Arty Christmas

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments
I have been trying to put this posting onto Technorati (which is one of the listing sites for blogs), but have not had any luck with it yet. Their rule is that I have to put each posting onto their site before I can put it onto any others including this one, but in spite of taking great care to comply with their guidelines, I gave up the struggle to put it on late last night. I noticed from their help forums that other people have had difficulty finding their blogs, so at least I am not on my own. Anyhow, I am posting it straight onto here before it becomes too old, knowing it will never make it onto Technorati. I hope to resolve this in time for the next one.

Here goes then:

We’ve now arrived back home from seeing friends and family and the festivities are over for another year. On the way back home, there were almost clear skies, with a wide bank of cloud to the west, behind which the sun set. I have tried to commit to memory what it looked like, because I am painting a picture of hot air balloons at sunset at the moment. What I’ll need to aim for is a predominantly grey centre to each cloud, with a halo of almost fluorescent pink or orange around it, and paler light in between. Once I’ve completed this painting, I’ll post it on the blog for all to see, and you can decide if I’ve achieved the right effect. My better half tells me that when the sun’s rays shine down from behind a cloud, they are known as crepescular rays, and where they shine upwards, they are anti-crepescular.

Having decided on goose instead of turkey for our Christmas dinner this year, we found the rest of the family, whom we visited for Boxing day, had decided to do the same. We’ve therefore had goose for three days continuously, returning home on Sunday night with most of ours still to be eaten up. It looks set to be goose vindaloo until Easter at this rate.

All our snowmen have now melted in the milder weather the past couple of days, and hats and scarves, carrots etc retrieved, washed and dried, or put into the compost bin in the case of carrots.

Back again soon,

Jewel

Happy holidays to everyone

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments
Snow has mounded my world. Everything sparkles, including how I'm feeling. Best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday.

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... and one of our members had her two delightful grandchildren with her to babysit. Gill showed them how to make a folded strip of paper into a chain of snowmen and I showed them how to make a snowflake out of folded paper too. They'd done some splodgy paintings and were enjoying all the fuss they were getting.

I'd been given an attractive card by Margaret featuring a print of a robin painted by her (see above). This is something of a departure for her as she normally only paints swans, and quite prolificly too (see Gill's poem in the art exhibition posting from November).

To set the scene, we have had a bit of snow, and have been told that we only have an hour in which to have our annual fuddle - this is the local dialect word for "party". I thought it was funnel for a long time, but they put me right this year. With only an hour to go, we have warmed up the food where necessary, laid it out on a table and are about to scoff the lot,clear up and be on our way home in less than an hour. Exactly the same thing happened the previous year, with an event booked shortly after we were due to vacate the premises, and so we are becoming experts at the at high speed fuddle.

We all enjoyed one another's cooking, but Maggie's soft cheese and puff pastry bar (with assorted nuts and seeds) seems to have been the biggest hit this year. I could describe it but I would probably sound like a Marks and Spencer's food advert (ooer!)

John had created something that looked like a Dundee cake, but was actually a sort of tropical version involving figs. Schloer and low alcohol wine stood in for the real thing, and we had a very enjoyable and quick party, before departing to loved ones for some, and last minute shopping for others (and indeed both for me). We won't see one another again until the New Year.

As this is probably my last posting before Christmas, it only remains to wish all readers the compliments of the season, and I will be back on line once the festivities are over.

This 'ere recession

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments
I joined Twitter a few days ago. My details are http://twitter.com/artistofderby. For rivetingness, I can't quite compete with Stephen Fry filming white rhinos, but I did go to a talk earlier this week. It was on surviving the recession and sustainability - so was it the recession or the sustainability I should be surviving?

The talk was aimed at youngsters, but most of us were middleagesters. A sprinkling of younger folk trickled in through the morning, and we were late starting to wait for them. Yet I'd got up at 6.30 to be there on time and set the burglar alarm off in my haste to leave the house, making me a mite unpopular with the folks back home.

Our host was from the Princes Trust (Prince Charles set this up to help disadvantaged youngsters set up businesses). She introduced the speakers, saying that many youngsters feel it was a mistake to set up during a recession (and older people too, missus), and that there are advantages to it (what could these be?) Looking out of the window as I was working on my website today, I noticed the lack of houses for which planning permission had at one time been sought, and resulting pleasant view onto open fields. There you have it - silver lining!

We had three guest speakers, one of whom gave some survival tips, such as make people redundant - well I can't do that, unless it is myself! "Be creative with your business plan" was perhaps more useful. Another speaker mentioned an author who'd captured his interest - Duncan Bannatyne. As a result, I've now ordered his book "Anyone can do it" - and no sniggering at the back there.

I thought the guest speakers were good as far as they went, but with so many countries out of recession now, I would have liked to have learnt something about exporting, for example, and there must have been other angles that they could have covered.

Speaking of which, when will this country be out of recession? Last month, the Bank of England predicted two years with a strong recovery afterwards, only for someone to jump up and say two years with a weak recovery. What next, two years with a famine at the end? Still, our little country has faced worse problems and at least I wasn't around for the war, now that would have given me something to complain about....

All for now,

Jewel

Practically cave art!

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments

My parents have been having a clear out at home, and recently brought me some of my old paintings and pictures from years ago. Here we have part of an abstract which must be at least 25 years old now. It reminds me a lot of my more recent painting "Petrol on Water", but is perhaps more imaginative. It would have taken me ages to get the edges of the colours to gradually fade into the white background.
It makes me want to develop the idea more fully. In general, there is so much more I would like to do, it is just a matter of time.
By the way, this painting could not be sold as the paper is so old now it is beginning to disintegrate. I need to find the best way of keeping my old artwork so that it will not go the same way, but I'll at least keep it in the dark for now.

I Manifested a Parking Spot

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments
The lot was so full that the line of cars puffed smog rings and left spoors of rainbowed oil on the asphalt. But I visualized myself pulling into a parking spot without waiting in line or circling the lot. And there was a spot nobody else was getting into. The Universe, reading my loud and clear visualization, saved it just for me. I pulled in and got out grinning. The grin turned downwards. There was construction on a sump pump and my spot was the most fragrant of all!

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Some local colour

Posted by Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa 0 comments
I have lived in this village for over two years now and have probably met most of the local characters. One of them is a punky looking sculptor who makes furniture from scrap metal. I went to see his exhibition during the Sheffield Open Studios event, and could see that his work was very cleverly designed. I am not entirely sure I would want a coffee table made from a manhole cover in the living room (perhaps I am too fussy). Because we are so far from Sheffield, he had had very few visitors, and the brochure didn't do much to promote what he was doing. I think he gave up exhibiting in that event after that.

There is also an elderly man who once asked me how I was, then told me off for not asking how he was in return! I was in a hurry at the time, and it had not occurred to me to ask. For a while after this happened, I made a special point of asking people how they were if they asked me, but soon realised they weren't really bothered about it.

As I was passing the old college grounds the other day, I bumped into a man with a collie dog. I was trying to get a better view of a small digger that appeared to be in the grounds, and he said, "are you being nosey then?" During our short conversation, he told me his dog was called "Whatdog". "We live near the school and the kids used to ask, 'What dog is that?' and the name just stuck".

Don't read the next bit if you are having tea. "And I clean up after him too", he said, holding up a bag of something I tried not to look at. Too much information.

A few days later I was at the playpark with my little 'un, and there was another character, who was only about 3 years old but told me he had a "fur cough" (think about it). I didn't want to hear that sort of language, and said so. He was more subdued after that...

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