Milk Maid Monday?

I was intrigued to discover recently, that milk can be bought in bags, delivered by my milkman, same as bottles. So I decided this morning to take a photo of this strange phenomenon. The plastic jug is totally recyclable - though not too sure about the milk bag- can't take it out to read the small print, now I've put it in place.

Thing is, it was the wonderfully clean, drip-less-pouring-out ability of this cunning contraption that made me want to praise it to the skies today. Let's face it, milk cartons can be a disaster, and even glass milk bottles often let a wayward trickle ooze down their curvaceous sides.

But not this. It pours as clean a whistle, and there's a cap to close at once before placing the jug back in the fridge door. What a joy to find an article that exactly does the job it was intended to do!

More Togetherness

It being Thursday, over on my Alias Jinksy blog, there is another combined poem-and-pic from Elizabeth and I, but deep in Blogland other things are stirring!

So I decided to have another, triple combination  for today on Napple Notes, for Juliet and Susannah have both written words which fit a picture I posted way back... Hope you enjoy the mélange. Juliet , alias Crafty Green Poet, wrote:- 

Trees
glow purple with dusk -
an owl hoots.

And  Susannah's poem that I asked to be allowed to copy from her blog 'Out Of My Ocean', has a similar evening overtone. Blogger won't let me link straight to it, but you can get there via the side bar link on her 'Panopticulated' blog.

A Page Turned...

The orange day slips back into the purple night
and all is as it was before,
but not me.

The passing of the hours, the changing hues
have altered something,
I have changed.

Though all appears to be the same
when viewed from the surface,
it is not.

My Niece Is No NIt

But she is a knitter, and a creative one at that, as you will see from this delightful photo of her latest handiwork. 

And here's what she had to say about them:-

"I finished me some funky socks. Why yes, I stood on a chair to give them a pink background too. But I didn't bother matching the stripes 'cos I like them wonky like this."

When I tell you she is the Mum of the budding young artist in my previous post, you will see the apple didn't fall far from the tree!

And once again, it gives me a perfect excuse for brightening the Sepia Saturday scene with a picture which deserves to go down in history for future generations. The fact that it's as far from sepia as it's possible to get, only goes to prove that the rebellious spirit is a family trait in which I am proud to admit I share.  I'd class  it as just another unorthodox Utopian urge.

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

I simply had to share these words of wisdom, spoken by my five year old great niece. I plead for the understanding of her mother, whose photo and words  I have purloined, and I quote "At one point she thought about putting water over it, and told me  "Artists have good ideas, silly ideas and great ideas. I'm going to do it.".

Could anything be cuter?

Black Friday?

Well, Thursday wasn't too good either, at least in  Blogland, was it  folks? Blogger throwing a wobbly messed with our heads as well as out blogposts!

Now here we are, back to another Sepia Saturday and I'm messing with your eyes, as this photo was in reality a white lily. But how regal does it look in these sombre purple shades?

Along with the WACOM Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet I rashly bought this week, came various downloads. Included in the price were things like ArtRage Studio Pro and Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, not to mention the actual delights of the tablet and pen itself, which let me draw freehand images for the computer screen.

I will need to practice lots, before I start sharing those first efforts, but it's plain that the potential is enormous. So is the learning curve. Enormous, I mean.

Suddenly having to use full movement of my arm to position a cursor on the screen feels totally alien, after years of only moving wrist and fingers to click a mouse. But I begin to  see how my first faltering steps in Blogland, which began with a plethora of words but no pictures, and my sudden urge to include all kinds of illustrations, is akin to Radio evolving into Television. I hasten to add, I have no secret wish to  begin making movies, though. At least, not that I know of...yet...

Picture Me?

No, don't strain your heads trying to imagine a jinksy look alike! Think more "Picture by ...???, words by...???" Collaboration is the name of the game, and today over here  you can see where this idea is leading, as Elizabeth Crawford has supplied a picture, and jinksy has written a poem.

The comments people left after my imaginary Sepia Scene on Sunday, show that imagination is alive an well amongst you all - especially people like Maggie, who saw a dog in the sky, or Little Nell (a porker), or Broken Biro ( a flock of starlings)  while other options took me on a tour of the world.

Then I sent a different picture to Crafty Green Poet, and Juliet emailed me like so:-

"Hi Pen
I just wrote this, forgive the rabbit, they tend to creep into everything...

Without my glasses, colours blur
like patterns in rain-washed windows:
hills of orange and skies of pink
and a lakeside view in violet.
Watching it all, a rabbit floats
high in the clouds with ears of yellow
that stretch across the sky.

best wishes and thanks for thinking of me with this!"

And talking about the same picture, Elizabeth said:-

"From the soft pastels of babyhood, to the deep purple of personal power, all underlined by the dark red of banked creative fire. I think we agree!"

Suddenly I feel as though I am in at the start of something big...

Trompe L'Oeil?

Thinking Sepia Saturday, although it's Sunday,  I've created this illusory landscape. I wonder how it appears to you?

Believable?

If so, where in the world might it be? And how would you describe what you see in it? Let's hear what your imagination decides...

Seeds Of Change

Something is germinating, today. After discovering the poems that Elizabeth Crawford had written for April's 'Poem a Day' at Writer's Island, I contacted her, and we've been trying to work out a way of collaborating. Her words and my pictures, or vice versa. So here is the first of her words written for my illustration. The basic idea could lead anywhere - this is merely the first step.

White barked tree trunk
waves aloft deep blue essence.
Lavender perfume spills
across spring landscape.

I decided to post this on Napple Notes, and Alias Jinksy, to see which, if either, blog caught people's ttention.  With the lavender colour spilling over in my mind this morning, I created this flight of fancy too.