Simon's Blog

Sometime the Clothes…

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Guthlac

It was a dry but damp day yesterday (I think might have to be British to understand this nonsensical statement). So I went out for a walk through the local park. Apart from being accosted by a wonderfully friendly puppy called Walter there was nothing to report. The winter ducks were quaking and whistling as they ever do and the gulls were being their normal quarrelsome self but other than that I had the place to myself.

The first signs that winter might be coming to an end could be found all over the Willows as their catkins are starting to flower – certainly it was warm enough for early Spring. I suspected that spring had sprung early last year only for several cm of snow to fall a few days later so who knows what this crazy weather we are now experiencing will serve up next?

Posted in Jubilee Park, Photography, Winter | Tagged Catkins, Jubilee Park, River Soar, Spring, Willow, winter | Leave a comment

I would listen to you…

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Guthlac

Well it has been a funny few days for a lot of complicated and not necessarily connected reasons. Hopefully next week will be a lot more straightforward. The one lesson I have learnt from all this is that turning green is not as a straightforward as many of current and probable future leaders would like us to think.

Posted in Photography, Street Photography, Winter | Tagged Fosse Park, Street Photography, winter | Leave a comment

Am I Busy?…

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Guthlac

Just recently I’ve found my days just running away and at the end I feel I’ve still so many other things I need to do. Does this make me very busy? Or does it mean I’m just pootling around not really doing anything at all? I suspect it is somewhere on the continuum between those two points. It is really some time since I’ve had a proper job but quite honestly I wouldn’t know where I’d fit one in.

The art here has been produced whilst I have been sitting down in the evening, Apple pencil in hand just messing about. Is that what all art is just messing about? Clearly not but I suspect the vast majority is. Some of us might wish to be viewed as interesting artists but I doubt we really are anything of the sort. This is not meant to devalue any works created, nothing could be further from what I feel. Art, I feel, is the best way to define what a human is. It is the one thing that you can point at and say ‘there is the hand of a human at work‘. It’s just that most of us aren’t that good, I include myself in that group, but we do it anyway.

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, Digital Painting, Graphic Art, Procreate | Tagged Apple Pencil 2, art, Digital Painting, iPad Pro, portrait, sketch, woman | Leave a comment

Southampton to Glasgow…

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Guthlac

Not sure if the vapour trail of the Southampton to Glasgow shuttle can be seen in the image is there but believe me it is. This was captured in the evening of the coldest day of the year (I moaned about this in a previous post). Thankfully, the temperature has increased significantly since then – it currently is somewhere in the region of 10C and should get to 13C by sunset so that is something.

There were plans behind these images but for too many boring reasons they didn’t work out. However, one of the more interesting thing is that I was able to stand on top of what is left of the Fosse Way.

This is one of the earliest Roman Roads in Britain c40 – 60 CE. This sounds like a big thing and perhaps if you’re not in southern Britain or the rest of Europe it might be. However, Roman Roads are really quite common and within a 30 Km radius from this point there are at least two others. Of course it helps to be just outside the civitas Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester) but still there are a lot of them. In fact it really isn’t anything like the oldest archaeology in the area but that is another story.

One final bit of trivia…the photo of the Southampton to Glasgow et al above is also the 500th image I’ve captured with my new phone. Not sure whether this is important but I thought I would just mention it.

Posted in Photography, Winter | Tagged City of Leicester, evening, Fosse Way, Frozen, iPhone 15 Pro, Ratae Corieltauvorum, Roman, sunset, winter | Leave a comment

Nothing on the tele…

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Guthlac

I don’t know if my concentration levels are dropping off or I’ve reached the point that there really anything interesting on the TV. This is ludicrous as I have all the usual streaming service suspects but still I can’t find anything. So instead I sit back with an audio book and get scribbling on my iPad. Probably a better use of my time.

BTW if you should try and draw any conclusions as to the connection between these drawings – there isn’t any other than they caught my eye.

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, drawing, Graphic Art, Procreate | Tagged Apple Pencil 2, doodle, drawing, iPad, Procreate, sketch | Leave a comment

I don’t wanta…

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Guthlac

According to my phone this morning it was -6C when I got up – with windchill etc. that was probably closer to -8c. Now I could have got out and captured another incredible sunrise. I could have but I didn’t. Instead, I kept in the warmth until the crimson/tangerine sunrise was long gone. Even then it was still below freezing (at the time of writing this, midday, it still ‘feels like’ -3c outside) so 30 minutes of a brisk walk through the park was as good as it got! I guess this is the coldest day of the winter so far. I don’t like the cold anymore. I guess my bones are getting just a little older with every frost!

Working on the image I captured I noticed this…29000th of a second is impressive!

Posted in iphone, Jubilee Park, Photography, Winter | Tagged freezing, iPhone 15 Pro, Jubilee Park, River Soar, winter | 1 Comment

Making a Mark…

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Guthlac

So the outline drawing continues. I know this is silly, unless you to enjoy the challenge of drawing, but there is something very satisfying of sitting with a sketchbook and pen and making marks. It would be a boring world if we all liked the same things at the same time.

Posted in Art, drawing, ink drawing | Tagged drawing, pen drawings, sketch, sketchbook | Leave a comment

Are these the End Times?…

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Guthlac

Is it too early to ask what a second term President Trump do about the increased chaos in the Middle east? I think it is but not by much. Over the next few months the United States of America will slowly pull itself apart over the former President. The vortex from this will drag all of us much closer to the edge.

I suspect few Americans understand just what an affect they are having on the world beyond their borders, after all it is fair for them to argue that this an American presidential election and so the rest of the world doesn’t count. I wish that were so or that any form of isolationism would work – it won’t – just look at the land border with Mexico as to why the USA can’ seal itself off from the rest of us. All that will happen is that the relative calming effect that the the USA has on the world order will diminish to everyone’s loss.

Whatever the next 12 months brings it isn’t going to be pretty.

Posted in American Politics, Apple Pencil, Art, Digital Painting, Graphic Art, Procreate, USA Presidential Election | Tagged Donald Trump, Iowa, Middle East, Presidential Elections, World Order | Leave a comment

Stay With Me…

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Guthlac

Another dawn…another cold photographer. It is getting lighter earlier each day but we are still in the middle of winter. Still a bit of cold isn’t going to stop me (I wasn’t that positive whilst walking the fields of Wistow this morning!)

Still the sheep appeared to be nice and warm in their thick woollen coats. I believe that this is where St. Wistan/Wigstan was slaughtered but these things are mostly lost in the mists of time. He has a nice church named in his honour – so I guess that is something?