Random things
Yesterday I went over to Mary Tavy to watch a Shakespeare in the Garden production. It was a strange thing: a handful of famous scenes and speeches from a selection of history plays, tragedies, and comedies, plus the odd sonnet, strung together with a brief explanatory narrative, presented by a talented crew of five. Mostly it worked surprisingly well, given that the scenes were from such a wide assortment of plays, and the walled garden worked very well for Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene.
Hamlet's To Be speech really needs more setup than just appearing on its own after a chunk of Henry V though, and presenting John of Gaunt's speech: ' This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,-- This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.' felt awkward and ill-chosen given the current political climate.
On the whole, sticking to the comedies would have been safer. They made a lovely job of Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius from Midsummer Night's Dream.
Oldie foster stole some bubblewrap this morning, and sat there popping it! When I asked for it back, did his best to guard it from me: I had to swap it for a biscuit in the end. :-D
He remains very sedentary, despite the world's shortest morning walk. Pp has christened him 'the rug-based lifeform' and theorises that he is a relative of the mattresses of Squornshellous Zeta.
I have cleared some garden, so that there is more space for him to pop out for a quick pee without having to do steps, because although he can climb the steps up to our lawn, it's clearly quite an effort for him.
I've downloaded a copy of Synfig, an animation program, to play with. Because apparently I don't already have enough art supplies. I am hoping that it may be possible to use Synfig to produce animations created from pastel drawings, in some way. What could possibly go wrong?
Speaking of which, I am mildly annoyed that having spent ages working on 7 iterations of a pastel drawing for a Big Bang, not only has the author apparently pulled out without letting me know, but the organisers didn't let me know either, even though I did the checkin thing, sent a draft and asked if the author had made the checkin. They just posted the posting schedule, and I deduce from the fact that the story is not there that the author has not made it. This made me cross, but then I thought, the reason I'm doing this is not for the posting, it's for the drawing practice, which I got. And for all I know, the poor author might have fallen into a deep hole and is still desperately trying to climb out, a problem that I do not have. So no point making myself upset about it.
On the other hand, the blackberries are ripening. This morning (on my long non-foster dog walk) I picked blackberries and ate the good ones, and kept the rest to chuck to the three pigs. I feel pigs probably don't mind their blackberries slightly squashed or maggoty.
A camera-related triumph! I bought a replacement screen for my camera, to replace the one that I dropped on the path and created a sunburst. The screen had to be shipped all the way from the USA for some reason. Anyway, I bought the screen, which was not incredibly cheap but much cheaper than a new camera, and yesterday I did battle with four tiny screws and a lot of annoying plastic clips, and on the third attempt, the new screen was fitted and it all worked! (On try #1, the screen would not turn on and I had to disassemble everything and push the connectors in more firmly, and on try #2, the screen turned on, but went into selfie mode and turned everything upside down because I had failed to correctly connect the sensor that makes the screen detect if the screen is facing forward or back.) I am very proud.
Next week, I really hope it will not be quite so hot. I was not very effective at all last week in terms of getting work done, and really need to get my act together. I am vastly overdue for one set of amends, and even more overdue for another, and there is no reason for it. I have the time. I just seem to have mislaid the motivation... If anyone spots it, please point it back this way!
This evening we were just setting off to walk the dogs when we saw a pair of biplanes overhead! I didn't think you still got biplanes.
Hamlet's To Be speech really needs more setup than just appearing on its own after a chunk of Henry V though, and presenting John of Gaunt's speech: ' This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,-- This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.' felt awkward and ill-chosen given the current political climate.
On the whole, sticking to the comedies would have been safer. They made a lovely job of Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius from Midsummer Night's Dream.
Oldie foster stole some bubblewrap this morning, and sat there popping it! When I asked for it back, did his best to guard it from me: I had to swap it for a biscuit in the end. :-D
He remains very sedentary, despite the world's shortest morning walk. Pp has christened him 'the rug-based lifeform' and theorises that he is a relative of the mattresses of Squornshellous Zeta.
I have cleared some garden, so that there is more space for him to pop out for a quick pee without having to do steps, because although he can climb the steps up to our lawn, it's clearly quite an effort for him.
I've downloaded a copy of Synfig, an animation program, to play with. Because apparently I don't already have enough art supplies. I am hoping that it may be possible to use Synfig to produce animations created from pastel drawings, in some way. What could possibly go wrong?
Speaking of which, I am mildly annoyed that having spent ages working on 7 iterations of a pastel drawing for a Big Bang, not only has the author apparently pulled out without letting me know, but the organisers didn't let me know either, even though I did the checkin thing, sent a draft and asked if the author had made the checkin. They just posted the posting schedule, and I deduce from the fact that the story is not there that the author has not made it. This made me cross, but then I thought, the reason I'm doing this is not for the posting, it's for the drawing practice, which I got. And for all I know, the poor author might have fallen into a deep hole and is still desperately trying to climb out, a problem that I do not have. So no point making myself upset about it.
On the other hand, the blackberries are ripening. This morning (on my long non-foster dog walk) I picked blackberries and ate the good ones, and kept the rest to chuck to the three pigs. I feel pigs probably don't mind their blackberries slightly squashed or maggoty.
A camera-related triumph! I bought a replacement screen for my camera, to replace the one that I dropped on the path and created a sunburst. The screen had to be shipped all the way from the USA for some reason. Anyway, I bought the screen, which was not incredibly cheap but much cheaper than a new camera, and yesterday I did battle with four tiny screws and a lot of annoying plastic clips, and on the third attempt, the new screen was fitted and it all worked! (On try #1, the screen would not turn on and I had to disassemble everything and push the connectors in more firmly, and on try #2, the screen turned on, but went into selfie mode and turned everything upside down because I had failed to correctly connect the sensor that makes the screen detect if the screen is facing forward or back.) I am very proud.
Next week, I really hope it will not be quite so hot. I was not very effective at all last week in terms of getting work done, and really need to get my act together. I am vastly overdue for one set of amends, and even more overdue for another, and there is no reason for it. I have the time. I just seem to have mislaid the motivation... If anyone spots it, please point it back this way!
This evening we were just setting off to walk the dogs when we saw a pair of biplanes overhead! I didn't think you still got biplanes.