Is it really .....

Is it really so long since I updated my blog, oh dear. How time flies when you're busy and when you're laid up with a particularly bad dose of sciatica.

Where to start, well this cold weather meant we had to spend more and more time collecting wood for the fire. At one point since I wrote last, Jim got a really bad bout of flu, and not man flu lol, the real mc coy. It laid him up for about 3 weeks, and left him weak as a kitten. Even now a couple of months later, he still hasn't got back to how he was before he had it. The flu of course meant that we couldn't go collecting wood, and we slowly ran out, and were down to our last few bits for a fire, when my son Billie came up from Stockport with his girlfriend to help us out. They managed to get us a couple of weeks worth of firewood, which saw us through till Jim was on the mend.

I've slowly but surely been gathering together the stuff together to do my latest craft idea. I'm intending to do some altered canvases. Lack of money has made it a long drawn out affair, along with lack of motivation I have to admit.But I'm almost there, and hopefully within a couple of weeks I'll have something to show you at long last.

I've also been suffering since I last wrote, arthritis of course kicked in during this prolonged bitterly cold spell. Then for the last week or so , I've had a really really painful bout of sciatica, which has left me laid up on the settee for days on end, being able to do nothing but watch catch up tv online. As we chose not to have a tv, I have to say the boredom of watching tv  soon kicked in. I can't believe how much rubbish is tv these days lol, luckily there was quite a lot of documentaries which kept me occupied for a while, and then it was film fest, I think I must have watched most of the films on Demand Five and BBC i player. I even had to resort to looking for films on youtube, things got so desperate at one point lol. Never have I been so pleased that I live with a guy that can take over any jobs that I do usually in the house, without moaning or whinging, and just gets on with things. This morning however I've woken up and I seem ( so far ) to be in no pain, whoooooopeee.

My oldest daughter was due to come down over Easter with her hubby and youngest daughter, but that was obviously not meant to be. First of all my daughter got a bad cold and achy bones, then once she recovered, their daughter got chicken pox, and is still coming out in spots. I was disappointed, as was Jim as he really enjoys playing with my grand daughter when she comes down. But as I was in pain with sciatica, maybe its just as well things turned out as they did.

Anyway here's a few of the many photo's I've taken since I wrote last. These photo's were taken as part of a theme on a forum I use a lot. The theme was a day in the life of a hippy lol. Hmmm for some reason the photo's don't seem to be showing, I'll leave it for a while and see what happens.

On our way through the local churchyard to get wood.



 A particularly pretty example of some bracken fungi.



 A couple of pretty sticks for my daughter Jenny to carve.


The bike trailer loaded up with wood.


The end result lol

]

Copper embossing

This last few days, after a very long period of artistic block I had a go at copper embossing. We've had a sheet of copper hanging around the house for more years than I can remember, but after Jim had helped me sort out my outhouse, which doubles as an extra big art cupboard, I spotted this tube of copper sheet, and thought I'll have a go at that soon !! Just for once I actually did have a go at it.

My design was as usual an abstract one, and seeing as our sheet of copper was only small, I made do with a panel 2" wide by 6" long. It doesn't sound very big, but I've filled the space quite nicely I think. The copper was medium weight, which meant you had to press quite hard (well I did) to get the design nice and clear. The fun bit started when I decided to heat treat this little work of art. It was good fun watching rainbow colours appear the more I heated up the copper. It was also very random and quickly overheated and went a dull silver grey colour !! After using good old Google, I found that I could immerse the copper in lemon juice and it would take off any patina good or bad, and I could start all over again, which I've done a couple of times now. One problem I read about online is that unless you seal the panel, the patina will lose all the beautiful rainbow colours. Luckily I had some Briwax, and that has I hope stopped the dulling process.

The only downside to the embossing is that it made the arthritis in my hand flare up, and at one point I could barely move it without being in considerable pain. But 4 days later and it's eased off again, so I shall have another go later on today. I've enjoyed doing messing with this so much, my oldest daughter is going to buy me some more copper sheet for my birthday next Friday.

Talking of my birthday, my family in the Midlands is coming on the Saturday and we are going to have a few drinks to celebrate, actually it'll probably be more than a few drinks lol, and then a couple more days going go carting and hopefully fishing as well, weather permitting. Jim was planning to come down too and meet some of my rather large family (poor him lol), but unfortunately due to the unexpected illness of an elderly relative who he helps care for, this hangs in the balance at the moment. Fingers crossed, he'll make it down for my birthday at least, but if not, I'm sure we'll be able to share plenty of other birthdays together.

Did anyone else see that beautiful rainbow halo around the moon on Wednesday night/ early Thursday morning ? I got up early Thursday morning as usual, and when I went to let the dog out, I looked up and saw the full moon surrounded by a beautiful rainbow halo, which had a whitish circle around that, and to the left of the moon was an extremely bright star too. I rushed to get my camera to try and capture this stunning sight, and thought I did. But later on when I downloaded the photo's I hadn't managed to catch it, I was gutted and a little puzzled too, it was only later that I realised I had an ultra violet filter on my camera at the time, I wonder if that was what spoilt my efforts, does anyone know ? Please leave a comment if you do.

I'm going to add a photo of the copper embossing, if I can get a decent photo at the right angle to show the patina, so watch this spot !! As promised here is a photo of the embossed panel, sadly it's a very poor photo, it hardly shows up the pink patina on the copper. I'll have a go at another better photo another day.

Blah blah blah

I seem to be finding it increasingly difficult to think of titles for my posts lately, hence the blah blah blah one this time lol.

After a few days where my hands have been so painful I've barely been able to type or turn the cooker knob, the arthritis seems to be easing off a bit again, thank goodness. So I've started to do a painting for a friend of mine, while the goings good so to speak. I've just done the basic background layer so far, and as soon as that's dry I'll start with the more detailed work. It's a shame my friend wanted a replica of a painting I've already done, a new challenge would have been good, but the choice is his. I've also been spray painting the board for my latest glass panel. I tried painting it by hand as I had some paint the right colour, but the finish wasn't smooth enough for my liking. This isn't a mosaic this time, hard to explain what it is really lol. But eventually a photo will be taken I expect and shown to you all as usual.

Along with the arthritis, the extra beats in my heart I've written about before, seem to have returned this past week or so. The last couple of days they've been particularly bad, and although it's not something that's painful, it can feel pretty unpleasant and makes me feel like I might have a heart attack (although the doc has said that won't happen). So one way or another I haven't felt 100% ...but life goes on and I'll carry on plodding on as I always do. I'm sure a bit of sunshine would make me feel tons better !!! But it seems like there's a rain cloud permanently over Anglesey at the moment. The other day the rain was torrential all day and I even contemplated starting to build an ark, but the arthtirtis in my hand put pay to that idea lol.