a birthday card for a Versailles nut
STARTED A DRAWING FOUNDATION COURSE!
Father’s day: remembering
when you are old and grey, and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire; take down this book…
early summer 2021
a young dunnock and a panorama
fluid may weather
dark sea . dark sky
frida card
a christmas card for a kahlo fan.
the grrreat conjunction
(jupiter and saturn quite close together) check out a couple of jupiter’s moons in the close-up
THE HARVEST IS PAST, THE SUMMER IS ENDED, AND WE ARE NOT SAVED. – JEREMIAH 8:20
eye sore
Day 0: I notice a sudden increase in floaters in my right eye – they are massed together and form a blurry patch that moves across my vision when I look from side to side […]
cruxi
polystyrene packing blocks, vine decor originally destined for a terrarium, hot glue, gorilla glue, gold leaf.
raised bed
my new raised bed out front – will I finally get something to grow underneath the Ceanothus? (they said I couldn’t cloud prune it but I did)
sunning blackbird
a blackbird “sunning” itself in next door’s front garden (not sick and dying) – who knew? I had to look it up – to do with feather upkeep and hygiene apparently
working from home shenanigans
. tiny tim . . new potato virus . . viru .
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
That is no country for old men, The young In one another’s arms
birds in the trees, —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect […]
An aged man is but a paltry thing
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; […]
et tu brutalist?: well i’m certainly leaning that way
a christmas card
a re-purposed card for a day-of-the-dead fan … and a gold-leaf fan
gold wall decor #1
resin casts of some fruit & fungii, from alginate moulds – stuck to a canvas – orange-brown undercoat – gold leaf on top – some ageing cream for definition – boom!
o clock
I found an A4 sample of the laminate material that I have used for kitchen splashbacks – “ceramic chalk”. Added some gold leaf detail and used the brass caps from mirror screws as hour markers. […]
window blind hack
I wanted some privacy for the bottom half of my front bay window but net curtains on cafe rods weren’t (ahem) hacking it. So I got some sheer window blinds (adjustable / cuttable), cut them […]
day 0
got me a blog site – I’m a blogger now – hurrah! – well, more of a scrapbooker – confusingly A LOT of the content here will appear earlier than this date because I am […]
alcove shelving hack #2
get some cube shelving that, in some combination, will closely match the width of the alcove.. get some furniture legs.. and some furniture connector bolts.. and put it all together! In my case 2 x […]
alcove shelving hack #1
get some sets of cube shelves.. get some floating shelves that match the width of the alcove as closely as possible.. get some furniture legs.. and just put it all together! Attach the legs to […]
dog
on the occasion of the death of my dog, Otto. a plastic dog skull moulded in alginate and reproduced in resin (gold waxed) and cement, with increasing amounts of mould degradation.
gold lightly
I bought a coppery-effecty ceiling light for the kitchen but then quickly decided I didn’t like it (I was leaving my copper phase). So I modified it. Gritty paint for a concrete effect and gold […]
kitchen plans
after many, many iterations, this was my final plan for the kitchen. no wall cabinets – it’s a long narrow room so this maximises the width – plus makes it less “kitcheny” in keeping with […]
some imagined 3d views
I created a model of the ground floor in RoomStyler and generated some 3d views. The furniture and fixings are indicative only – limited to what was available in the tool’s catalogue. I was trying […]
the original builder’s brief
Demolish sun room – a steel/glass/wood structure – no masonry Leave sun room base and pave for patio area Install sliding/bi-fold doors in end gable wall Renovate dining room – new floor / wall plastering […]
it is a truth universal that a middle-aged single man, being in possession of some expendable income, must purchase an electric guitar
leo 9
found this chap during front garden clear-out. a stone/concrete ornament. was missing his feet so gave him a fibre glass base and covered in gold leaf (of course). now proudly adorns the living room fireplace.
a grassy gabion
wire mesh panels, cable ties and lawn turf. will the grass grow happily in the vertical plane? (answer from the future: no)
he encountered there angels of evil, terrible and without pity, carrying savage weapons
pond in a bucket
some marginal plants in a big plastic container (without holes, obviously)
gutter bed
the top of the brick bbq station was looking a bit bare so I created a shallow alpine bed out of guttering …
When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book and dream..
and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it
the purchase – a seaside victorian terrace of my very own
a house of two halves, or flats, split front to back- so two kitchens, two bathrooms, two staircases, two central heating systems, etc. – to be consolidated back into one when money and motivation allows […]
changing hands through the years
9th May 1878Philip Cornell -> Edward Bird of Ipswich, Engineers Clerk 29th January 1894Edward Bird -> John Henry Grimwade of Ipswich, Outfitter£368 27th March 1905J H Grimwade -> The Reverend Theodore Beckett of Ilford and […]
door of stuff
good bye henley road
mask #2
… I posted a while back on a gas mask based on a cast of my own face and von Corax mentioned it reminded him of the Dr. Who “are you my mummy” episode. This […]
mask #1
for the discerning British officer, a custom gas mask cast from his own face. judging by the insignia, this one was made for a colonel in an Irish regiment…
dominican republic 2011
. LAS GALERAS . . SAMANA . . SANTO DOMINGO PART UN . . CUEVA LOS TRES OJOS . . SANTO DOMINGO PART DU . . JAROBACOA . . RANCHO MACAJO . . PUERTO PLATA […]
sinai 2010
. DAHAB . . ST CATHERINE’S MONASTERY . . A DESERT TRIP .
sri lanka 2010
. negombo . . train to kandy . . kandy . . ELEPHANTS! . . dambulla . . nuwara eliya .. bandarawela . . kataragama . . tangalle . . back to colombo and home […]
jordan 2009
. WADI RUM . . TEA WITH THE LOCALS . . PETRA . . BY THE BEACH AT AQABA .
vietnam 2009
. hanoi #1 . . cat ba island and halong bay . . hanoi #2 .
thailand 2009
. bangkok, oriental city . . street food . street life . . other folks . . our folks . . the culture bit (gold alert) . . sleeper train to vientiane (laos) .
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
kenya 2008
. MOMBASA . . TSAVO EAST – AMBOSELI . . EID IN MALINDI . . LAMU . . LAMU to MALINDI: DOMESTIC AIR TRAVEL KENYA-STYLE . . WATAMU .
cambodia 2008
. phnom penh . . up river to siem reap . . siem reap . angkor wat .
vietnam 2008
. ho-chi-minh city . . up the mekong river towards cambodia . . and a few days by the sea after cambodia before home .