Just back from the annual Gingerbread House night at my church’s women’s group. I think I can safely say that we are well ahead in our Christmas sugar requirements..
Lots of fun, as usual. Old friends, new friends, and lots of laughs. I love seeing what everyone comes up with, as well – some very inventive houses around.
The beginning – front, back and sides.
Roof! And it’s still holding together!
A fine selection..
Front (with black cat on the corner 😀 )
Back..
All wrapped up and ready to go!
Still haven’t put anything into the planting box yet… we’ll pick up some seedlings at the markets on Saturday.
I did (finally) clear up all the old pots with dead sticks and dry dirt..
Ready and wating for new inhabitants!
It was a bit hot today, wasn’t it? My little pot plant garden seems to be doing well, though..
The strawberries have picked up..
My fresh, new hyssop plant 🙂
The aloe vera is a bit sad… it needs watering a bit more regularly, and to be thinned out. The neighbour will be getting the biggest one, so that should help.
Citronella in the corner, mugwort on the end, and a tiny tree we transplanted from the last house – it grows beautiful scented white flowers. Needs a new pot, though.
Southernwood and chocolate mint.
Here’s the corner garden!
Seeds ready for when we get potting mix on the weekend..
My citronella was growing straight up, no branching out.. I’ve chopped it off, and put these cuttings in water to see if they grow roots… should be useful for summer..
Looking forward to a greener view from the patio!
… and how does your garden grow? 🙂
Went to a women’s event last night… Warrior Chicks. After a wonderful morning, it was an amazing evening… a mixture of competition, beauty and challenge..
The competition was in the form of an inflatable “warrior ring” – I wasn’t planning to go in, but I did in the end..
Lots of fun – and a reminder that I’m not as fit as I once was!
The challenge came in the form of a reminder, as well – that we are women of God, called to shine His light into the world. That we can all go out into that world in some capacity, whether it’s big or small, and make a difference. That we are not alone – we have a Father to follow and trust in, and brothers and sisters to walk with on the journey. It’s a world filled with injustice and pain… but all things are possible!
A challenge, and a thought to mull and pray over… and sweetened with ice-cream and a variety of sweets to sprinkle over 🙂
I had planned to take a photo before I ate it, but I forgot in the excitement of ice-cream and chocolate…
Mini M&Ms and mini-musks! 🙂
Spent time with lovely people, and caught up with some I haven’t had a chance to talk with for a while…
..and finished up with some craft, most of which I haven’t finished..
I have done the bookmark… and I made the necklace with a “warrior ring”…unfortunately it was too small to get over my head..
Fortunately, I worked out another use for it 😀
I was going through an old diary and found a (very!) old self portrait that I’d drawn over twenty years ago..
Back then, I’d not long left college, where I studied art. I did self portraits quite a lot (the model was always available, and worked for free 😀 ) I can’t remember exactly when I did this one.. it’s on mulberry paper, with charcoal and white chalk to highlight. I’ve been told it looks “dark” and “haunting”. I don’t remember that being something that I was trying to convey.. it could have shown through anyway…
I don’t do a lot of art these days.. at least, not visual art. In some ways, this blog is another form of self portrait – little glimpses of things that pop into my brain, or that I’m wrestling with, or that I just love to ponder. I don’t feel the need to create representations of my physical appearance anymore (although there’s an unfinished painting in a cupboard somewhere. Perhaps I’ll finish it someday.)
Back then, it was like my life was in a holding pattern – like there was something on the horizon, but “not yet”. Now, I’m living. I see who I am in the mirror every morning, and I like who I see. I may still do self portraits – there’s a lot more wrinkles and grey hairs now – that could be a challenge 😀 ..but my life now is fuller than a static image on a page.
Still feeling ill 😦 so another short post…
Here are some gifs created by Guillaume Kurkdjian – to see some more, click here.
Very cute 😀
This is a film of London, taken, in colour, in 1927
This process for colour film was created by William Friese-Greene in the last part of the Nineteenth Century, but it was his son, Claude, who created a series of moving pictures using his father’s process. The film itself is originally black and white, with each frame exposed through two different coloured filters, then stained either red or green – I think the film above resembles old hand coloured photos.
It’s amazing to think that there were colour films in the Twenties… but this one is supposed to be the earliest example, even though, to some historians, it may not have been entirely successful.
This shows clips from the film –
It was made by Edward Raymond Turner – in 1902.
I just played this to my boys… lots of interest, although we agreed that we’d need more pieces (and more specialist pieces) to build it..
There are downloadable instructions for the walker section on the You Tube description..
It’s very clever, and must have taken hours of work. Slightly creepy, though..
The concept is based on the work of Theo Jansen, who builds larger-than-life-size “animals”, which he lets loose on the beach. They’re wind powered, completely, I believe, but I’m not sure..
Just imagine seeing one of these coming at you on your peaceful stroll on the strand..
They’re very beautiful – majestic, even. They’ve been progressively modified to withstand the elements, with the view to eventually letting loose a “herd”, to freely roam the beaches…
Beautiful..
.. but did I mention creepy?
..by Neil Gaiman, at a commencement speech at the University of the Arts last year.
The problems of failure; the problems of success..
… secret freelancer knowledge 😀
I got to this clip from this blog, which is about the “Imposter Syndrome” (also referenced in the speech) – the “unshakeable feeling that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you.”
I would think that’s a quite common feeling in all sorts of professions, but possibly more prevalent in the arts..
It’s what you do with it that counts..
Letting that feeling rob you of the enjoyment of successes in your field would be sad..
Allowing it to prevent you from ever attempting to succeed would be worse..
I’ve been seeing this around… the world’s smallest stop motion film..
.. IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules..
Cute 😀
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
1000 Fields of Roses 