Misheard

Last night on News24 they said that our PM, Mr Cameron, was "currently at the White House, enjoying a State Dinner."

Ok.... so..wassup with that?
Well, I heard it as a steak dinner. LOL!

Now, this is what happens when I mishear something- my brain doesn't interrupt and say "Whoah! Wait! That doesn't make sense! Check again?" instead, it comes up with all sorts of pictures, thoughts and scenarios to make COMPLETE sense of whatever I've misheard.

So I was thinking, "Oh. They said what's on the menu. That's unusual." and "A 'steak dinner'? How very 'Fools and Horses'!" and eventually, "Why steak, anyway? Can't they afford lobster or something?"
This went on and on till the headlines came round again. THIS time they clearly ennuciated the word 'State'.
"Oh! STATE dinner! Oh right!"


 

52/4

These Wednesdays seem to come round awfully quickly.

GOODBYE TO ALL THAT

Robert Graves

I once caught one of them in the bathroom, scratching up a pair of hearts conjoined, with Dick's initials and mine above them. I pushed him into hte bath and turned the taps on.

I first read this about 20 years ages ago. I've read it several times, it's a great book. What has struck me today, as I took it down off the shelf, is how small the print is. I CAN read print this small, but have often, in recent years, put books back on the shelf in bookshops because of it. Not comfortable, you see. Ha! I don't know, it is just funny to have in my hand proof of a time when such things didn't bother me.

Signs of spring

WEDNESDAY: spotted a frog on my back doorstep.

I had stepped outside to put some peelings in the compost bin. When I turned round, there he was, sitting on the frame of the sliding doors. I must have stepped right over him. He looked like he was thinking about coming in. But then, Luvbug and Mum came to see what I had YELPed at, and he hopped away, behind the pile of flower pots.

THURSDAY: spotted a ladybird in Mum's front garden.

SATURDAY: Drove into town. We took a slightly longer route in order to find parking. Passed verges, roundabouts and slopes covered with daffodils.

SUNDAY MORNING: Spotted a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the laburnum in our front garden. Only ever seen one before at RSPB Minsmere reserve, Suffolk! He didn't stay long. I just happened to be looking out at the right moment.

Had to 'borrow' this photo as he didn't pose long enough :) but this is the type I mean-

 - spotted whilst making a fuss of Scooter, also birdwatching, stretched out on the windowsill. This photo is from a week or so ago, but you get the idea...

 
A little later, we saw two goldfinches in the same tree. Photo is from some time ago but these are the ones we get ;)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON: sat on a bench in the garden, in sun, with Scooter and kindle. Scooter grabbed most attention. Kindles are great, but don't purr. Mum and Luvbug indoors, watching rugby on TV. Dinner in oven. Ahhh. Quality time in the warm sun with my cat. Nothing like it!

It was a good day.

I declare that spring is springing!!!

NEXT.... Mother's Day next Sunday. What's the betting that my AWOL brother turns up, like he did on Mum's birthday? Fear not, my friends, for I have put in my request for a repeat prescription of diazepam.

And then, the following weekend............
THE CLOCKS GO FORWARD!!!!!!!!! HURRAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then......... two weeks from that... IT'S EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but whoahhhhhh there I'm getting carried away...

OMG this has to be the maddest book ever!

.... and yet... I want it! LOL!

Dies from Di! And tidying up at last....

My cry for die cut shapes has been generously met by Di, of Pixie's Crafty Workshop fame!
LOOK what arrived yesterday!!!
Oh wow!

(I am a little worried she may have hurt her wrist, die-cutting all these. I do hope not!!)

She also made me this lovely card, although Bob has now claimed it because it is all done in green, gold and white, the colours on his Irish nose. What with the friendly Bear and balloon, he says it clearly was made with him in mind:

THANKs SO MUCH, DI!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have popped something in the post to you! -Just a few odds and sods I found, whilst tidying up the craft room.

WHAT the?
Did she say TIDYING UP THE CRAFT ROOM???
No, I don't think Hell has frozen over. But we did see a meteor shoot by the other day :)

Well! Look what Luvbug bought me!

We went into The Range to look at lighting, and came out with this. HORRAY! It's wonderful. And it came all-in-one, too, no putting together and turning the air blue. It was £99 though, and that was half price.

I labelled each draw to help me be organised.

I used plain white tags, rubbed over with cut-and-foam dunked on ink pads. Then I added flowers made by stamping flower shapes onto newspaper print and tinting with promarkers and blenders to make fainter, and attached with assorted brads.

Now the rest of the room is coming along, too.....

This case houses some books and underneath, my stamps, acrylic in one box and wooden in the other...

desk isn't looking too bad....

Oh no! You had to pan right, didn't you! Here's the mess still to sort! LOL!

This little room runs alongside the kitchen. It's very narrow; if I stand in the middle and stretch my arms out, I can almost touch each wall with my fingertips. We wonder if the builder's intention was to make this a utility room. The people who lived here before us used it mostly for storage of the wine their company imported/exported. It hasn't been successful as a craft space before because it got so cold. But we have heating now, since November 2009!- and now I finally have some time to sort it out. It will be nice to nip in here for an hour in the morning or while the evening meal is cooking. I'll have to set the alarm though. I burnt the potatoes by absconding in here the other day.

The walls are plain and I want to display things on them, especially the art that other people send me. I thought of sticking cork tiles on the wall, although this would be quite ugly. Then I spotted these dense foam boards at Hobbycraft:

They are £3.99 each and are A1 size. But at the moment you can have 10 for £25. I think this offer is only for another week or so, if you're after some. So anyway, I've ordered them!!!! I shall too many for the wall, but they say they are easily cut for craftwork, so I'm looking forward to experimenting. 

:)

One of the most hated jobs...

Mum's off to Tai Chi this afternoon. They pick her up, drop her off afterwards. I used to go with her but she is OK on her own now, though she does ask me to come sometimes; I judge it by mood- if she's a bit low or wobbly I'll go with her. Otherwise I am FREEE till about 5ish.

So! What am I doing today, with my free pass? Shopping? Arting? Relaxing with a book? Nope. I am defrosting my frost-free freezer.

Yeah that's right, frost-free, you read it right there.

I think it should be the other way 'round- free frost. Or free-for-all frost. I have spatulas and fish slices at the ready, a towel on the floor, food packed up in cool-bags and, if desperation strikes, a hairdryer.

Whoever came up with the phrase 'frost free'? The same person, I bet, that is resposible for the phrases 'fun size chocolate' and 'pain free period'.

Strooooooooooooooof!! Well, it has to be done; we've been having trouble shutting the door!!

52/4

MOAB IS MY WASHPOT

by Stephen Fry

"I shan't tell you," said Mr Kett. "It's a secret. See? That's how good I am at keeping them."

  **** **** **** **** *** ****

This is the first chunk of Stephen Fry's autobiography, leaving him at age 20. It's very funny, and very candid, too. 

I absolutely LOVE Stephen Fry. It's OK to say that without upsetting Luvbug for obvious reasons- first, Fry's glorious gayness, and second, Luvbug enjoys QI almost more than I do. He also knows how much Fry's documentary about Bi-Polar helped me, airing as it did for the first time just 2 weeks after my diagnosis. I'd thought I was BP for a long time, found patterns that weren't explained by 'straightforward' uni-polar depression. To have a psych-doc agree, and the art therapist, and to see it on my notes, well for some reason that hit me. For a long time afterwards, I thought -though it sounds corny- "If Stephen Fry can have this and manage, cope, LIVE, then so can I."

The title of the book confused me for a while. It's from the Psalms and is repeated in Psalms 60 and 108:

“Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Shout loud, O Philistia, because of Me!”(Ps.60:8)

The psalm isn't quoted in the book so why the title?

Here's one interpretation, which I found on Yahoo! Answers, of all places!-

Old Testament Jews were extremely concerned with cleanliness. Wearing sandals in the hot and dusty environment, their feet would become filthy and upon entering a home, would be washed. In their cleansing and purification rituals they used poured water. They would not put their feet into the bowl, but instead hold their feet over the bowl and pour clean water over them, and the bowl would be used to catch the filthy water. The washpot was therefore a symbol of disgusting filthiness.

The phrase "Moab is my washpot" alludes to God's contempt for the enemies of Israel. The nation of Moab found displeasure with God because of "her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and arrogance and the haughtiness of her heart." God brought Moab low because of her futile insolence, yet He promised to "restore the fortunes of Moab in the days to come." So young Stephen Fry considered that he was a disgustingly filthy, proud, conceited and arrogant young man who, rather like God's promise to Moab, eventually amended his behaviour and excelled.

Wow. I wonder how many writers put that much thought into the title?!!

**** **** **** **** *** ****

BTW...

Equilibrium- The Bipolar Foundation  Stephen Fry is their Special Ambassador. There is a letter from him on the website about their work: here.

The best medicine

The Alzheimers Society website has a forum for carers, family members and suffers re. alzheimers and other forms of dementia. I go there when I can, now that I've remembered(!!) to bookmark the page.

This evening I had been low after One-Of-Those-Days.
Roll the day up and put it to bed and try again tomorrow.... then I read the following on the forum.

I thought it ok to publish here, as no names are mentioned. I wanted you to see how, although at times this caring thing can make you want to chew your own foot off, other times it makes you laugh till you wheeze :)

This is the conversation i had with mum yesterday morning....

ME...it was really foggy out on the roads this morning mum ('im a taxi driver on the school runs)
MUM...you should take some margarine for that
ME... eeerrrrmmmm margarine mum, what do i need that for ?
MUM...for your cough
ME...i don't have a cough mum and if i did i wouldn't take margarine for it anyway
MUM...you said you were really coughing in your taxi this morning and i said you should take some medicine for it, and don't be so stupid, you know margarine isnt for coughs.

Then today whilst we were driving home from shopping, the car in front of us threw up a stone and it hit my windscreen with a real sharp crack. Mum jumped out of her skin and said "What was that?" i said it was just a chipping that had come up off the car in front of us.

"Oh my god!" she said "its probably dead now after that"

"What's dead?" i said "it was only a chipping"

"Don't be so nasty" said she, "what if it was one of yours, you wouldn't say that"

A moment of silence followed while i tried to unravel this one, "Mum," i said, "it was only a chipping, you know, a small stone... "

"Oh bloody hell!!!" she shrieked "i thought you said it was a chicken that hit the window!!" we laughed so much she thought i was going to crash the car, ""stop it now!" she said, "if i laugh any more i'll pee myself and i havent got any clean slippers with me!"     .....like i said YOU'VE GOT TO LAUGH.

Brilliant!! LOL!

4 X 6 ARTWORK EXCHANGE- but be quick!

The same people who organise the Sketchbook Tour occasionally have other projects on the go, usually for a fee. But this one is FREE!

You make any kind of artwork, measuring 4 x 6 inches, send it off with a postage-paid envelope, and they'll send you someone else's :)

They are collecting 20,000 artists worldwide for this project. I've just signed up- THERE ARE ABOUT 100 PLACES LEFT so if you want to join in, be fast!

DEADLINE: you have to complete your artwork this month: the postmark on your submission has to be 31st March.

HERE IS THE LINK! 6 x 4 Project

They are doing some work on the website, so you may have to 'refresh' or 'resubmit' a couple of times as the 'can't find that page' message came up a few times when I did it. Went through in the end though, so don't give up!

*** *** *** *** ***

My sketchbook is still being 'digitised' so isn't on the site yet. However, it is on the shelves at the Brooklyn Art Library with shelf ref. 148L.5-3 :) Strangely, I received an email from someone who had read it. He said he works in Mental Health and wanted to use it. He thought it could be helpful and asked if I had copies to buy :0

Good Lor! I had to sit down!

52/4

A bit more history this week-

AGINCOURT 

The King, The Campaign, The Battle

by Juliet Barker

The plot was to capture the king and his brothers by disguising himself and a group of his fellow conspirators as mummers for the annual Twelfth Night celebrations at Eltham Palace in January 1414.

If you liked Henry V you need this book!