Monday, October 5, 2015

A grey sky day.

The first Monday in October and the skies have turned grey and the rain is falling gently. I'm inside at the computer today doing the boring jobs as I call them, but of course very necessary.  Reordering envelopes, paper, and restocking the shop, tidying away and filing receipts and such like. I find it hard to concentrate if I'm surrounded by chaos. I know some Artists thrive in an organised mess, but I'm not really one of them.
Outside the window the holly tree is alive with activity. The berries are red and ready for a blackbird and thrushes feast. Blackberries have clawed their way up through the branches and are in fruit at the top of the tree. Shiny black caviar against the earthy red of the holly. Sparrows flit between the juicy fruit and blue tit hover against the window frame tap tapping the glass with their beaks, feasting on the spiders and other insects that are caught in the webs on the window frame. I do love the advantages of not cleaning your windows regularly. Who needs to, when the birds do it for you. ;)

Luckily the weather here was totally different last week when we had the Blood moon lunar eclipse. I stayed up to watch and the skies here were just perfect. Clear as a bell and filled with starlight. I tried to capture on my camera. They aren't brilliant as I only have a bridging camera not a proper DSLR. But all in all I am quite happy with them and I shall definitely have to add this eerie orange moon into a painting at some point soon.
The other day I was in London.  (My daughter has reached that age when it is time to go visiting open days for Uni's etc)  The last time I was there was a year ago to see Kate Bush, so it was quite nice to visit. Being a country mouse I can just about manage a once a year trip! Although this year I feel it will be many more as we are off up there again already it seems just next week! Anyway, I will stop waffling on and show you what I saw.

Aurora the huge wonderful Greenpeace polar bear puppet, standing outside of the Shell oil building, her head moving and roaring... I was aware that she had been there, as had signed the petition many months ago, to stop drilling in the Arctic and my name was one of the many thousands attached to her.  But what a wonderful surprise to stumble across her unexpectedly on route. Of course London is filled with so many exciting things to see, but she was what made my day! And then even better, was the fantastic news announced just a few days later that Shell had made a decision to pull out of drilling in the Arctic. So now Aurora is on the move and is travelling to Paris and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to see her.  You can read more about the story here.

Back here at home, I've been working on some wooden hangers which are all going into my Etsy shop this evening at 8pm UK time. Just a heads up for those of you that don't have Facebbok and Instagram. Although a bit short notice, so I do apologise for that.
I will leave you with the trailer to Max Richters 'Sleep' An eight hour long piece of music written to be slept through which is just what I did, when it was played live on Radio 3 on the night of September 26th. A wonderful relaxing sleep it was too. Beautiful and ethereal music...


13 comments:

  1. Oh, Karen. It's been a long while since I have been to your blog, or any others, because of the time that was spent caring for my elderly parents who have both passed away. It is so magical here. I may sit here a while with a hot cup of tea, and catch up on your wonderful work and photography.

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    1. So sorry to hear about your parents Sharon. Blog worlds are a wonderful escape, whatever time of night or day. I'm glad that you have returned to visit and hope that you come back again. :) x

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  2. Beautiful wooden hangers - they are all so gorgeous - but I am too late and I think I have missed them all! Your blog and work is so peaceful and relaxing I think you should be 'bottled' and given out for us all to de-stress from the busy world :) Thank you Karen

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    1. Thanks Corinna! Yes, they did fly out of my shop pretty quickly which I am of course extremely grateful for, needing pennies for trips to London with daughter etc.at the moment. Wouldn't that be useful , a bottled essence of 'feel good' :) Smells make me feel good though, incense and herbs make me feel very uplifted and creative.

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  3. Oh I missed the hangers again! I've got to be quicker! They are so lovely!
    blessings
    ~*~

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  4. Great photos.. I woke up and saw the main part of the eclipse which I managed to get some photos of. Your hangers are just beautiful :o)

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    1. Thanks Julie. Glad that you got to see the eclipse. It was definitely worth waking up for . :)

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  5. Like the other commenters I was too late for those wonderful hangers. I would really love to have another one so must join your Facebook page I think:)

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    1. Facebook did get a little more notice as it's quicker to just put a few words. I still prefer blogs though. ;)

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  6. Wish I got my windows cleaned by wildlife as they are badly trained around here and the seagulls prefer to decorate them and my car with droppings instead. Watched an interesting programme recently about the early days of oil and how the major companies carved up the entire planet between them without consulting anyone.

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  7. A lovely post, full of gorgeous images of your work! I will grab one of those hangers of yours one day. x

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  8. Lovely post with wonderful fotos, greeting from Belgium

    Blog Mons my city in Belgium: http://louisette.eklablog.com

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