD?

The way Neanderthal heads were shaped, some think gave them more visio/spacial awareness. They had a similar brain size to Sapiens.
If one is out in the countryside a lot it is not a closed book to painters, naturalists and fishermen etc. It lives in colour, life, sound and smell.
I imagine it was the same for early man living in nature.
D.

dunelm said:

Chainsaw and buying lettuce plants - sounds like a plan

Click to expand...

Minced rabbit?

Alien Aspie said:

Right... here is the watercolour!

Click to expand...

And what a great start. I hope you can sort them bricks out but they are OK in my eyes.

dunelm said:

Another quick sketch this morning - trying to just do it rather than ponder over it. This from instructions by Cathy Ho

Click to expand...

Missed your post sketch this morning. Quick, yet a well observed and drawn floral sketch.

Fbg (which spellcheck keeps changing to Fog) 6.4
Temp 35.9

Windy outside. Grey clouds. Rain.
Indoors today?

Take care
Have some fun!

I woke in the night to see Popeye sleeping with just his white nose peeking out.
So I grabbed iPad and drew it, then went back to sleep.

5.9 for me have a good day everyone

Alien Aspie said:

There have been experiments, I took part in having my DNA sampled and the checked along with 30 other people on the spectrum. We all showed higher percentages of Neanderthal or Denisovian DNA, we also took part in helping children from estates in L'pool who were on the spectrum and tended to remain in their rooms. We all went on an 'outward bound/survival' course along with some neurotypical kids. The spectrum kids not only adapted faster but could move silently without being taught.

I can't go into the full details but part of the work determined that Neanderthals grouped in small numbers (going by burial sites etc) probably one or two males and females. As nomads they learnt to move rapidly and stealthily, and as I mentioned before had already bred social wolves (dogs). Thus, a language may not have been as important as it is to larger social groups that were formed by early homo erectus/habilis etc. Part of the conclusion was that there might have been more marked difference between Homo Sapien hunter/gatherers and Homo Sapien farmers, the latter going on to form settlements/villages/towns and cities for social presence and protection.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed answer - let’s hope that this line of research will be of some practical use in the future.

Good Morning and 5.8 for me today.

MILS bungalow for more clearing today. Should be Tesco hunter gathering day but this hunter feels less like gathering than normal, splitting headache and other aches, suspect my Fibromyalgia is playing up so Tesco day may have to be Thursday, must shake this off in the next hour or two and get to MILs.

@Alien Aspie glad to here you are on the mend enough to consider gardening, take care.

@gennepher Another sleeping cat capturing what cats do very well.

Keep safe one and all.

good morning all

4.5 yesterday and 4.2 this morning

for some reason I missed hitting 'post' on yesterdays effort

it was a quiet day, we were just over to mum's to pick up her shoppig list and most of the day was spent watching the teeming rain we had, felt very sorry for the soggy campers

Up earlyish for the weekly shopping run this morning (would be earlier still but our local Lidl doesn't open until 8am ).

@dunelm - a pleasing flower sketch, I especially like the lower leaves

@Alien Aspie - that's a very fine first shot at watercolour, lovely shadow detail on the parapet.
I vividly (well muddily anyway ) remember my own first effort

@gennepher - love both wonderfully peaceful, minimal and very 'zen' pictures of Popeye sleeping

@Muddy Cyclist - what a beautiful painting of the two willows, glorious backlight through the trees and just tipping into the water in reflection and the promise of another to come

All those 'matted' paintings all mine are in a file box, which is definitely not ideal, but then I never thought I would have so many
I don't know where I would get mounting materials from, do you cut your own mats?

art bit -

I had a bit of a go at the hare from mr gee's photo yesterday whilst it rained It will probably be in next weeks scanned batch of art bits

For today here is a 'water' colour usual size, slightly bigger than A5, done with my 'White Nights'

Good morning everyone from tree head banging Rammstein tree shaking in the dark and dangerous north

The wonder wheel of leftover ‘ragu’ on top of a heap of courgetti-spaghetti rocked in at 5.0 this am.

I was planning to go out on my bike again this morning but the word from the trees is that it’s a bit windy. This backed up by fallen bird baths and a pile of land based flotsam and jetsum in detritus corner. Oh well - will just have to wait. I will make bread and then see how we go. It’s also International Bin day so I had better go and supervise the lining up of the bins first.

Nice cat @gennepher, have you come across this site: https://procreate.art/handbook/brushes/brush-studio-settings

My mother sent me a photo of a teapot that someone had given her on her birthday, today’s practice was taken from the pattern on the side of it.

Have as wonderful a day as you can. Koffy calls, must keep practicing my koffy calls.

geefull said:

@dunelm - a pleasing flower sketch, I especially like the lower leaves

Click to expand...

Thank you. I am loving your white knights - a splendid scene, overcast, wonderful sky and the snow on the mountains in the background. Looking forward to the hare.

Muddy Cyclist said:

Good Morning and 5.8 for me today.

MILS bungalow for more clearing today. Should be Tesco hunter gathering day but this hunter feels less like gathering than normal, splitting headache and other aches, suspect my Fibromyalgia is playing up so Tesco day may have to be Thursday, must shake this off in the next hour or two and get to MILs.

@Alien Aspie glad to here you are on the mend enough to consider gardening, take care.

@gennepher Another sleeping cat capturing what cats do very well.

Keep safe one and all.

Click to expand...

Thank you @Muddy Cyclist
You take care. Pace yourself if it is at all possible.

geefull said:

for some reason I missed hitting 'post' on yesterdays effort

Click to expand...

That has happened to me a few times. The first time I thought I had forgotten . Fortunately it was still there in the evening. The second time I was almost sure I had pressed send/post. The third time, I knew I had pressed send, yet it hadn't sent.

Thank you for the cat compliments.

For your question, I cut my own mounts, always have. But it is not always an easy thing to do. I have cut so many over the years, I can do it by eye and not measure.

At my art group they had a mat cutting took supposedly to make mount cutting easy. I could never get to grips with that tool . But the others could use it easily.

I don't know what shops you have your way, but Hobbycraft sell mounts (I presume you can get them online). We have a shop called The Range which sells mountboard in many colours. I wait until there is an offer. Then I cut my own with a steel ruler and a sharp Stanley knife. I change the blade for each new mount.

Or, if you have a picture framer, he/she will cut your mounts for you.

But be careful if you buy frames from charity shops (thinking that would be a cheap way to repurpose a mount in the frame,), because many of them have the picture glued to the mount (I found out the hard way and I now have several boxes of frames in my garage which I brought as a job lot and I thought I was going to be able to repurpose the mounts, but I couldn't because many of the mounts were glued to the picture, but with a bit of care and teasing the picture away from the mount with a Stanley knife it can be done).

I hope some of this helps.

geefull said:

For today here is a 'water' colour usual size, slightly bigger than A5, done with my 'White Nights'

Click to expand...

A beautiful painting, I could sit on that beach and and just watch the changing landscape..

Good morning everyone. Today is when we commemorate Oswald King of Northumbria - kind of your neck of the woods @dunelm? Oddly, I was in Oswald house at school. My fbg today? Possibly somewhere in the region of 4.4 to 4.6 but could equally have been at all sorts of other levels. Those ones were just what Libre's fake news put out to discredit my amazing achievement in finagling the numbers it shows. Last evening's ruse was to ingest a two egg - and avo of course - salad smothered in mayo. Surprising how time flies. Seems like only yesterday a 5 kgs tub of mayo was full - must communicate with those Amazonians for a replacement. Earlier (lunch?) I had a sandwich of garlic and dill sauerktaut and chicken breast. Someone mysteriously ate all the Holy Moly. Good news on the Okley Dokely front @Alien Aspie; hope the wind abates for your jaunt @dunelm; great fbg @karen8967; wonderful artwork again @geefull; take it easy @Muddy Cyclist. Pip pip old toots .

dunelm said:

Good morning everyone from tree head banging Rammstein tree shaking in the dark and dangerous north

The wonder wheel of leftover ‘ragu’ on top of a heap of courgetti-spaghetti rocked in at 5.0 this am.

I was planning to go out on my bike again this morning but the word from the trees is that it’s a bit windy. This backed up by fallen bird baths and a pile of land based flotsam and jetsum in detritus corner. Oh well - will just have to wait. I will make bread and then see how we go. It’s also International Bin day so I had better go and supervise the lining up of the bins first.

Nice cat @gennepher, have you come across this site: https://procreate.art/handbook/brushes/brush-studio-settings

My mother sent me a photo of a teapot that someone had given her on her birthday, today’s practice was taken from the pattern on the side of it.

Have as wonderful a day as you can. Koffy calls, must keep practicing my koffy calls.

View attachment 43103

Click to expand...

Far too windy here for a safe bike ride @dunelm

Thanks for the cat compliment.

No I hadn’t come across that Procreate site. Thanks for that. I’ve bookmarked it.

Great plum blossom painting. It must be a lovely teapot.

4.5 at 3.30am and 4.5 at 6.30am - so absolutely no DP which is good.

@ianpspurs yes - we did have a lovely walk around the tranquil Gooderstone Water Gardens yesterday.