ABig Learning Curve

I would have liked to display this book on one of those clever things with thambnails that you click on but I haven't got a clue how to do it, so this will have to do. This is a book which, as the title suggests, I learned a lot. Some I pages I like and some I am really not keen on at all but I guess that's what learning is all about.

6 O'clock News

What on earth are the BBC up to with the Six O'clock News?

Intead of being informed in a an unemotional and impartial way the news of this country and the world, we are subjected to watching two or (when and expert is introduced)three or people having what amount private converations. These people either smirk or or use a terrible false gravitas to deliver the "news"."Well, Natasha"....."yes, george"...."what is the reaction Tom, Dick or Harry?" . "special reports" (the answer to this last is usually so obvious a child would know the answer) The two, plastic, "news" readers stand in artificial poses, in artificial settings while they dispense trivia and why does someone have to be flown to Scotland, Washington, Timbuctoo to deliver a few lines?? Presumably it is a the tax payers expense? i.e. MINE

I think I'll get my news from the Internet from now on, or the checkout at Sainsbury's......it will have more relevance.

Water shortage???

I have just returned from two weeks in Cyprus, in those two weeks we had no rain, in fact, they are not expecting to have any rain now until late October.
When we left they were giving the swimming pool its daily refresh and the man down the road was cleaning his car with a pressure hose.
When we left Gatwick two weeks ago it was raining, when we arrived back it pouring down.

Perhaps the managers of the english water companies should take a holiday in Cyprus!!!!

Storyteller

This is the "storyteller" cape I have just made for a friend's school. The children supplied the artwork themselves and it is wonderful. It didn't turn out as my first mind picture but then what does. I hope the children will be happy with it......that will be enough.

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty

I am out of the country on holiday (Yeah!!) so this is a little early but I couldn't miss the opportunity to wish this remakable woman all the very best wishes for her birthday. She is a shining example, in this world of crude "celebrity",of how to behave when you are in the public eye.

Do you think she would consider bringing out a fitness video???? I would like to know her secrets as I would really like to think I could cope with her schedule when I am eighty.

Easter Bonnet

In Her Easter Bonnet

Remember when you wore your new outfit to church on Easter Sunday morning no matter what he temperature.

I have just remembered that in the town where I lived we made pasche eggs, these were dyed or painted and were used to decorate the sash windows of the houses, they stood in a line, each house vying with the next in number and decorative splendour. My favourites were the ones made with a primrose pressed against the shell,wrapped in onion skins and bound in cotton and then boilded. They were so beautiful. On Easter Sunday morning we rolled our eggs, one against the other, the persons egg that didn't smash was the champion. Didn't win anything.....the old ideal of the "taking part".

Happy Easter everyone.

Fastrack to nowhere

We used to live in the country,

But now we live in the town.

We haven't moved,

The council came and tore the hedges down.

They came to build a fast track

To get from here to there.

But thanks to all the traffic lights

I'm not going anywhere..

Oh yes! I am an admirer of Dartford's Fastrack, they said it there would be a bus every ten minutes and indeed there is. I stopped at the traffic light to let one bus go by and 500 yards and ten minutes later I stopped at the next set of lights to let the next bus go by.

Why in heaven's name could they have not have moved traffic to one side of the road and the buses to the other instead of having them criss-crossing back and forth. We have suffered months of road works and disruption and now it seems the inconvenience is to continue for ever.

To get to my friends house (and almost antwhere else I go) I now have to go through eleven sets of traffic lights where formerly there were only four!!!!!!!! I am a punctual person and now I cannot ever set out from home and know that I will be on time........... and the Fastrack goes nowhere I want to be.

Marks and Spencer re-write history!!!

Passing through M&S this morning in amongst their books I saw "The Best of MRS BEETONS Household Tips". As "Mrs Beeton's Household Management" is a book that I love to take from the library, now and then, I picked up the book thinking to treat myself for a fiver. The book fell open at........... "BASICS OF MICROWAVE COOKING" and I almost fell on the floor laughing, I shared the joke with another lady, we also liked Mrs B's advice on FREEZERS and, wait for it, CREDIT CARDS, we put the book back on the shelf and went our separate ways, chuckling.

The picture is from 1862, for the Englishwomen's Domestic Magazine published by MR Beeton, do you think the ladies are dicussing the relative merits of Visa and Maestro or whether the use their microwave for anything other than defrosting????

Life is Full of Surpises

Well for my friend it will be for the next 40 days. She has just had a birthday and for her partner has chosen to give her a small gift every day, one for each year.
He has done this before and I think it sounds such fun. They don't have to be expensive presents, it is the suprise that is the essence. Lucky girl.

Picture is not my friend... just one of my ATC's .....a bit of romance.

It's an Age Thing

After leaping round London on Thursday I jumped onto a bus to take me back to Charing Cross. Actually, you can't jump on and off a bus anymore, not like we used to.... ...but I digress.
When I jumped on this bus TWO people jumped up to give me their seat. Now the positive side of me would have said "Manners are not dead after all!" but the negative side of me (some people don't know there is another side!!) said "Grief I must look awful!"

A common experience, amongst us more mature people, is the moment when you see the reflection of an elderly woman in a shop window and realise it's you. It's quite a nasty shock. Thursday's experience was the same kind of shock and as my daughter said when I told her about it....... "Instant depresssion!"

I had a little experiment this morning on how to change the then to the now. The last one is called "Old head on Young Shoulders" and is probably pretty close to how I looked when I got on that bus..... scary huh!!!

Things people do

Can someone tell me why people would rather walk over something, that has fallen off a rack in a store, than replace it so that it is not damaged further?

Michelangelo

I went to the Michelangelo Drawing exhibition at the British Museum, it was wonderful to be able to get so close to the sketches just like looking over his shoulder as the audio guide said. But it raised the question, why when Michelangelo does a squiggle it looks like and eyebrow or a curl and when I do a squiggle....it looks like a squiggle. Lack of genius, perhaps???? I loved the way the sketches were often drawn almost on top of other as though he had grabbed whatever piece of paper was to hand. The most moving image for me was a tiny detail on one page which was the first sketch for what would eventually become the hand of God on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.


If anyone considers that I am infringing copywrite by scanning my leaflet please advise me and I will remove it.

Never ending winter

The thing I find so strange about the present cold weather is that, here in our little corner of England, we have had no snow. Just boring, grey, freezing cold for weeks. Too cold for snow, they say.
Here's some I made earlier!!

Is it just my mind?

Scanned in a photo of the sea and rocks as I thought it would make a good background at sometime. I always try the negative image because you never know what will happen........lo and behold the sea shore changed into a landscape ........and was that a little house on the top of a hill...........someone quite special must live there.......I wonder what they use for fuel........Is it just my mind???

Evenings on the Town

Tuesday evening went with DH to the National Theatre in London so listen to one of our national treasures, Eric Sykes, talking about his life as a scipt writer and comedian. The Olivier Theatre which holds ove 1000 people was packed which, I think goes to prove that humans like to laugh more than anything else. There was a book signing afterwards, I had bought the book for DH as a Christmas present. When he heard this Mr Sykes looked at DH and in a very dry way said "I hope the New Year will be better".
Friday evening was "A Chorus Line" performed by our local amateur society. I love this show, a tribute to the hard lives of chorus dancers everyhere.
Two other nice things that have happened (see above) My best friend perpetrated a RAK (randon act of kindness) and sent me a replacement for my favourite purse in a fun package. Another friend loaned me some vintage photographs so I decided to try using the principles from my new Claudine Helmuth book.

Mutant Ladybirds

Ladybirds with curls, with feathers with scales and strange shaped spots.....some new ecological disaster? No just a group of embroiderers getting to grips with the mysteries of "stumpwork" in a workshop called "Sculptured Stiches" . Sam Beresford was the tutor, such a relaxed, amusing and encouraging teacher. There is something very special, I find, that happens when a group of women get together to sew. Tips and techniques get shared and certainly yesterday gentle teasings, jokes and laughter made it an enriching day.
I drove home in a true golden haze as apart from my uplifted mood the beautiful Darenth Valley was bathed in a glowing winter sunset. The only thing that spoiled it was, as per usual, I had forgotten my camera!!
And yes, it took me all day to get this far, so the next time I look at a piece of faded stumpwork in a stately home or museum I will bow my head to the skill and patience it represents.

Great weekend and British Library

I took a train trip to Spalding, an interesting and attractive town in Lincolnshire, this weekend. Beautiful day on Saturday and in the Fens you could see for miles. Day started on a high note, because I had masses of time before my train, I made a visit to the British Library. I will be back. There was a very good exhibition on the Nobel prize winners and then of course the examples from the collection were stunning. I have to say, for a few moments there, I did consider the fact that I may never alter another book. These wonderful volumes and the work and care that went into the production and the preservation of them gave me qualms about ever altering a "proper" book again. I went to WH Smith and bought a cheap note book to play with on the train. This is the result. The feeling actually lasted until I found a book, in a charity shop in Spalding, it was was literally falling to pieces, I bought it and brought it home. I may alter it!!!! Also found a great bookshop where I bought a Claudine Helmuth book, of all the unexpected things to find!!
The text round this piece is from the old song "she was only a bird in a gilded cage".

Push chairs

Right, that's the introductions over. Those who know me will wonder how I managed a couple of posts without having a rant about Forward Facing Pushchairs!! When my children were little I had a push chair where my children faced me. As we walked we chatted, on long walks we played games of I-spy etc, and I could see what they were up, like jettisoning the odd shoe!! Today children are stuffed int0 a push chair, facing away from whoever is pushing, as far as I can see no one ever talks to them or even knows they are there because when they cry they are completely ignored. The most ridiculous thing about these all singing, all dancing push chairs is that when the are babies they face the pusher and as soon as the child gets old enough to be socialable they are turned away. I have been banging on about this for at least three years, I have seen articles in the press and I have heard it discussed on the radio. When I have talked about this with young mums the most common comment is "Well they are really difficult to find". It is time the manufacturers took responsibility , they are damaging our children's development. End of rant.

Todays picture is of me in rant mode........no it's not, it is another image from the wonderful art-e szine and a couple of my photographs with a bit of Paint Shop Pro magic.

It made me smile.

Well so far, so good. my page hasn't disappeared overnight and I have managed to add the link to art-e-zine so I am very pleased with myself.

On our local news last week there was the story of a little boy, I think he was six, who wanted to visit his relations in Canada. His mother told him he would have to save up so he decided to hold anArt Exhibition.......Venue: His bedroom. Time: Friday evening from 6pm .......until bedtime. Bless.

Today's picture is one of my altered photo's, a hint of Spring. Enjoy.

There I've done it.

Well friends here I am, as you know I have been talking about this for long enough. It all looks a bit dark and gloomy at the moment, hopefully when I've been here a while, I will learn how to change things.

This one of my altered photographs with a image from Gillian Allen's wonderful "art-e-zine". I will learn how to put a proper link on here eventually.