Everything is a little intense, at the moment - the birds sum it up, all day long, almost, by my window.
There’s a lot going on, personally, just now - and I am not prepared to share much of anything about it just yet. Please know my family and I are fine. We are just fine.
Things may become a little more unpredictable in coming weeks, but I am going to continue to offer my daily drawings (with possibly a few missed days now and then). I am most grateful to Instagram’s algorithm for acknowledging my existence - as they have just recently been feeding my images to a wider audience and thus I have new followers. It’s all my own doing really - a photo of a recent stitched drawing. Such is the randomness of life, if you will, or you might think otherwise… Hello, if you are a new subscriber here who has recently found me there. You are welcome.
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Photo: recent sketchbook pages:
I made time to sit and cut and glue a little
I’ve got a couple of new black velvet cats to add to my shop - today! I did say, if the cats added to my shop sold on Wednesday (and they did, thank you) I would make a few more. Can’t show you here because they have yet to choose their final details, and cats can be particular.
My daily drawing will be a special one today - but they are all special, in their own way. and I am grateful to everyone for your interest. The daily drawings are added to my shop at 12 noon UK time. Please do take a look. There will be pencil gouache, ink, stitch - and more.
There will be no Wednesday update this week coming - I will still add extra things on Wednesday evening, as and when, but not this week.
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A few small stories
On the bus, a woman tells her friend how she has been clearing out on old desk drawer. She has found so many love letters from when X was a sailor on HMS Something. ‘I was swept off my feet,’ she tells her friend, in a slightly gruff voice. ‘It was my twenty-first birthday and I knew nothing about him, nothing at all!’ I wanted to know if she ever knew anything about him, if his letters amounted to anything, but did not find out. Her friend asked if this was during the Falklands war and the conversation took on a darker, Thatcher-heavy mood….. Such is the nature of eavesdropping on a bus. You never know what might be revealed to you, but one thing is for sure: never underestimate the intelligence or candidness of your fellow passenger.
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Two sparrows having a raging fight. I am standing right next to them: two males, one pinning the other to the patio. Stop that now, really you must stop! (In my best Joyce Grenfell voice) Sometimes it’s not always the cat that gets the bird. Some days the bird will fight another to death. Every species has its wars… I go into the house, focusing not on the flying feathers but my too-easily-done Joyce Grenfell impression. Oh dear. I switch on the radio to listen to Hancock’s Half Hour (the sculptor episode, if like me you are a Hancock fan). Oh, how at home I feel in my nostalgic world of Joyce Grenfell and Tony Hancock etc…
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Sewing button eyes on cats. Sewing buttons on just about anything. I reach for a favourite bowl.
Here it is. Always filled with mother of pearl buttons. I top the bowl up with more buttons, as need be. This bowl was purchased by myself in Sedona, Arizona. I remember driving (with my then partner) rfom Phoenix to Sedona, seeing the green appearing on the horizon as we moved from the harsh desert into a different sphere. Sedona is a special place in my memory of time in the US….We found ourselves near a potter’s studio with an open shop. It was a barn, with stacks and stacks of vessels, warm to the touch from the kiln and/or desert sun. I picked out this bowl with a gecko climbing out. like to collect pottery but not to keep stored on a shelf, if I can help it. Everything has a good use.
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Thanks always for reading here, for your comments, likes and for just subscribing (please do subscribe). If you would like to buy me a coffee this is always much appreciated!
Your noticings of life around you are such a high spot in my week, Cathy. Conversations, Pearl buttons, bird shenanigans... all of it. And with added Hancock and Grenfell! Whatever life is presenting you with just now, I hope you find the most peaceful passage through it x
Thanks for transporting me to a leafy garden in England, to the Thatcher era, to British comics of the 50s and 60s, to Pheonix and the pottery shop and home again...so much to think about. Best wishes for your personal situation x