Tag: drawing

Like a Wet Weekend TWTW # 138

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Dogs, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was

It’s a rainy Saturday post again. I’ve already been to the allotment today and done a quick harvest of a few things; tomatoes, squash, beans; but it’s far too wet to do much else today. The forecast looks better for tomorrow so hopefully things will have dried out enough that I can get down there without the fear of trampling everything into a squishy, muddy mess. We’ll see what happens!

For fun I’ve started an online drawing course this week. I doodle and draw quite a bit but have never really taken much instruction and have probably reached the limit of my abilities to date. The course was on special offer, so I thought I’d take a risk on it, and so far I’ve been pleased with it. I can go at my own pace and have completed the first module and am working my way through the second. The first drawing task was to sketch the tools that you use for sketching, so here are a few of mine.

We had another vet trip this week. This time with Ruby who was due her booster injections. All relatively straightforward and in and out before our actual appointment time. We don’t have to take Wilson back until the beginning of September (unless there is something that we’re worried about) so we might get through most of a month without having to visit the vet.

Reading

I’ve been reading John le Carre’s The Honourable Schoolboy this week. It took me a couple of attempts to get through the first chapter, but I can now see how it ties into the previous book Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Although these are very much cold war era spy stories they still stand up well today and actually there is an element of history repeating itself with modern events.

Links

My friend Christian (@documentally) is planning on riding his bicycle from London to Edinburgh to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Great North Road being renamed to the A1. He’s never cycled more than 32km in a day before so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. He’s also aiming to raise some money for Choose Love, a charity that supports refugees around the world. If you’d like to know more, follow him on Twitter or visit Cycling Hertz where you can sponsor him should you be so inclined. I’m sure he’ll also be sharing some behind the scenes stuff in his newsletter.

Scientists Spot Signs of Gulf Stream Collapse – I’m beginning to think that I might see the extinction of man in my own lifetime.

Ban urban and garden pesticides to protect bees, other wildlife and human health – Petitions – If you are entitled to vote in UK elections please consider signing this petition.

That’s it for this week. I’m off to do a sunny weather dance, whatever you’re up to this week, take care and stay safe.

Weather Window TWTW # 114

On By TontowilliamsIn Birds, books, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

Another week has come and gone, filled with books, pancakes and a little bit of drawing.

We indulged in pancakes on Tuesday, it’s about the only time we eat pancakes so it’s a nice treat. I still prefer a simple lemon juice and sugar topping after nearly 50 years that hasn’t changed.

A year ago I used the Lent period to give up social media. I’m not going to do that this year as I think I have a healthier relationship with it now, and probably won’t be giving up anything else for that period this year either.

Reading. I’ve been reading a lot this week. I mentioned Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie last week. It’s a long book – 600+ pages – so it’s taken me quite a while to work through. Also Ann bought me a copy of Kurt Jackson‘s Sketchbooks for a Valentine’s present and that interrupted my reading of Joseph Anton because I picked that up straight away to look at. I also read the latest Jackson Lamb book by Mick Herron, Slough House. I was a little bit underwhelmed by the latter, I didn’t think that it was one of his best. I haven’t settled into anything else yet, and I still keep dipping back into Sketchbooks.

I’ve had some Audible credits building up in my account. Without travelling, my opportunities to listen to audiobooks has been drastically reduced so I haven’t always been using up my monthly credit but I did use one of them on the Complete Shakespeare, given that it’s nearly 100 hours of audio I don’t suppose I’ll be getting through it anytime soon.

Best AI Transcription Bloopers

The Opportunity of Laggards

Working. I’ve completed and submitted the proposal that I was asked for last week. No feedback yet, but it’s early days and I’ll follow up once they’ve had a chance to look at it. When I’d completed the proposal I picked up my own sketch page for a bit and drew the picture of the blue tit above. I don’t draw very often, but I’ve been doing more during the last couple of lockdowns to occupy my mind and spare time.

Allotment. The weather aligned this week to bring a dry, warmish (i.e. not frozen) spell of weather and I was able to get down onto the plot. I managed to clear the long grasses from around the base of the fruit trees and just enjoy being on the allotment for a period of time. I didn’t stay long as my plot neighbour arrived with a new shed. Our shed’s are next to one another and to give enough space for social distancing etc it was easier for me to give him the space to do what he needed to do and come back another time.

I have a “window” visit with my Mum in the week ahead. It will probably only be ten minutes or so and it’s not the same thing as being actually able to sit at either end of the same table as we did back in the summer but it’s a step up from a phone call (the irony is we still actually talk on the phone as otherwise we can’t hear what we’re saying because of the window).

That’s it for now. I hope you have a good week – take care and stay safe.