a bit of this and a bit of that

Firstly, you would have heard that there have been issues with Blogger embedded comments of late — some visitors being unable to leave a comment. My son and I have a mix of Apple, Microsoft, and Android devices and, we tested them all, and the issue seems to only be a problem with the Apple devices. It must be a conflict with the coding. So, as much as I love the embedded comments, I have switched to the pop-up comments for now. Even with that option, our Apple devices had to do their own thing — instead of a comment box popping up on the blog page like it's supposed to, it opens the comment box in a separate browser tab. 

No offence to Apple lovers but I'm not an Apple fan at all. I'm definitely a Microsoft/Android gal however my son is a steadfast Apple fan. I don't even like my iPad and don't use it much at all. I can get quite frustrated with it's limitations. I plan to send it packing in favour of a Samsung tablet in the near future. 

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On another topic, a couple of weeks ago, I snapped a pic of this cloud formation as it was very clear to me that there was an adult bird coming down to feed a young bird while a wolf (head only) looked on. Can you see them too?

 

Two days ago, Brad and I were at the local shopping centre and, as we were leaving, I remembered that I had some coins to deposit in the ATM deposit which was just outside. When we went to the machine, there on the coin belt was a Welcome Swallow. Quite small at around 13 to 15cm (5" to 6") from head to tail tip. The poor little thing lay there panting very fast. Luckily, I always carry a spare fabric bag in my main bag so I gently picked her up and placed her safely in the bag. She didn't even put up a fight. 

 

I quickly deposited my coins and, when we got to the car, I transferred her into a cardboard pet carry box that I always keep in the car, among other animal rescue paraphernalia, for situations just like this. Such a pretty bird with gorgeous metallic colours on her wings.

 

I took her to the closest vet. You may remember we had to do the same for a baby dragon lizard a couple of months back. Vets here are obligated to take in injured wildlife and, if rehabilitation is required, they pass them onto the necessary wildlife carers in the area. They took the details of where I found her so that, if she recovers, they can take her back there. They thought she may have been stunned by flying into something. The vet was checking her over when I left. I sure hope she survived. 

 

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Now onto an art aid I made a few years ago and it still serves me well today. I like to call it my handy-board and it's 56cm x 36cm (22" by 14").

 

I made it myself by duct-taping 3 layers of Corflute together — a corrugated plastic board often used in sign-writing.

It was getting a little grotty so I gave it a clean up and a new pretty border of duct tape — Owls.

Why did I make it? Well, I found I just didn't have enough workable space when I had all my sketch and watercolour stuff on the desk. My tables form a right angle and I saw a possibility of giving myself some extra surface space. 

Before

And now with my handy-board in place. It fills in that corner perfectly, giving me extra surface space and because I made it with 3 layers, it's nice and sturdy too — no bending.

Sitting on top of my handy-board is my location sketch board. I got that idea from well known Urban Sketcher - Liz Steel. I will do another post soon to show you how that one works when in use. Very handy indeed.

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On another note for your horror fans, just this week I signed up to receive a daily email from Dracula Daily. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an epistolary novel made up of letters, diaries, telegrams, newspaper clippings, each of which has a date. The whole story happens between May 3 and November 10 and this guy has set it up so that we receive an email according to the timeline of the book. I signed up a little late but was able to catch up via the Archive. It's still early days. I used to love Dracula movies in my teens but I don't think I've ever read the book. It's been fun so far and I love that it's written in journal and letters etc. If you're interested in signing up for it, you can check it out HERE.

 

The rains have eased for now but it will be a short-lived break as they will be back on Friday according to forecasts. I'm not looking forward to that. They did forecast that we would be in for a warm and wet Autumn and they weren't kidding. 

I'll be back on Friday with some sketches so stay tuned...

Love, Light and Peace

rose drawing and happenings

Another week has flown by. This winter has not been kind to me as far as my asthma goes. Cold, winter air is a big trigger for my asthma and I had another bout of Asthmatic Bronchitis, though not quite as bad as the previous one. Poor Aaron has been sick with flu and his brother Beau was also sick with flu...negative on the Covid test. Phew! 

I thought I might have been getting their flu too but was spared a severe dose, probably thanks to the annual flu shot and taking cold medication as soon as the first sniffle appeared. 'Nip it in the bud' as my ex used to say.

This is another graphite drawing I did in January, back when I was on a roll. I used charcoal for the background. 

 

 

And below was the graphite drawing I did before adding the background and a bit more detailing.  I love how the dark background made the rose pop. 

 

The reference image credit goes to Karsten Paulick on Pixabay. A direct link to his photograph can be seen HERE. Thank you, Karsten...much appreciated. 

 

You may remember this Sumi ink painting of daisies I did back in 2017 for INKtober. I think I might try painting the rose above in Sumi ink also.

 

 

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Over the past few months, I've been hearing a lot of buzzing/whirring from the sky...kinda like a remote controlled car.  Earlier today, I snapped a rather fuzzy pic of the culprit. It was some distance away. A commercial drone!

 

 

After further investigation, I discovered that our area now uses commercial drone delivery! Cool! Apparently, commercial drone deliveries are only active in our area (Logan) and Canberra, as far as Australia is concerned. Do you get drone deliveries in your area? The company hopes to expand which could well happen as it seems to be quite popular around here. You can order coffee/tea/hot chocolate drinks, snacks, hardware, hair products, clothing, pet products, and even some grocery items, etc...as long as it weighs 1.2kg (2lb 10oz) or less. You can learn more about commercial drone deliveries HERE. I wonder what the delivery costs are?

Another thing I saw in the sky recently was a cloud funnel. I get a kick out of seeing stuff like that so ran for my phone to take a pic.

Apparently, a cloud funnel is made up of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud but not reaching the ground or a water surface. Interesting!

To end this post, here is a pic of sleepy Kya wondering what that thing is that I'm always pointing at her.

Her look makes me think of the following meme that circulated around social media ages ago. So true...in Kya's case anyway. lol To be fair, she is the perfect cat 99.5% of the time.

 

Will post again soon, 

Serena x

Taking a blog break

Hi everyone,

The clouds looked like rows of fluffy cotton balls in the sky this morning. 

So pretty and quite spectacular!

Week 11 - 52 Weeks of Me 2012 challenge

Life sure has been throwing me some curve balls of late.

After some discussion with the anaesthetist yesterday it was decided that my hysterectomy surgery would be postponed until I see a cardiologist.   Unfortunately, the Stress Echo-cardiogram did show some problems so it would be too risky to operate for a non-emergency surgery.  I'm okay with this because, once the heart issues became apparent, I was wary of the surgery going ahead anyways.

So now I wait for an appointment to see the Cardiologist.  I will need to get an Angiogram to see why my heart isn't getting enough oxygen when I'm under stress.

I've certainly had a rough couple of years regarding my health and I'm feeling quite deflated by it all.  I've also been feeling like a bad blogger friend too because I just haven't had the time or inkling to go around and visit my dear blogger friends.  I do apologise for this and hope to get back to form in the coming months. However, for this reason, I've decided to take a break from blogging for now.

I don't know how long this break will be for but I do plan to sketch and make art in the interim so, hopefully, I'll have lots to share when I come back.

I will try to pop in and visit you all here and there.

I will still remain active on Facebook so feel free to 'friend' me if you want to stay in more regular touch. See sidebar for my FB profile links.

Stay safe and well, my friends.

~ Love, light and peace ~