The Sketchbook Project

I’ve just come across something called ‘The Sketchbook Project’. And suddenly I’m really excited.

The idea is you sign up on their website, choosing a theme (In flight, A record year for rainfall, If you lived here…, Lights in the distance, to name a few) and they send you back a bar coded sketchbook. You then fill it up with things that kinda go with your theme and send it back.
Then the exciting bit, it goes on tour in America before finding a home at The Brooklyn Art Library. And because its bar coded you can keep track of who’s had a look.
I would really really love to join in, but as the art work needs to be worked on between now and January it kinda clashes with the next OU course.
Something for next year maybe? Along with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? Something else I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Oh for more hours in the day.

Counting Sheep

We had the last writers group of the academic year today.
Last months homework was to write a poem about a day out, and although I find poems hard work I thought I would give it a go.

Counting Sheep

Does she know,
As he turns her on her back,
What he’s going to do to her?
Keeping her left fore leg
Bent with his knee,
She lies docile,
Dark eye’s unfocused.

Thick rusty arms hold her,
Twisting her this way and that,
Following the contours of her body,
Each curve traced,
She is reduced.

It’s about our trip to the Alton Show at the beginning of July. I had wanted to write about the whole day but can see that concentrating on a particular part of the day, in this case the man demonstrating sheep shearing, would make a better poem. The group must have liked it, they suggested I send it to Farmers Weekly!

As unofficial administrator for the group I’ve agreed to make us a facebook page. Something else to add to my summer list. Next meeting October.

Stuff thats been happening

Tomorrow my Level 3 and M students will be celebrating Graduation. I’m hoping the day will be sunny but not too warm. And with graduation work finally slows down a little and I have time to breath and do some filing. Its been a busy couple of months.

Today I also signed up for my next Open University course – EA300 – Children’s Literature. I’m excited and nervous in equal measures, as always when I sign on to one of the OU courses. It sounds so interesting and I’m really looking forward to reading the set books, but will I be able to write intelligent assignments about them? I’ll have to wait and see; it doesn’t start until October.

And finally the best bit. ‘im outdoors and I bought our selves a Digital SLR camera at the weekend. We’ve been talking about it for ages and saving a little towards it and we finally did it. It’s a Canon EOS 550D and its lovely. We spent a sunny weekend walking round the garden with it taking photos of flowers, sparrows and hoverflies.

A New Lunch Bag

For ages now I’ve been taking my lunch into work in a tatty old plastic bag. I keep thinking to myself I should make a bag – it can’t be hard, I’ve made bags before, but making my own design was proving tricky.
Then on the spool site I found a design for a lunch bag. It looked good, was only £5 and they would email it to me so no waiting for the post.
Of course then I had to find some material. I already had some brilliant blue cotton which would make a good lining. Then I was directed to a shop called C&H which have a remnant table and there I found a lovely cream off cut. Perfect.
It only took me two evenings to put it together and some of that was making templates that were the correct size.
It’s very pleasing when a project comes together without too much work - because I was careful with my preparation, putting the design together was simple.

And on the subject of sewing I’ve just found Amy Butler. I’m in the process of trying to decide what pattern I can make. I love one of her dresses but think it might be a little hard for a beginner like me, so maybe one of her tops or a bag?
To be honest I’m pretty jealous. I love her patterns, I love her fabric and would love to be making stuff like her! I hope she realises how lucky she is.

A Book Review

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote of how I’d just won Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. I’ve now read it and here is my very first book review.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God is the story of Cass Seltzer who’s book ‘The Varieties of Religious Illusion’ has become a surprise best seller. We then meet various people from his past who have inspired his writing in some way.
The book was ok. The story was nice and the characters quirky. But it was hard work. I don’t want a book that doesn’t give me at least a little bit of a challenge, but at the same time I would like to understand more than two words in every sentence.
I enjoyed reading about the Jewish community, something I have no experience of, but felt that the flitting from current day to the past – sometimes in the same chapter made it confusing and I lost track, several times, of what was happening now and what had happened then.
I also thought that there were a lot of side plots what didn’t really go anywhere. His ex-wife wasn’t really explained and what was the point of Lucinda? I fear that these, amongst other things, are points that I missed or didn’t fully understand because of the language used.
But over all it was an interesting and sometimes funny story with a main character who you end up caring about. It was defiantly worth finishing.

Enjoying the Garden

I don't know about you, but although I'm loving the sunshine, the heat makes it hard for me to concentrate on any of my projects.

The best thing? To just sit in the hammock that 'im outdoors has hung for me, and read.

But the Catalpa Bignonioides "Aurea", or Golden Indian Bean Tree seems to be loving the sunshine. I love its gold coloured leaves against a brilliant blue sky.

Curtain Bird

With no assignments to write, I’ve had to keep myself busy with other projects.
While perusing the internet and following random links between sites I found the lovely Spool. Based in Philadelphia they are sadly a little far away to visit, although I’d love to if the fabric on their website is anything to go on. But they do have a few free patterns, so I downloaded myself a blue bird and had a go. I’m not a great at sewing, (yes I know I made a blind, but some of the lines are very wonky!) so this was a good starting project.
The only fabric I have is off cuts from our bedroom curtains, which I think actually worked really well.
So having had success with the bird I shall now try a slightly harder project – a lunch bag. I just need some appropriate material first – I feel a shopping trip coming on.

A House on an Island

It’s the last week of semester and I am totally run off my feet with Level 3 project marks and getting ready for exam boards amongst other things. But today I made the effort to attend the writers groups – seeing as we only meet once a month.
Last months homework was to write about a house. The Chair had provided pictures of houses cut out of magazines and newspapers and we had our pick.
Having chosen a small cottage I actually managed to find some time to write about it, although I didn’t get a change to edit it before the meeting.

My rough draft:

We didn’t see the house that first night. The fog was too thick; all we could see was the path leading to the door and our feet. I’ve always thought of fog as going from the ground up, so maybe this was very low cloud.
Frank had spent most of the journey moaning about the weather, and I hoped it would get better, but I didn’t really mind. At least we were away from work and the City and not stuck in some hot sticky place full of chavs.
That first night was so welcoming. Dinner left warming in the oven, a big fireplace ready for us, the bed turned down, the water hot. No people.
But that first night that was just fine, we didn’t want to see anyone either.

I was up early the next day, eager to explore the island. Frank was still asleep and I didn’t expect him to be up before lunch, we were on holiday after all.
The fog has gone leaving behind a damp island surrounded by blue sea and blue sky. In the distance I could see the mountains of Scotland, but the mainland felt miles away. In the early morning light everything seemed beautiful.
The island was unbelievably small; at one point I could see the sea surrounding us on all sides. This I had been expecting, but the fact there were no other houses I hadn’t. I didn’t think that Frank would like that, but the cottage seemed to have everything we needed so I didn’t mind.
I took my time getting back, looking at everything and thinking about what to make for lunch.
Frank wasn’t there when I got back. He must have gone on a walk of his own, although the island is small enough that I probably would have seen him.
I didn’t worry, just started to prepare lunch. He’d be hungry when he got back.

It is starting to get dark now and Frank’s still not back. I don’t know what to do. I’ve walked round the island again but seen no sign of him. He won’t have gone swimming, he hates water. Where can he be? I want this to be some elaborate joke, but Frank’s not the type. He can’t have left without me, I’d have seen the boat and all his stuffs still here…

I was trying to see if I could change the mood of a piece of writing which I think worked. The group seemed to like it. The big question; What happened to Frank?

Homework for next month: either write a poem about somewhere you are going to visit in the next month or write a story designed for a commuters journey.