Greetings!
And welcome to a disjointed mess! No, no-- I mean, welcome to your Friday open thread diary for the Street Prophets group and anyone else who wants a quiet corner to plant a soapbox on.
What am I going to post about this week? How about I post a bit of digital painting that I did recently and we'll see how things go from there...
Not off to a really good start I'm thinking.
I'm thinking about a lot of things this week. Plenty of distractions in my personal life. Mrs. the Werelynx has been in London most of the week. I've gotten a wee taste of graphic design work for some friends so there will be a bit of income. I began some English tutoring last year and it seems that my clients have their fall class schedule figured out and they'd like to continue with our lessons. So there's a bit of butter and egg money to look forward to...
My brain is full of fluff and nonsense. I feel much like that drooling demonic monstrosity looks.
The odds and ends of my week.
I went to a tiny art exhibit opening on Wednesday. The artist used to attend my ceramics classes years ago. We've remained friends. Now she's creating lovely installation pieces that combine delicate ink and watercolor with precise paper cutting. Her work is filled with banana plants, meercats, fruitbats, ladders, rainbows and the inky wet rings that form beneath cups.
I wanted to mostly make this week's diary about last week's diary. Particularly, I wanted to thank everyone who jumped in to romp in the comments. I learned some stuff from you. I learned that a certain lovely mushroom may not be quite as toxic as I was once led to believe. I learned how to make a spore print. So without further nuttering, here's a photo of my first spore print:
Next time I think I'll use a thicker sheet of paper. I was in a bit of a rush last Sunday and just nabbed a wet mushroom from the yard and the paper got a bit wrinkled. Here's a photo of the underside of the same mushroom just after I'd picked it:
Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to get a second picture with the passenger in better focus before it dropped off to hide in the grass.
And here's another mushroom photo also from last Sunday. It was raining too hard for us to gather enough enthusiasm for my promised walk in the woods, but this little "Kozák" or Cossack (occasionally seen spelt with a 'K') was tucked conveniently under a birch tree in the yard along with a few tasty siblings. The slugs also enjoy this variety and from the damage to the stem you can tell that I um, rescued this one just in time.
I got together with an old friend for a late lunch yesterday. I helped him get set up with the open source image editing program known as GIMP because the "Paint" program that came with his old operating system is nearly useless. We talked about a variety of subjects over lunch. I mentioned that a mutual friend had been posting news items related to the vote for Scottish independence that took place yesterday. Somehow I'd managed to be surprised that the vote was taking place. The mutual friend is Scottish and was very much for independence, but somehow I was too ignorant to tell that he had changed his profile picture to the cross of Saint Andrew and told my lunch companion that I wasn't sure of our friend's position on the issue. My friend told me about how the British flag is a combination of three crosses: English (red cross on white of St. George), Irish (diagonal 'X' red on white of St. Patrick) and Scottish (diagonal white 'X' on blue) (I'd never known the thought behind the design) and he got a little emotional at the thought of losing the blue of Scotland. Artists. I asked my artistic English friend what his thoughts were on the vote. He said that he understood some of the contentious issues, but that he didn't really have an opinion and had decided to follow the lead of one dear Scottish lady that we had both been friends with who was very much against any sort of further division of the United Kingdom. We speculated that it couldn't be a good thing to have a close result whatever the outcome. I was up early this morning watching the election results roll in live on the BBC's website. I don't know if it's a good thing that Scotland voted to remain a part of the UK... I just know that I hate borders and nationalism. I'd like to see the whole damn planet give up on those stupid squiggly lines scribbled over the globe. I sympathize with any group that feels it's the underdog, neglected or abused and I support their efforts to gain independence from their oppressors. Hopefully there will be some positive changes in the Scottish / English relationship even if the election wasn't really all that close. Still, there were a few regions that saw the majority vote for independence. There has been a considerable shift since the last time this came up for a vote. I'll be watching the news from Scotland with interest in the coming weeks.
So much going on, so much to worry and think about.
Just got a text message from the Mrs. the Werelynx. Her plane is finally boarding. Perhaps it's time to wash those dishes. I could use one less thing to think about.