Don't You Believe It! / Week 1 in Sketches 2014

So it's January, and although I'm a couple of weeks later than anticipated, I'd like to announce that I'm back in the saddle again - artistically, creatively, socially and as visibly as you will allow. The last year and a half or so has been incredibly difficult, and at some point I might even share the complicated details publicly. This would be an attempt to throw myself out there, warts and all, but hey ... not quite up to that warty reality yet, if I'll ever be. Those of you who know me might say I hold my cards close... and so I will continue to do with matters I deem unsuitable for public consumption. But see, I'm also learning that sharing is an awfully good thing, even when you perceive you're putting yourself at risk to do so. I think... I think I've learnt, that often the opposite happens ... connectedness, help, support, encouragement. So suffice it to say, for now, that I've tasted a little bit of hell, if not danced with the devil. And though I'd like to say I've been to hell and back, those lines are often blurred. Still.

Fortunately, for me, a cornered mouse DOES fight.

  (click this link and it will make more sense) http://youtu.be/U5tveO2nRSk

Soooo ... I'm not usually one for New Year's Resolutions, but I made one this year, and it is one I intend to keep. I will make a sketch or some sort of drawing or artistic idea in a book -- one for each day of the year. It goes without saying that sometimes I'll love them, and sometimes I'll hate them enough to want to rip the pages out. I mean, who will know anyhow? Well you will, because I'm going to post them here...love 'em or hate 'em.

So here goes! -- Sketches from 1st January to 11th January 2014. I'll post sketches from this week tomorrow night.

1st January 2014

2nd January 2014

3rd January 2014

4th January 2014

5th January 2014

6th January 2014

7th January 2014

8th January 2014

9th January 2014 

10th January 2014 

11th January 2014

Mel's Stuffed Squash

And out of the blue! ... a foodie post!

Thursday night my friend Mel kindly gave me some absolutely lovely vegetables from her allotment near our neighborhood. So touched by this gift, I was determined to attempt a special meal using as many ingredients as I could.

Here's what she gave me:

courgettes

yellow squash *

onions (red and white)

lettuce (not sure what kind?)

cucumber

banana pepper plant (with ripening fruit!)

* the yellow squash was particularly exciting because I've NEVER had this over here! We call it 'summer squash' in NY and my Mom always has it. Dan says it's called yellow courgette here. 

(she also gave me raspberry plants, a currant plant and strawberry plants which I hope will bear fruit later!)

Some of the ingredients. Counter clockwise from upper left: 

1. Banana pepper - This one fell off the plant while we were still at the allotment and I thought it was wasted ... not so much! Look at how it's changed colour! And, it's a lot more spicy than I expected. :)
2. Mediterranean Veggie Sausage (From Tesco) - mashed with fork.
3. Fresh cilantro (coriander).
4. A few cut up cherry tomatoes.
5. Mel's red onion
6. some sliced garlic there in the middle.

 I cut the courgette and yellow squash in half and took the seeds out. I put them in the oven (at about 190C) for 20 minutes to soften them up. Then I set to work on the stuffing.

Shallow fry the onion, banana peppers and garlic in a frying pan until soft and then add the Med Sausage. I prepared some couscous on the side and added about 3 forkfulls (not much, just to thicken the mixture up). Add fresh cilantro, salt and cayenne to taste. Voila! 

I filled the hollowed 'boats' of squash with the stuffing mixure, and then topped them with grated grana padano cheese. The courgette was a lot bigger than the yellow squash so I thought better to put them in at different times. The courgette was in for about another 20 minutes and the squash a bout half that. Above, the yellow squash waiting it's turn while the rich smell of the stuffed courgette was filling the room.

As an accompaniment, I wanted to make a nice salad using Mel's fresh lettuce and cucumber. This is super simple, but didn't disappoint!  I deseeded the cucumber, cut it in half and only peeled half to keep some of that lovely skin on for texture. Then added some cut vine tomatoes. 

The dressing: 

1. olive oil
2. fresh lime juice
3. fresh cut garlic
4. bit of brown sugar
5. touch of balsamic raspberry vinegar
6. some fresh cut cilantro

After dressing the tomatoes and cucumber, I lined the bowl with Mel's lovely lettuce leaves and poured the rest of the salad in.

Again, the final result! YUM!

 Need I say more?

A Long Walk - Bridge, Bishopsbourne and Pett Bottom

One of the first scenic views, surrounded by sheep and the perfect temperature. Ahead of us we had 9 miles of lovely surprises.

Some of the sheep. Had to snap the only one with the black head.

"Oswalds", the home of novelist Joseph Conrad for five years until his death in 1924. | Bishopsbourne

Sign in Bishopsbourne

Bishopsbourne

Someone greeting us on our way.

He was rushing over to meet Dan on the other side of the ditch where he was rewarded with a nice pat on the head.

The Invisible Man

An artsy snap that caught my eye.

THE BEST SURPRISE OF THE DAY! ALPACA LOVELINESS!!

They are so stinking cute :)

Scenic view

We really couldn't resist, and this one took four bites!

Inspiring colours!

Inspiring shapes!

Exactly the dose of reality I needed.

a little peace goes a long way

A reminder to myself this morning that I can't move forward without finding a touch of peace first. A bit bleary eyed, I was tempted to climb back into bed when I found I didn't have much by way of emails to catch up on, and my mind started turning negatively towards that elephant I mentioned. I've been holding off on caffeine in the morning and most days too, so the kick start isn't so easy coming. And now I've just heard my alarm go off in the other room, and I've accomplished something today already. Sometimes a little peace is easier to grasp if you just think about it a little less and do things you like a little more. The best part is when it finds you.

There's an Elephant in the Room

Call it what you will. I haven't made a blog post in two weeks. Sometimes I find blog-land to be very deceptive, or at least seemingly so. It can be a real downer if you choose to measure yourself up instead of being inspired. You see countless talented people, creating away, managing successful businesses and  busy families, often at the same time. You read about people creating more awe-inspiring pieces in one week then you have managed for half a year, and they seem to be doing this while enjoying a fabulous social life and receiving a fat pay check to boot -- not to mention maintaining a seamlessly consistent blog documenting the ride. I've wondered more than a few times how these people manage to sleep, or how they must be slave to gadgets and their audience when there's nearly always an artsy snap shot for public viewing to document even a romantic dinner. But I haven't delayed a blog post because of these things, it just seems to happen sometimes. Life throws a few curve balls and when you resurface you realise all the balls you were juggling so well are waiting there by your feet to be picked up again. And it often feels like you've dropped a few too many steps back. I cringe whenever I find myself writing this blog topic again, this one about not having written one. Ultimately it means those juggling balls have in some way or other hit the ground once again. Practise makes perfect. 

a few things around the house

1. brushes in a jar on my desk

2. a postcard of a portrait of Fanny, the beloved dog of Mrs. Soanes, which I picked up at the John Soanes Museum in London. If you haven't been there yet, GO! It's amazing, and free, but you'd be crazy to not want to give a donation  before you leave. The postcard is framed by a magnet of a red light house in Amsterdam and a sheep and lamb magnet I bought from Howlett's

3. a random blurry shot of some books in the bedroom. (L to R):

• Guide to the Architecture of London  
• Lost London 1870-1945 
• Annie Lewin Plants and Places
• Shutting Up Shop: The Decline of the Traditional Small Shop
• Miki
• Grayson Perry
• The Georgian Group Book of the Georgian House
• The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation
• Oscar Wilde's London
• Art: The Whole Story

4. detail shot of the newest painting I'm working on


5. some early house-scapes and Official ♥ Graffiti photo in hall


6. La Chinata smoked paprika powder and other tins in the kitchen

cherry stone love & a fox appears

I've been a bit out of commission the last few days. Long story short, I have a recurring neck/head problem that sometimes, well, rears its own ugly head and causes me to act a little less human and a bit more like a slab of meat that shouldn't move, lift, turn, sit, slouch, lean, look the wrong way lest the pain get worse -- and I don't want to know what's on the other side of that. Bed-ridden isn't where I want to be, so I've been leaning over my computer and my drawing pads/watercolour paper somewhat less this past week and spent the majority of yesterday on my back with my new best friend. What best friend you say? Well, as I write this, I have a my absolutely priceless Christmas gift from Dan draped around my neck ... the Opal London Stay-Warm Cherry Stone Thermal Neck Pillow (see left if you haven't noticed already). The best thing about it for me is that it's really solid if you push a lot of the stones into one compartment. Or even better, pile two of the sections on top of each other and lie on what is essentially then a hot pile of rocks. I'm aware this might be not so nice for some, but for my brand of complaint, it is absolutely perfect. Any of you who have seen me, in a moment of discomfort, jam my fingers or knuckles into the back of my neck might begin to understand. 

By the time early evening arrived yesterday I was positively bored out of my gourd with lying around, but I'm glad I did because I'm feeling a lot better today.

Things are looking up. Although I'm not 100%, a little fox managed to make his way to a bit of watercolour paper today...

a plate too small ...

... has resulted in an as yet unidentified creature.

Paint, research, varnish, blog, draw, design, felt, cook, clean, whistle dixie ... perhaps I had too much on my plate today. To the left is a little jot I did while thinking of a possible logo. In the middle of the night when I should have been sleeping, I imagined three circles of colour under a bird - turquoise blues, olive greens and ochre hues seem to be recurring at the moment.

Wa-hey! What do you reckon I'm gonna be??

What the... not sure I'm liking this...

Suppose I'll just have to be patient to find out.
Let's hope no one sees me in this state.

snow and unexpected upgrade

What can I say about this weekend just past? Well, lots really, but since I have exactly 10 minutes to get this blog post done before making dinner lest I lose another blogging day, here it is in a nutshell:

• I finish work and walk home Friday night, in relatively good spirits and with the good potential of having a very creative weekend.
• I turn on my computer to check my emails and catch up with a few blogs before thinking about dinner. Well, I should say, I TRIED to turn on my computer. It wasn't having it. I mean no way, no how. It kind of started to breathe and then did the computer equivalent of having a hyperventilating fit before passing out cold. (Insert PANIC here). Needless to say, the evening didn't pan out quite as expected. 
• After a night of restless sleep (see aforementioned PANIC), I decided come hell or high water I was going to buy a computer Saturday. Problem was, I really didn't know what to look for. My technical skills with computers isn't great, and when I see lists of specs to weigh against each other I might as well be trying to read Chinese characters. I begged the help of Dan and some good friends who know what it all means (you know who you are!), and as luck would have it, Dan spied a potentially good deal right away on ebay. 
• The next few hours were spent waiting to see if my offer would be accepted. (This is when I bought this lovely blue vase -- see above right -- at half price while out running some errands).  Long story short: we negotiated a good deal and ended up driving an hour away towards an incoming snow storm to pick up what is now my new (used) IMAC... and I think I'm in love. Interestingly, just when the computer was being sorted out, I also sold my very first original artwork on etsy. Bunny Up a Tree is on its way to a good home today!

• ENTER SNOW. We were supposed to go over Dan's sister's house for her birthday pub quiz night, but the weather forecast was very foreboding. We decided we shouldn't risk it ... (Dan got caught last year and it took him 5 hours to get back from the very location we were to travel to, so he was understandably a bit skittish).
• And it definitely hit. We got about 5 inches in the night.

• Sunday was snow-covered and lovely, really, but driving anywhere was out of the question. So what did we do? After setting up my fancy new computer, we walked into town to run a few errands and make a cheeky visit to the pub. 
• I thought I hallucinated Bob Dylan on the way out, but realised it was just Dan :)

• This is the view of the snow covered cathedral from outside our pub visit:

So all in all it was an interesting weekend! All's well that ends well, as they say. My change purse is definitely a bit (read: a LOT) lighter, but now I have a better, faster, more reliable computer that I can feel secure with for several years. Now off to  make that dinner and plot my next move!