Wednesday 3 October 2012

We’ll be away!



We’ll be away!
Tomorrow Partner-who-loves-tea and I will be drinking our cups of tea and coffee elsewhere.  We shall be spending Thursday night near Gloucester and the weekend with Daughter-who-takes-photos and Friend-and-son-in-law-who-loves-otters.  Then it is on to Hay-on-Wye.  So I doubt there will be a blog posting for a week or more. (Though who knows – I may sneak one in sometime overnight!)  In the meantime here are a couple of things that are bouncing around my brain at the moment.

Your thoughts please

I have mentioned Moannie before and you may care to know what is happening. Moannie, a virtual friend and mother of Sarah, another of my blogging friends, has had cancer for some time and has fought against it valiantly but with a background acceptance that if The Fates were not on her side so be it.  The Fates, it seems, were not.  Saz has been keeping us up-to-date with her Mum’s condition and it is now clear that Moannie is declining fast.  Fi, a vet from Christchurch said it all really - "You may be a virtual friend but I am I am shedding real tears."

Artists
Every now and then I come across an artist that I absolutely love. It may be a long-dead Master whose work I’ve never seen before or it may be an amateur just doing things for their own amusement or it may be a modern commercial artist or a combination of the two.  I’ve come across one of each category recently.   I’ll leave the old master for the moment but let me guide you towards the two living ones.

 Amy Dover


Steeple – reproduced by kind permission of Amy Dover

Firstly, how about this for a lovely sketch.  I’ve asked Amy to hang on to it until I win the lottery but if one of you gets there first you must let me know and blog (or is that brag) about it.

Please visit Amy’s website and look out for Henrietta, I love her as well.  And ‘Cardboard’ on her first Artwork page is well worth clicking on!
 
Kaykuala
I’m not sure what lead me to Hank’s blogs.  I think he commented on a blog I commented on and because I agreed with what he said I thought I’d chase him down and see what his blog was like.  In the process I found he had an art blog as well as his day to day one.  I was taken with his work because his style is very similar to mine. As a result he has made me itch to get my paints and pencils out of the loft.  Since Partner-who-loves-tea and I have just agreed to try to keep the dining table clear of clutter (at my foolish suggestion)  there goes my last chance of anywhere to have my paints out.

Today’s ‘Lud-in-the-Mist’ quote

 Book Cover by Daniel Govar

Spiritually, too, he passed for a typical Dorimarite; though, indeed, it is never safe to classify the souls of one's neighbours; one is apt, in the long run, to be proved a fool. You should regard each meeting with a friend as a sitting he is unwittingly giving you for a portrait — a portrait that, probably, when you or he die, will still be unfinished. And, though this is an absorbing pursuit, nevertheless, the painters are apt to end pessimists. For however handsome and merry may be the face, however rich may be the background, in the first rough sketch of each portrait, yet with every added stroke of the brush, with every tiny readjustment of the "values," with every modification of the chiaroscuro, the eyes looking out at you grow more disquieting. And, finally, it is your own face that you are staring at in terror, as in a mirror by candlelight, when all the house is still.”
                                                                    Hope Mirrlees.
(‘Lud-in-the-Mist’ sometimes gets compared the ‘The Hobbit’ which was written ten years later. Personally I can’t see much resemblance except that they are high fantasy but I do love one comparison found on Gooigle – “If The Hobbit is a story told by your stodgy intellectual grandfather, Lud-in-the-Mist is one told by your slightly loony great aunt.”)

The shower

After years of p***ing about and six (I think – I may have lost count) different plumbers our shower is working.  At this very moment Partner is trying it out.   

I shall refrain from using a photo to illustrate this paragraph but suffice to say it is a cause for great celebration in the household.

Have a good week, fellow bloglings.

10 comments:

  1. You too have a good week! I think I've heard about Hay-on-Wye for the first time on Friko's blog, and I imagine that place is going to be like paradise for you!
    Sorry to hear about Moannie. And of course, "virtual" friends are real people at their end of the world as everybody else, so why shouldn't we have real feelings for them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. After six years without a shower I suspect it's cause for celebration in houses within half a mile of yours. Not to mention Tesco, the library, the pub and anywhere else you wander to or past.
    Have a good trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One thing Adrian is that you can always be relied upon for two things: sound advice and, as in this case, a good laugh.

      Delete
  3. thanks SS - a hard week knowing Moannie is not doing so well.

    Have a good trip
    x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hope you have a wonderful anniversary, and a wonderful getaway. Lots of love to you and Jo, and all the family, xoxox Carol & Robin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Take some pictures and post them. I think your pix are absolutely great, and I often feel much more relaxed after 'taking a walk' with you and your camera.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have a wonderful trip CJ, and keep us posted if you can.
    So sorry to hear about Moannie, I will keep her in my prayers. Virtual friend she may be, but we all feel for her, and wish her the best.
    Glad to hear your shower is up and running again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wishing you a wonderful journey and looking forward to the stories when you return!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's three days since you blogged this and it's only today come up on my dashboard. I thought that I was a relatively gremlin-free zone so far as Blogger is concerned. Perhaps not. Anyway a superb post even by your standards CJ. I loved The Hobbit so perhaps I will enjoy Lud-in-the-Mist. Time will tell. Amy Dover is a real find. A working shower! Bliss! Baths and I don't really get on.

    ReplyDelete

Hello - thanks for dropping by to leave a comment. Your comments are much appreciated even if I don't always reply. They will appear as soon as they have been moderated.

Blog Archive