It is a good day when some bright colours arrive to join the pencil case gang. I’ve not had a chance to give them a good run out yet . Just a quick check for colour. Not all coloured water colour pencils are created equal. Some like to dominate and others are more timid.
They have all had a gentle first outing as pale washes of themselves and two have gone in a little stronger. I never know who the dominant personalities will be with any different brand or type of art materials. I always create an organic colour chart, just letting them flow over each other or just sit side by side. A deep red called Shiraz, a mustard and Leaf green are the early strong personalities. But who can guess what tomorrow’s tinkering will bring. I am heading to some vibrant places very soon so I need to know who to rely on in vivid corners of the world.
The two weeks after my birthday were pretty well mapped out with appointments, normal life and creative periods. I am half way through this two week period and it has not panned out at all as I expected. Normal life and creative periods are the soft tissues that are formed around the skeleton of life which is formed by meetings, appointments and essential admin. This two week period would have pottered along quite nicely. A virus slightly knocked me off the tracks until yesterday and then I was all set to get things done. Almost as the virus walked out and shut the door a series of phone calls cancelled four appointments that I had scheduled over the next few days. Some will not see the light of day until 2026. With diary gaps I planned other things. This morning I decided to go for a pedicure and some foot care. My normal place is always buzzing and I never need an appointment. Except today I did, so it was a very brief visit and I have booked for Saturday.
So instead of pampered feet I decided to move a book case ready for the hallway to be painted.
I knew it was a mammoth task. This bookcase is both a transit hub and a dead end.
There was never a before picture and the picture above is certainly a temporary set up.
A load of random paperwork has gone into recycling and I have a small bag of books for a charity shop.
But what of the bookshelf. So many books I will never read again, some I have never read.
My mums text books from her sexual health clinic. More than 50 years old they are an amusing and at times uncomfortable read. My dad’s books that carried him through brutal and ineffective chemotherapy . My childhood books and the books belonging to my children. Maybe 20 or so books that will be read again.
So is this a bookshelf or a repository of mine and other peoples memories? I think it is both, and before it moves back to the newly painted hallway I will empty it again to move and paint it so it isn’t quite so shabby. I bet I won’t be able to get rid of any more of these books to a charity shop, but they will be tidier after the next move.
No. A rusty old bollard for boats to tie up to at a little harbour called Mutton Cove.
Even at a distance it looks like a muffin.
Today is about getting jobs done but the sunshine was too good to just dash from A to B without visiting the sea. Today is the last day my stats page has the column of shame. Earlier im the month there were an inexplicable 900 readers of my blog on one day. Which made my daily count of between 20 and 40 look pretty silly.
Thank goodness the 900+ have dropped off my stats chart and I am back to low level success.
Two examples of things not exactly looking as they should.
I enjoy a cold and dry November. A rarity now I live in the South West of England but the last two days have very much played my way. Especially for my twice daily long dog walks. A dusk walk and a mooch in the charity shops inspired my 2025 Christmas card design. Similar in feel to cute puppies or kittens on a rehoming site It is a picture of discarded and donated Christmas decorations in a bucket. Random colours and from different eras they find their way into charity shops because people no longer need them.
I have a soft spot for Christmas Decorations. The decorations of my childhood were stolen by the carers who were employed to give my mum care in her own home. Of all the thefts and fraud committed by them the Christmas Decoration theft was small beans. But their collection was eclectic and international and were a simple homage to their life and the travels of their much loved, but absent family members. I often take a peak around this time of year to see if I can replace any of their lost treasures from other peoples donations. It is a poignant but also joyful treasure hunt. A tiny and completely unimportant project. The joy in charity shops is in the clashing colours and styles of often simple baubles, no Interior Design colour collections. I have reimagined a grotty cardboard box and morphed it to a puff of exploding colour. Now I just need to think of some words to accompany my illustration. Cute puppies or kittens might tickle the heart strings maybe homeless baubles could be the next big thing
I love it when these beautiful Tall Ships pull up in the harbour. Night and day they are majestic creatures of the sea.
I was lucky enough to be on the harbourside when this ship set sail out of the harbour on a previous visit.
Of course ‘setting sail’ is not quite accurate as an engine is required but either way the ship silently left the mooring. Just a gentle creaking of wood and wind murmering on furled up sails. When Sutton Harbour was at its sail boat peak there were often 300 of these wonderful creatures jostling for space. That would not have been a silent experience with crews and harbour workers shouting instructions and demands to one another.
I would love to time hop to any point of the Age of Sail. An impossible hope of course, but what about the practicalities. First off I wear glasses so even if my clothes didn’t give me away my eyes would certainly set me apart with glazed windows on my face.
No public loos would be a worry. They were only invented after hundreds of tourists flooded into Plymouth to see Napoleon,as a celebrity prisoner, on the Bellerpharon in Plymouth Sound for ten days in July 1815. The first example of thousands of tourists flooding to one location all at the same time. The mind boggles. The amount of effluent left on the streets of Plymouth caused questions in Parliament. Never mind Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo. Loos of a different sort were a bigger problem and so the Public Loo was decreed to be essential for Public Health reasons.
And Public Health or indeed my own health is always a concern when I ponder time hopping. What ghastly diseases might be picked up on a casual trip back 200 years, especially in a port city!
So I will stick with just the one ship , at two different times of day. No great risk there.
What’s the first impression you want to give people?
It is my birthday weekend so with more accuracy than is normal I can say I have been making first impressions for exactly 68 years and 2 days. Most of them are absolutely way beyond my control and because I have never been famous the first impression I create has almost never been recorded. There will be H.R records of interviews where my first impression has been recorded. Groups of friends will have anecdotal memories of first, second and third impressions. My point being that first impressions are largely out of my control. On occasions I may set out to make a favourable first impression but without feedback how would I ever know if I had achieved ‘favourable’. I think I am a bit of a ‘slow burn’ for most people. I try to be friendly, kind and effective with an open mind. I am loyal until I am not. I am not too invested in creating a ‘first impression’ because I genuinely believe that is largely beyond my control. However a ‘lasting impression’ has far more heft and gravitas. Something that is built up over time by doing my best to be a decent human being.
The city was busy putting a party face on yesterday. Everywhere Christmas decorations and lights were going up to welcome in the Festive Season. We chose a cosy harbour pub for a birthday lunch.
Decorations of a different sort had been released into the sea by our swimming zone so there was no birthday bob to celebrate the passing of another year.
One birthday gift came with some intriguing facts. When we first lived in London we lived in Dulwich Village.
A rather lovely spot that has had a soap fragrance created with the same name.
Named in 967 AD for the Dill Fields that scented the area.
Not a Dill plant in sight when we lived there. The overall fragrance was Affluence and Privilege, it was a fabulous place to people watch and enjoy baked goods from a Gails Bakery. ( Gails Bakery is a very contentious subject in the world of Baked Goods) Hated by independent bakeries all over London.
Now I love an Independent business, one of the many reasons we chose to buy a flat in Crystal Palace. But living in London requires almost everyone to work very long hours. I often caught the first train out in the morning a full two hours before any independent bakery opened. I would return 12 or more hours later when any self respecting independent would have sold out and closed up. My independent loving heart would have been starved of baked goods were it not for Gails. A freshish sourdough loaf at 7pm is better than a sold out and closed for the day independent. And infinitely better than anything a supermarket could serve up.
Giving this blog a rather rags to riches theme. Although in my case, Effluence to Affluance. Sewage in the sea to middle-class bakery angst by way of a birthday natter. Rather a classic ponder in my humble opinion
Happy Birthday to me. 68 circles around the Sun. It seems like only yesterday since I was celebrating 5 circuits around the big yellow thing in all our skies. In 68 years I have gained a wonderful set of family and friends. Some have left me along the way, but they trail my circumnavigations within the firmament represented as bold and twinkling stars. Let’s do this and see what the next 365 days brings.
I have made a start on my hand painted digital Christmas Card. A Work in Progress production with a working title of Baubles in a Bag. There was an artists gathering this morning . Talking and creating is the aim. I like to have a simple project on- going while I natter. I am puzzling how to get some texture into the paper bag. There is an uncanny similarity to my Apples in a String Bag.
So the baubles are going to have to be in a paper bag, more bag less baubles
Actually a few more baubles are in the bag.
Just one more bauble to paint and I am going to have to commit to painting a paper bag. At the moment I dont think I can paint my way out of this paperbag.
I blame Instagram. I mostly use it for art but I am a very guilty scroller of my Instagram feed.
Who knew, for instance, that you could restyle a cardigan by wearing it upside down.
Which I tried today and it seemed to work. But I sense the West Country mischief fairies saw a woman with her cardigan on upside down as someone deserving of a prank.
Acid green cardi upside down.
A regular dog walk was complicated by very gusty weather a large umbrella and two dogs simultaneously doing a poo. Somehow, I blame the mischievous West Country Fairies, my car keys fell into the autumn leaves without me noticing. Time was already a bit short , I was heading to a Dry Bob to celebrate two bobbers birthdays. But I had no choice but to retrace the whole dog walk kicking autumn leaves to find the missing keys, which I did.
I blame fairies because I have never worn my cardigan upside down before and unbelievably, in a long life I have never lost my keys before. The two must be linked . Isn’t that how superstition and folklore starts?
But the mischievous fairy was not done with me. I went to pick up some ordered library books. All the books I have ordered over the last 6 months have arrived , 7 books in total. I cannot possibly read 7 books in the next two weeks. I may never put my cardigan on upside-down again, whatever Instagram suggests.
There is no doubt that it works, but is it tempting fate?
The mischievous fairy struck again , I arrived home, after another dog walk at the time parents collect their children from the local school. For 30 minutes near 3:15 parking is tricky. I have never arrived at that time and failed utterly to find a space, but today that happened. Awkward because I really needed to use the loo.
Needs must, I parked near the cafe where we had noisily gathered for the Dry Bob, walked in, in my lurid green upside-down cardigan, used their facilities. Knowing that in a busy place only three hours later I would be remembered as a customer of the day. Quite the day!
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