Ozzie and the budgie

Meet Ozzie.

He has “Hell’s Bears” written on the back of his leather jacket. He’s been in the wars,too, as the saying goes; one of his motorcycle handlebars is missing. He was like that when we got him. We didn’t mind, though. We just liked the look of his little pudgy face. (I hope he’s not listening, by the way. He’d be horrified if he heard that!)

Click on the mean sonofagun to see a bigger — and even scarier — version.

ozzie

The budgie is another of our ornaments. I drew both this and Ozzie on January 27th, according to my notes.

budgie

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Fake ficus

I can’t draw.

Or, at least, that’s what I always thought.

Over the past few years, though, I’ve been having a go. Turns out, I was misled, not only by parents and teachers but also by myself. I have still a long way to go, perhaps, but these early experiments in sketching have opened up a whole new area of interest.

Here are some artificial plants from our windowsill. Real flowers are all very well, except for the real gnats that they always seem to attract. Fake gnats are much less of a nuisance.

fakeflowers

I drew our ficus tree (yes, it’s another fake) last week, while we were getting ready to go out to the shops.

ficus

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Nellie the elephant

When I was but a wee child, everyone in our family used to refer to elephants as ‘nellies’. It was all something to do with the old rock song, Nellie the Elephant, apparently.

This, however, is no Nellie; this is an exquisite china elephant that we bought sometime early in 2008. According to my sketchbook, I drew this on August 26th. Always a good idea to jot down the date on the page margin, I believe. That way, you can see how your drawing skills have progressed (and, with luck and practice, improved) over time.

elephant

[As with all our pictures, click on them to see a larger version. ]

Drawn around the same date, this dumper truck was a fun thing we bought a few years ago. I like dumper trucks, their bright yellow colour and their chug-chug-chugging engines. We were in our local branch of Tradex and saw some dumpers in the toy section. I kept mithering on about them until Shana finally agreed to buy me one. You see? Pester-power still works, even when you reach your senior years!

dumpertruck

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I’m forever blowing doddy bubbles

“Last night’s CSI was good,” said Shana. “That Stella is one tough cookie, isn’t she?”

The episode, called The Cost of Living, had included a scene in which crime scene detective, Stella, was attacked. After throwing her down some steps, the attacker then hauled her up and pinned her against a wall.

“Those fights are all choreographed,” I said. “The actress who plays Stella probably had a body double to do the fight scene.”

With our fondness for spoonerisms, it was almost inevitable that the conversation would veer off into the Daft Zone, and today was no exception.

“Or rather,” I continued, ” a ‘doddy bubble’.”

Shana chuckled. “I reckon we ought to have doddy bubbles.”

“Yes. They wouldn’t have to stand in for us in fights, though,” I said. “They could go out to the shops for us instead. Save us from having to venture out into all this freezing cold weather.”

“They’d still have to behave like proper stunt actors, though,” said Shana. “Keep up the illusion that they were on a dangerous mission. A bit like Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals.”

“I can see it now,” I said. “The intrepid doddy bubble reaches the corner shop. Using the familiar two-handed grip like all good gun-toting cops, he holds a small purse containing just enough money for four pints of semi-skilled milk and a wholemeal Nimble. He inches sideways through the shop door. After looking all round the store for any signs of hidden assailants, he then declares the shop ‘Clear!’ before heading off to the milk chiller, all the while turning to see if anyone is trying to creep up on him. When he finally gets to the checkout, he’ll need to show some kind of badge of authority.”

“Yeah!” said Shana, lapsing into the vernacular, “Instead of FBI (or CI5, as it used to be in The Professionals), he could just flash his divi card

“Somehow, I think the staff would already know he was divvy**,” I said.

** Sense 2 of divvy, i.e., a foolish person — and that’s putting it politely!

Autumn Sky

I enhanced this piece with Macrame Weaving, which I’m beginning to find very addictive. Watching me weave the colours in and out, Chris said it is like painting…with yarn. I did contemplate whether I could do a Mondrian in Macrame, but maybe that is ambitious as Chris doing the Mona Lisa on his etch-a-sketch!

The total length of this magnificent piece is 60cm.

autumnsky

Berries and Beads

A stunning combination of alternating berry knots, cording and beads, this beauty is 80cm long, the bamboo measures 30cm wide. Made from jute with wooden beads.

Please click on the image for a larger picture.

berriesandbeads