WINDY DAY AGAIN

Saturday is usually my day off from dog walking don't get me wrong I enjoy our walks but it also nice to have a day off. Not only that Wilson expects his weekend walks with DADDY so much so that he sulked today when he suddenly realised he had gone to work.YES proper sulking and being that he is a Lab his big brown eyes made it worse. So I was just about to take him when he was invited next door to see a visiting Labrador puppy. This was  taken a couple of weeks ago but she is not a lot bigger now but she was not in the least bit worried about a 43kg lab coming towards her. CUTE.

 After this we went on our usual route and as usual i was seething at the amount of litter what is wrong with people. It is getting to the point where i am liable to punch anyone I see dropping litter (well perhaps I will not go that far) but I am just getting so ANGRY.










We had just got in when we had visitors my Son Daughter in law and granddaughter so a nice half an hour was spent with them .

before

I altered a photo of New Hampshire using lemon juice.

after using lemon juice to alter the surface then scratching

doodles

i was going to call this Blackbirds courting then I realized I had given them 4 legs

Then it was on to a bit of doodling for the inspired by prompt over at milliande.com I have already posted photos of previous attempts and today it was very quick doodles  I am still not getting it.

Later on I experimented with Brasso altering a magazine page

created using 2 of my own photos

created using 2 of my own photos

created using 1 of my photos and a clip art image

Last night when i was playing around with PICASA and PICNIK  I created  3 collages I was quite pleased with..

And finally an update on my EROSION BUNDLE still not enough rain to cause much decay but at least it is beginning to  change.

WINDY DAY AND PICNIK

WILSON

Today it was very windy and to be honest I was not motivated to do very much I also made the mistake of starting to play with PICASA and PICNIK early this morning and I am still playing .What I find so amazing is how fast technology improves just a few years ago you took photos and sent them off and waited. Now you just snap plug into the laptop and play with them . We have RED NOSE DAY coming up and I thought I would alter a few photos with red noses.

Midday I took Wilson across the fields for a quick run I did not bother to take my camera because the wind was so strong it would have been difficult to take a good picture. But of course something interesting caught my eye. I am always on the lookout for things being found in odd places and over the years i have taken lots of photos of strange images. As I walked I could see something orange in one of the many mole hills.and as i got closer i realised it was a dog toy. I knew it was not one of Wilsons as it was too small but how did it get there. I can only think it had been collected from somewhere by a fox.but i am not sure how it ended up being burried in a mole hill.

DOG WITH BLUE TEETH

WORK IN PROGRESS

Late last night I doodled a couple of pages on the JOAN MIRO inspired by prompt i was using SHARPIE  pens which i have only ever thought off as marker pens for the freezer  but they are great and a pack of 24 from COSTCO were quite reasonable .

WHY DO I GET RED TEXT ?????

Can anyone tell me why the text becomes red and I cannot alter it.

OWLS AND OLD AGE

Monday I was visited by the SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE   Hawk and Owl Trust.This was because I had found pellets in my barn and I wanted to know what had left them. It was decided that it most likely was a Barn Owl but there may also have been a Short Eared Owl  we were watched by my now  resident Buzzard a truly magnificent bird.
 I made the mistake of washing my hair before they arrived and I spent the best part of an hour walking frosty fields with wet hair several hours later I was still trying to get warm.

Grandma's Cottage AKA empty stable

The children leaving

Yesterday I played host to 25 young children from the local village school they were doing the story of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD  and they came to visit Grandma's cottage AKA my empty stables .I hung a few lanterns and put in an old chair and hung bells on the door. It was a shame it was very overcast with a heavy drizzle but they behaved very well and asked a lot of questions about Grandma which I was not expecting so a lot of bluffing went on.I did not like to take photos not sure on the privacy laws.
As they left the the stable I asked the Teacher if they would like to see the Buzzard and although they all live in the village they had never seen one. And then I asked if they would like to visit again in the summer to which they all shouted yes please. Their teacher then asked if they could come for a picnic I am so pleased that they will introduced to nature on their doorstep. We are a very small village but I expect several of these children have never been in a field full of wild flowers. ROLL ON SUMMER.

After they had left a quick trip to Costco was called for then a nice walk along the Sea wall with The Big Black Lab.
We have new INSPIRED BY prompts on milliande .com the first one being Joan Miro
here is my 4 attempts.

pretty bird

BRIDGE,RIVER,FISH

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS

BLACK FISH

Today I went to my parents house it is only 25 miles away  but sometimes the journey seems like 125 miles. I think I have mentioned before Dad has Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma after 8 years in remission and he looks so frail. Their cottage is tiny and I mean TINY 2 rooms up 2 rooms down and jammed packed with years of collecting all covered in  dust .And at the moment they have a mouse problem not good when you have an elderly patient with a reduced immune system. The plan was i was going to clear out the space they call  the kitchen measuring 8 x6 ft approx . After 4 hours and several sacks of rubbish it did not look much different really the cottage needs gutting and rebuilding but at their age this is not an option.I also had such a headache I just could not do any more I think this was caused by the thought of how bad it all was.

SUNNY DAY

It has been  such a glorious day  that there was no way I could bring myself to stay in.It was bright but quite cold I decided to tackle some of the jobs that needed doing in the farm yard. In the winter everything dies back and this leaves a lot places where we could have intruders so I  filled in the gaps with dead branches wire netting and anything else I could find. This is not the prettiest of solutions but in just a couple of weeks it will be covered by this years growth. Tomorrow I am being visited by someone from the Hawk and Owl Trust to advise me on Owl boxes   if he confirms the pellets I found were from a Barn Owl . I am quite excited I love to see the wildlife inhabit the empty buildings.

Tyre tracks left by Tractor after hedge cutting

a sheet of metal roofing in the rhine

I have walked around the fields a couple of times today and this afternoon as the sun was low in the sky quite ordinary things looked  striking in the suns glow.

Erosion bundle

I am hoping the rain we have forecast for this week will kick start my Erosion Bundle it looks the same as it did when I hung it up.