Out and About...

 ...but not very far, sigh...

Still looking downwards, though, here's the new Roadkill images

Blue Rope and Yellow Lines

Can you see what it is? (Post-snow)

Making a Spectacle

and Compost! (Surprisingly gory...)

Also, indoors, my OCP for February, a little late. Cat in relaxed mode...

And the whatisit? A sweatshirt, well-compressed

Absent Friend

tayatha om bekandze bekandze maha bekandze radza samudgate soha

Ricardo (Richard Martin Day)

Died Wednesday 3rd February 17:45
Where does one start to remember such a man.  Perhaps the Friday he turned up to stay for the Winter at the Chapel, bringing a huge wood-stove stolen from a derelict building, and saved us from freezing. We rebuilt the chimney, made a hearth, and lit it for the first time on the Sunday morning. 

Or watching under the manhole cover as he attacked the toilet, "can you see anything?" Then a stiff dead rat floated past and after that we had flush!

Or watching him attack the salad bar - "Start with a sticky layer" - no-one could pile food up with such skill and panache.

Or him arriving at a large lunch in a pub, late as usual, only to announce "I've just shit myself"

Or him driving me home from Alford craft market, with the stock and the van and a sick man and the children, after my marriage imploded; dropping us all off then vanishing into the night to hitchhike home...

Or waking in a cold van on a scrapyard somewhere near Boston, to find him cooking egg butties naked in his caravan and handing them out over the half-door - then arranging my "new" Morris Minor engine in the back of the van and watching us drive away...

Or, him cooking in the caravan at Strawberry Fair, dressed only in an apron and old shoes, when the EHO arrived - she didn't bat an eyelid.

At Revesby, another EHO "What is this sack of potatoes doing on the ground" "Madam, that's where they grow"

Auctioning the last egg butty at some little fair in Suffolk where he was the only caterer, at 2 am, to much applause...

Surprise pea fritters

Large and Small platefuls - "can we have a large and two forks?" "We don't give two forks"

Driving off the field at Tuttington with the 32ft Pemberton caravan that was home and work, and taking both the gateposts off on the way out...

Busking, sitting on a tiny amplifier, with a Spanish guitar; making rather unexpected complex instrumental music

Painting - sadly I don't have any of his work now, but the sheer energy and gaudiness was astounding. Mostly painted with oddments of household gloss on plywood...

Weathering the storm at the end of a fair, driving hurricanes, and a small distant cry as we finished packing the van - "brandy coffee...."

I knew him for almost 40 years, through him met one of my most interesting and lovely, and sadly now also late, friends, and there is much much more that might be added to the list above. 

I had not seen him for a while - the last time was at Abi and Paul's wedding

He had been much diminished, had a stroke, was a little aphasic and absent-minded, but still full of mischief and obviously having a good time

After that I only got odd phone calls. Usually he would ramble for a while, then demand that I make him "100 teddy bears" then silence for a long time. The last time he rang he spoke to John, and I was doing something complicated, so we didn't talk. 

He was not well for the last few years, lost both legs to bad self-care, and his life got rather small, but I think, on the whole, it was, although a rather poverty-stricken and sometimes difficult life, always the one he felt worked best for him.

I'm assuming he's already back, somewhere, and working on the next life. May it be better in lots of ways, and always fun...

 

Sunnier Days

Dundee, with penguins

Taken by my friend Brian, on a nice day out together a few years back.

Oh, how I want to travel....

 

Word For The Year

 ... is Unblock

I have been finding it hard to get motivated, and some days, to get out of bed, and I fail at the least little catch-point, then find I have abandoned a good deal of work for the sake of getting finished. So, although this is not such a great image as last year's Renaissance , I think it may well be more useful

Image - full moon just about to breach the clouds, taken with my phone...

Death of Literacy and Signs of The Times

 

Spotted on a (very expensive) hard-back accounts book in WH Smiths

So many empty shops

Vending machine

Oh, dearie me...

And much roadkill...

One Year

 Oh, I miss you

2012, we got married..

Late Autumn Light

 This evening, almost at sunset, this most glorious light

Oak

Rowan

Oak

and Peaceful Pussycat (snoring gently~)

Curses of a New Computer

 Almost £2750

Nice enough, shiny and Loads of Capacity, (a Terabyte of memory!) but new versions of software are needed, there are loads of idiotic pre-sets.  It had poor transfer of information and Applications, and Oh! Why does the new BBedit have text in white on black? How stupid? I'm not a 15-year-old gamer nor am I willing to accept the Hipster Vibe thing.

And my beloved Photoshop doesn't work!!!

New version, almost £100. I got robbed first for a download by a stupid re-seller with no manners, had to buy a new version on a disc (which involves finding the external hard drive, adding a connector, waiting, waiting, Grrrrr)

I had not thought about it, but I probably make 500 images a week with Photoshop, and the process is easy and intuitive after 30 years of working with the programme. I just hope the latest version looks and feels like the older ones, will accept my pre-sets, and will not cause bald patches

Meanwhile, some photos processed before the grand move

Roadkill

Late wing

Octopus and moon

Exploded Light

Sandbag

And

Death of Literacy

Bless Tesco, they do try...

 

Stormy Weather

Rain, cold, I got the duvet out and put the heating on and lit the fire... Huge winds, big rain, trees falling over, humungous puddles, and firmly closed windows...

...and I've been making kites and flags, see here for what there is in stock. Still no commissions, I don't plan to do that ever again...

I did get a few late squashes

And here's a Roadkill entry - Tiny Boot In The Rain
Also, still cross with Blogger, now no formatting for text. Sigh...

 

Cat Does Impersonations

 

Cat Inspects The Strawberries "I don't eat these, what are they good for?"

Slug Impression "Why would I need to Walk Anywhere?"

Slag

Roadkill

And, not photographed, but this morning - "I'm starving, I'm going to pat your head till you get up!" while meandering along my back