I have been in the workroom and trying to make ATCs for the current PS3 “Water” swap. I actually made a couple that I quite like! There are a few days left in which to have more attempts, but I have some work to do and don’t know how much more time I can find.

In fact,  this blog (and others) are going on a sabbatical. I have a job of work to do that will involve a lot of keyboard time and I need to reserve all useful arm time for that. No spinning, no knitting, no blogging, no email - just screen shots and typing. I’ll be back when I am done.

Maybe.

I am contemplating the demise of Demiurge - there is little activity here and I may need to rationalise my efforts soon.

Speak up if you think this space worth saving. I’ll hear you.

Playing with some ideas ready for the ATC swap for PS3 “Water”

The image came from play, and the quotation from a search for Water quotes.

Between earth and earth’s atmosphere, the amount of water remains constant; there is never a drop more, never a drop less. This is a story of circular infinity, of a planet birthing itself.

- Linda Hogan, “Northern Lights,” Autumn 1990

I will most likely print this as a postcard an enclose with my swaps - it doesn’t feel right for an ATC and I think it would lose something by cropping to ATC dimensions.

Image created in PS and further edited in PSP.

We had a day on mainland Orkney this week - we had to do some shopping and take the pup to the vet’s. It left us sufficient time to visit Stromness for the first time. We visited the Pier Arts Centre and an artists collective.

There were photographs.

This is one of them

I wrote the visit up at Woolgathering, perhaps it should have been here. Anyway, if you’d like to call in at the woolly place, there are a couple of postcards on offer in that post.

Today I had a meeting to go to. After being closeted in a more than intense relationship with my PC for the last couple of weeks, I decided that I needed to go on my bicycle.

I am so pleased that I did!

The weather was Ok, nothing to write home about, slightly damp at times, some hazy sun, enough wind to make pedalling difficult when the wind was against me… which meant that it was a slow ride, and all the better for that. I had time to take in the fresh air, the light, and the flush of wild flowers. I saw the Irises beginning to bloom, noticed the drifts of Thrift on the margins of the Peedie Sea, spotted the purple Orchids in the fields by the road… glorious!

The vast majority of the wild flowers here seem to be yellow: dandelions, buttercups, marsh marigolds, flag iris, something-as-yet-unidentified (by me, at least) that grows everywhere by the edge of the sand… Every shade of yellow imaginable, in huge drifts everywhere you look.

I certainly picked up some inspiration for PS3 “Air” while I was out.

It is impossible for me to go out on my bike and not come home feeling exhilarated and happy. This is such a gorgeous island.

I feel refreshed, regenerated, and a little distressed. Distressed? Just before I went out, I found one of these in my front garden, flapping around. I picked it up, to find that it had but one wing - the other having been torn right off, poor thing. I found a nice dark box to keep it safely in and I rang our Ranger for advice. He said that he would come round and pick it up and dispatch it for me, if necessary.

It was a beautiful bird, and really gentle.

The Ranger found the bird to be in generally good condition other than its injury and hoped to save it. He tried to find somebody to care for it but a lethal injection was advised.

The theory is that it hit a power line.

So that’s today: fresh air, things of the air, and Air theme colour yellow.

Not a very crafty post, but that’s the way it is sometimes. Perhaps I’ll make a little piece and dedicate it to the former Arctic Skua that both distressed and delighted me and made me feel just a little privileged to be able to handle it.

Just to note that I am still here. A web project is taking up all my free time, and is likely to do so for a long time to come. We have achieved a molehill, but still face a mountain. However, the site is now live, such as it is.

Huge chunks of my time are just vanishing. Every now and again, I find myself taking the dog out for a pre-bedtime toilet visit and realising that it is the first time that I have crossed the threshold all day. Fortunately for the dog, I am not the only available escort!

I remain way behind on my correspondence but, fear not, size is not the only attribute that I share with the elephant. If you are owed correspondence from me, one day you will greatly surprised to see that I have lived up to my commitment. I do not forget. I just have many competing goals, a limited mental energy, and a very finite postal budget.

If you would like to see just what is keeping me out of my studio, here it is, the Sanday Community Website. Be kind in your constructive feedback - my life and soul are disappearing into this project. I cannot even find time to knit!

Three postcards ready to go for the Swap-Bot Quotecard12 swap, due 31st May.

“Minds are like parachutes” quote from Tommy Dewar, of the Scots whisky distillers family. I have long wondered where that one came from.

Digital image of boy with toy parachute enhanced in Photoshop. Clip art, grad fills, and text. Postcard assembled in MS Publisher.

Very quick and very dirty - and quite abashed that I have so little time and energy to give to these ventures.

Two to go to the US of A and one to NZ.

I have done very little work recently (i.e. the last six months or so) - I have had no time to go near my journals or to take time and care over anything that I have been committed to. My workroom is in such a state that I cannot even reach my desk (hence the digital postcards!) I find it all rather depressing. I would like to be making my small a art again. At this rate, the dark days will return before I have made any use of the light!

So much to catch up on, so little energy - and being hounded, harassed, and stalked into the bargain. Feeling *glum.* Don’t be surprised if I take Fairhand down and disappear.

On the positive side - I have my pair of ATCs for the PS3 “Air” swap pretty much sorted already (I knitted them!) “All” I have to do now is to sort out some backgrounds or mounts for them.

We took the dogs in the bay last evening. I hesitated on the way out of the door - should I take a camera or not? In the end, I left my cameras behind and took charge of the pup - leaving Mr L to the important task of giving the new camcorder its first outing.

I wish that I had taken a camera, though - the beach was covered in fascinating weeds of every green and brown hue you might imagine possible - so much variety of shape and texture and colour, everywhere that I looked. Perfect colours for PS3 Earth - even if they were all very much in and of the Water!

I may try to get out this evening and take a camera with me, though the tide may be a little late for the light.

Once the iMac turns up and we get to grips with the editing suite, I may post some footage of the dogs on the beach. There were Terns last night, too. Even if we didn’t successfully capture them on camera, we are certain to have grabbed the audio - they do screech, so!

She’s getting on a bit and it is starting to show at times.

But not always!

I find it very difficult to get a decent shot of Suzie, my camera does not cope well with her dark face - so I am pleased with today’s shot of her on the sofa. Sometimes when I look at her I think that maybe I don’t have all that many photo opportunities left. Then again, when she is tearing around the garden, I think maybe she will be with us forever.

I have been trying to photograph starlings. I regard this shot as the one that got away and can only begin to imagine how good it would have been if I had got the shutter speed right!

I don’t know what it is, but I always seem behind on my twin’s cards. I spend so long in denial of my own birthday that I always forget to sort hers out. Today I had to make a ten minute quick and dirty card in the middle of preparing to go out and run a spinning course.

It’s not work to be proud of.

4-fold concertina card, alcohol inks and Krylon on glossy card stock, colour card and pigment inks.

The colours have not reproduced well.

Well, at least it is in the post on time!

I am getting fretful about my PS3 Earth ATC swap. Posted last Wednesday, mail normally takes 5 days to the States and should be faster to Germany - but no sign of feedback on either package yet.