A Splash of Colour is Always Welcome

"Color is the fruit of life."
- Guillaume Apollinaire

"I have always wanted my colours to sing."- Paul Delvaux

"Colour stops me in the street, invites me to breathe it in and take it with me."
- Suzanne Partridge









I snapped these pictures at a visits to my Mothers house a couple of weeks ago, how wonderful to see these splashes of bright colour. It makes a difference especially on grey days!

"I never met a color I didn't like." - Dale Chihuly

I thought about that quote, have I ever met a colour I didn't like?

Well I suppose it is all to do with context, a tiny dab of something in a painting or a rug might be acceptable, whereas a huge area of the same colour would be unbearable!

I love the majority of colours, but I must admit I am not fond of a certain shade of burgundy!

What about you? Have you ever met a colour that you didn't like?

Sammy and the Squirrel

Sammy had just woken up from his nap on the sofa beside my desk, when he looked up and saw the squirrel just outside the window. I didn't even have to leave my desk to watch this unfold right beside me. . .

He just had to get a closer look.

...the Squirrel was looking at him too.

They were really checking each other out.
Sammy was fascinated by his new squirrel friend.

Until all at once, he had gone!

Leaving Sammy peering through the window
waiting for his squirrel friend to return.

Pretty Cats All In A Row!

Iwalked into the room and I was so surprised to find all three of my cats lined up in a row like this! I had to rush and get my camera, hoping that they wouldn't move before I got back. Usually this is the favourite spot of Ms. Mitz (the middle cat and mother of the other two) and at times I have seen her daughter Bina (the other tortoiseshell) join her - but to see Sammy join the line up too. . . now that was unusual!

You can see here that Bina couldn't believe her eyes! What is he doing here?

I think the sunshine through the window was just too much too resist!

The Beauty of Subtle Colour

On a grey day we took a walk around our village and I was struck by the subtle colours I saw everywhere. They were so soft and beautiful! An interior designer could take that colour pallete and create such a soft restful space...

Accent colour too! Hmmm, there's inspiration everywhere!

Peace and Joy!

"All we are saying is give peace a chance…" - John Lennon

"There is no way to peace; peace is the way." - A. J. Muste

"Peace, like charity, begins at home." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Wishing you PEACE and Incredible JOY!

Brrrr, it is cold!

So, it was one of the coldest days of this year with temperatures still at minus 5C at mid day! and we decide to go shopping! There was freezing fog on the way and the countryside looked like a winter wonderland with all the frost on the trees.

We wrapped up very warm and enjoyed our trip but still managed to come home without what I went for!

I hope it is warmer where you are! :-)

Orange and Gold...

Orange and Gold
...is the colour of autumn.

The beautiful trees that I can see from my window
when I am sitting at my computer

. . . and it's also the colour of certain CATS!

Sammy curled up asleep in the computer chair.


"The wind-blown leaves turn
Dancing the golden sunlight
across the tired floor."
- Matt Dimmic


I hope your autumn is full of colour too!

I am celebrating today!

Well, I am . . .

so, shall we have cake?

Please take a piece!

Thanks for visiting, it is always good to see you!

Birthday cake image courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

An Ocean in Miniature

Those of you that know me will know of my love for the ocean. Well, the other day I was walking around a car boot sale, when from a distance a tiny flash of sea green caught my eye and I walked over and picked up this little lump of fluorite and held it up to the light - inside it looked like an ocean in miniature!

I saw a wave and felt the wetness. It contained the sea! I bought it home and I love it. . .

"Life’s enchanted cup sparkles near the brim." - Lord Byron

Do You Know the Names of These Plants?

There are some things growing in my garden that I don't know the names of.

I thought I would post photos in case any of my readers could tell me what they are called.

This was originally all variegated but since I have moved it, has reverted to mainly green.
It dies down to nothing each winter and comes up again in the Spring, eventually
it will have small yellow flowers up each stem. - any ideas?

This pink flowered plant in the foreground grows everywhere around here.
I bought it from a plant sale outside someone house last year
but didn't register what it was called?

This is the plant that I bought with me from the old cottage we used to live in.
It has small star like flowers and the berries eventually turn red. - Any ideas?

These are everywhere! They come up every year and are quite beautiful!
Such lovely colours but I have no idea what it is called. Have you?

Now this looks like some sort of nightshade?
It was here when we came and gets quite rampant,
so I dug it up and put it into a pot - its berries turn a really dark shiny red.

Thanks for any identification you could help with!
They are still beautiful without names but it
would be nice to know what they are called.

Finally

A photo I took of Ms. Mitz yesterday!

Isn't it wonderful!

Saying Goodbye For Now

"Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons." - Al Hirschfeld

The weather is warming up and Spring is on its way, so I guess I can put my cosy scarves away until next autumn.

I shall miss the lovely colours and the warmth they bring - but I am sure I shall soon forget that, when the garden begins to bloom and there is colour everywhere!

"Colors are the smiles of nature."
- Leigh Hunt

Goodbye scarves - see you next time!

Such A Beautiful Blue Sky !

There have been some beautiful skies here the last couple of days, and after all the snow and grey weather it has been like a tonic. I find myself struck by the beauty of that delicious saturated blue!

"If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do.
I'd go out into a great big field alone or into
the deep, deep woods, and I'd look up into
the sky - up - up - up - into that lovely blue sky
that looks like there's no end to it's blueness.
And then I'd just feel a prayer."
- L.M. Montgomery

Noticing The Background - Art Everywhere!

Everyday life can be transformed by looking at things in a different way. Years ago, when I first got a digital camera and took it everywhere with me, I noticed that carrying a camera changed my perception, it made me aware of the things that normally become 'background' as we go through our days.

Once you begin looking for things to photograph, your subconscious takes that on board and brings things to your attention that you perhaps would not have noticed previously. Everywhere you go there is something exciting, interesting or beautiful.

A few weeks ago I was passing a supermarket that is not my usual one, I needed a few things and decided to pop in while I was passing. I was immediately struck by the trollies outside - they looked like a modern art installation to me. . . So I fished out my camera and started snapping. I am sure the other shoppers wondered what on earth I was doing! :-)

"I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because
it makes you see the world rather than just look at it." - Author Unknown

Candyfloss and Triggered Memories

"What we remember from childhood we remember forever

- permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen."

- Cynthia Ozick

When I was growing up, I lived a very safe, secure existence but secretly I longed for colour, sparkles and magic. Most of this desire was satisfied by losing myself in books, with tales of The Magic Faraway Tree and the adventures to be had in the ever changing worlds that appeared in the clouds at the top of the branches. Many hours were spent curled up on my bed lost in these enchanted lands.

So imagine my delight when a travelling funfair chose the large playing field in front of my home to set up its annual visit. From my vantage point on my bedroom window sill, I could see the lorries and brightly coloured fairground equipment arrive and quickly begin transforming an empty patch of grass into a colourful kaleidascope of lights, colour, music and smells.

Laying in bed at night I could smell the diesel engines and the fried onions. I could hear the sirens, as the rides slowed down to let off the hoards of screaming girls, mixed with the sounds of the latest pop records played loud. All accompanied by the flashing lights that I could see through my closed curtains, lighting up my safe little bedroom with the excitement I craved. I felt I had pulled this bright, edgy, impermanant world into my experience, and I loved every moment it was there.

As I became a teenager and wandered through this sparkly noise filled mirage that appeared annually yards from my window, I saw a girl not much older than me sitting in the glorious pink candy floss booth edged with flashing lights. She serenely twirled a stick on which quickly built a cloud of pink candyfloss. I remember being seized with longing. I wanted to be that girl, to live amongst the sparkle and noise and every two weeks to pack up my things and to travel to the next stopping place and do it all again.

Seeing this Candy Floss stall (in the picture above) at a recent event triggered these memories and bought them flooding back.

Memories of the girl I once was and of her craving for colour and adventure.

Car Boot Sales

Car Boot Sales - I admit it - I love them! But I really have to try to rein myself in to stop myself arriving home with lots of things that I really have no room for!

In the early days with a new home and plenty of space I was in my element and was mesmerised by the wonderful things that my Magpie nature managed to find. Little gems of beauty overlooked and unseen, it was wonderful and I always returned home laden with my sometimes weird and wonderful finds.

I have managed to gain some measure of control :-) and these days I am a lot more selective in the treasures that I bring home. But it is such a pleasure on a sunny morning to wander around and see what goodies may be lurking, just waiting there for me to notice them!

I Think . . .

I think . . . I will stop trying to paint, put my brushes down and pack away my colours. Canvasses can remain white, they have no need of my embellishments. Paint can stay in tubes. The assorted brushes displayed like dried flowers splayed in their sturdy pot, have stopped dreaming of thick paint and swirling water.

It had its moment, when inspiration and colour were a heady mix, creativity poured and splashed onto surfaces, it couldn't be contained it had to flow. The pictures needed to be seen, the colours absorbed, it was a joy, a primal urge.

I have carried the memory like a crumpled photo of a long gone lover. Awaiting the day when that fiery desire would once again run through my veins and beg to be released onto that virgin page. Creativity unleashed on a white canvass, pictures and stories appearing in the paint in front of my smitten eyes.

That golden moment has never returned and I'm not waiting any more. It's time to put down this torch I have been carrying, say my final goodbyes and mourn for that time when it was easy and paint and I were lovers. - Taken from my blog Out Of My Ocean

A Familiar Feeling

For so long now the urge to paint, to see colour transforming a blank canvas has just been a memory.

Other things seemed to have stepped into the foreground.
I just no longer had the inclination. The spark wasn't there. The colours weren't calling me. The pictures and shapes had been replaced by words arising, as images once did. . . .

Then today I felt a familiar feeling, just a twinge but I recognised it immediately. Will it lead anywhere? We'll see.

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keeffe

Waiting Outside The Post Office Yesterday Morning

I noticed . .

Sunlight on dry stone wall
The sounds of a lawn mower
B I R D S O N G
a childs ball bouncing on hard pavement
Sunglasses and Ice Cream
Old dogs walking their elderly owners
Daisies Everywhere!

"This day will not come again.
Each minute is worth a priceless gem."
-Takuan

Waiting Outside The Dentist

I went with J to his dental appointment this week and as he was likely to be a while, I took a book and said I would wait in the car.

Our dentist is situated in a really beautiful spot called Godswell (one of the reasons we chose it.)

It is situated off the road in a courtyard surrounded with trees and next to an old church with a towering steeple.

It was too hot in the car with the sun pouring through the window, so I decided to sit myself down on the grass under a wonderful blossom tree.

As I sat and contemplated the beauty all around me, I was inspired to write, I scrabbled around in my bag and found a pen and the back of a leaflet.

Heres's what I wrote. . .

"Sitting under a blossom tree, pale pink blooms tightly clustered on spreading boughs - love personified - fragrant and beautiful. Old stone wall, golden in the sunlight, shadows dancing on its surface. Petals floating on the wind.
Lush green grass embroidered with daisies.
Signpost proclaiming Godswell - yeah, I thought, I'll vouch for that."

A mundane trip made beautiful.

"ALWAYS TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE"

(THERE'S BEAUTY EVERYWHERE)