Are we there yet?….

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Guthlac

We have just one week left of the American presidential campaign. One week left for Donald Trump to pull things around. Things don’t look promising for the incumbent and this is mainly due to his own shortcomings. Back in April I suggested that Trump only needed a 4% swing in his favour to make things very difficult for Biden. Since then he has squandered one opportunity after another to try and reach out to voters who are none too keen on the thought of a Joe Biden presidency. Instead of doing this he appears to have been happy to play to his base and make very little effort in the way of moving away from that.

Every attempt that Trump has made to turn Biden into a boogeyman have magnificently back fired. The latest in a long line of attempted smears, the Hunter Biden story, is perhaps the best example of this. As I understand the allegation Hunter Biden was involved in some form of hazy behaviour in Ukraine. It is suggested that this was a cover for his father and if so Joe Biden is in someway corrupt. Now I haven’t the first clue as to whether these things are in anyway true, but given the motley crew of people behind this story you have say it looks less likely to be true and more likely untrue. In truth all it really does is open a line of attack on Trump himself because when it comes to hazy financial dealings he has a charge sheet as long as your arm:

  1. Secretive Chinese account with over $17million cash deposits which Trump since being President has withdrawn;
  2. Between $400 million to nearly $1billion of outstanding loans due in the next four years to owed to nobody knows;
  3. A probable tax fraud case where he may have to repay $100 million back to his own Federal Government.

I could continue but I think this proves my point. Whatever, Hunter Biden and his father may have got up to in Ukraine is likely to be small beer compared to what the current President of the United States has been up to whilst he has been in office.

So would a Joe Biden Presidency be a good thing? I don’t know and I guess it will be impossible to judge as, should he win, he will always be judged against Donald J. Trump and, in my view, that would make the 44 other holders of the office look really really good and so it would be with Joe Biden. In short he couldn’t be any worse.

Posted in American Politics, Apple Pencil, Art, Donald Trump, drawing, Procreate, USA Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Autumn comes but once a year….

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Guthlac

Up until last week autumn hadn’t really happened. Yes some of the trees were turning but not as many as there should be by now. (My measure of this is personal experience so not very scientific I know.)

Now, oh how things have changed. Now we are fully paid up members of the leaf peeping society and it is great until you realise this is just the foreplay to three months of short days and very long nights.

Winter is coming!

Posted in autumn, Gardens, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The future belongs….

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Guthlac

I think anyone who has taken the time to read my blog will know that I am not a fan of Donald Trump. Whilst it is very important to me to express my thoughts on the man on this blog I realise that it has zero effect for two reasons: First, in this world of social media blizzards, my very small blog is heard by almost nobody. To stretch the metaphor just a little more in such a blizzard my blog would make up no more than one snowflake and when you have 2 metres of snow who cares about one snowflake! The second reason is I am not a citizen of the United States of America and so have no vote. The whole thought of a Trump second term is sickening to me but what is worse is the knowledge that there is nothing I can do.

Posted in American Politics, Apple Pencil, Art, Digital Painting, Donald Trump, drawing, monochrome, Procreate, USA Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Well Done HMG….

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Guthlac

I’m that sort of guy. I like to see the data wherever possible, that backs up policy announcements. Since quite early on I’ve been downloading the UK Government’s Covid data and analysing the data myself. It has not always been easy to get hold of the data and for me the overall trend is more important than the day to day. So this afternoon I went to get my weekly data download and guess what – it wasn’t there even though it is supposed to be.

Now you could get all X files on this crap and see some great conspiracy which I always find less than helpful for one big reason: Very few organisation, especially governments, l are that good at organising anything let alone a huge conspiracy. No they are much more likely to be incompetent and so any conspiracy will quickly fall apart. Anyway Governments have far easier ways of deceiving their populations like just lying or making distracting claims.

Of course this is exactly what ‘they‘ want you to believe but if we follow this route it is the way that lives are ruined and you start making Wyoming mountains out of mash potatoes. So HMG – get you act together and fix the data release!

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, Corvid 19, Digital Painting, drawing, Procreate | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nonesuch…

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Guthlac

Does anyone really know anymore what the hell is happening? I fear we all know the answer to that. In Britain we have a government who try to pretend everything will be fine as they demonstrate a total lack of any ability to govern. The latest nonsense is that we should all embrace the idea that a no deal Brexit is nothing to be concerned about. Of course we must now not call it No Deal instead we now must use the correct speak Australia Deal. Perhaps this may well have worked last year or maybe even the first month or so of this year but now? How many ‘world beating‘ things have we been promised since Boris Johnson started taking the virus seriously and how many have been ‘World Beating‘ but not in the way that he was trying to pretend? Then of course there was Barnards Castle.

Look, I haven’t got the first clue what is going to happen between now and the end of the year as far as Britain’s relationship with the European Union is concerned. Perhaps we’ll get a deal perhaps we won’t but the one thing I do know is that we can always tell when Boris is telling porkies – his lips are moving.

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, Brexit, drawing, Procreate | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not I….

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Guthlac
Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, drawing, Procreate | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sometimes…

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Guthlac

Sometimes this is exactly how I feel….

Posted in Apple Pencil, Art, drawing, Procreate | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Damp Day in the Glade…

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Guthlac

Soggy underfoot and the leaves tired and damp. Welcome to October in England. One moment the sun shines then next it hides behind a layer of cloud.

The acorns ripen and are consumed or concealed by Squirrel or Jay. It won’t be long before the frosts sharpen the wet puddles. Yet this year there has been little flooding so maybe the winter won’t be too harsh. Or it could be a bad one although with the way that global warming is taking hold it is more likely to be damp and wet than snow and frost.

The fruits of another year.

Posted in autumn, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Into the Grey Shire….

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Guthlac

As October starts to bite deep into the year so the mists rise. Today found me out once more pursuing the sun as it peaked through the dampness of October. Over the last three years I had spent my time in the hills and valleys of the very rural Melton Borough. I Now wander the highways and byways of Harborough for next project.

Whilst it is easy to assume that Harborough is as rustic as Melton this is not true at all as Harborough takes in both the south and south east of Leicestershire and so is attracted by the distant pull of London.

The far west of Melton had the Fosse Way and the road to Lincoln. Harborough, on the other hand, has possibly the most important junction in Britain – Junction 19. Here the traffic from the North East and North West meets the traffic from the East and encrusted around these arteries are more and more sheds that hold so many treasures in this pandemic restrained shop online land.

Posted in autumn, Gartree Explored, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oppidum…

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Guthlac

The ‘new normal‘ requires new social etiquette. Here are just some of the things I now find myself doing:

Covid Leaning – When sitting in a cafe and someone walks near to you you tend to turn your head and lean away from the person whether wearing a mask or not;

Mask Stare/Dirty Look – This is when someone is somewhere that requires a mask and they don’t have a mask on. I must admit in the past I have told people to obey the law but that is muscle memory from a previous life. Now I just tut, stare and give a dirty look – like most other people;

Exposed Nose – this is another version of Mask Stare and it happens when some has a mask on but they don’t cover their nose.

I’m sure there are many more that over time, and I think this is really is the new normal, I will develop many other. Sp apart from this new etiquette what else have I been up to? Well, I’m sorry to say it has been a week of burying myself in textbooks, PhD thesis and archaeological reports. This time I’ve been trying to get my head around Iron Age Oppidum – a very niche pursuit!

The result of this research is that the use of the term Oppidum is a complete mess and doesn’t really help to understand the late Iron Age in Britain. I am putting together a paper for myself to bring together what I have discovered. The purpose of this is twofold: Firstly it consolidates what I have found out and secondly it highlights what I don’t know. This then allows to consider whether I need to dig any deeper.

One final thing. WordPress has changed the interface used to create posts and it is driving me nuts. I am sure that over time I’ll get used to the blessed thing but until reach that new level of karma I’ll moan about the bloody thing. Perhaps I should develop a new etiquette for that – the WordPress Shout!

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment