Moving on...

After nine years, I have moved my main blog, Cheshire Cheese, over to Wordpress. This blog has been much neglected, by readers as well as me, but in case there is anyone out there, I have moved it as well. You can find it here.

I shall leave these pages here for the foreseeable future, but there will be no new posts. Now I've finished my education, I hope to post more often on the new Wordpress site.

Now I've nearly finished the degree and I've got nothing to do...

Some little bits of creativity, inspired by the book '365, A Daily Creativity Journal'.   Day 1, a little book made from stuff at hand. In theory it's all orange, but most of the pages are brown, copper or turquoise.  

                            Day 2, something involving my favourite animal. A collage in the 'orange' book.  

                    Day 3, something using paper, but without using scissors, glue ar drawing. Another collage in the book, torn and stitched.  

  There's a Giorgio Morandi theme developing here...

Dinnertime.

Future

I see a slice of this in my future, with good butter and jam.

 

Rest

'I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it.' Shirley Conran

Feeling uninspired by the prompt, I Googled 'quotes about rest', and up popped this one. OK, it isn't directly about rest, but it expresses my attitude to housework completely. Feet up on the sofa, knitting/embroidery/good book in hand, soothing music in the background, and a glass of something cold and white close by. Perfection. And I can't see under the sofa when I'm sitting on it, and out of sight is out of mind.

Of course I can't stay here all day, (although knitting for my Degree Show provides a very good excuse) but after a long day avoiding housework by playing working in my studio, the sofa is the best place to rest and recuperate.

We have two similar sofas, so this is not the one I am sitting on, I would have had to move to photograph that. This is the one for guests, so it is smarter: you can see my C&G cushions and the blue throw I was too lazy to photograph when I wrote about them.

 

 

Superstition

If you were to ask me if I am superstitious, I would say ' 'No -superstitions are folk myths, fantasies, make believe, people trying to control a world they really have little control over.'

And yet... If there is no wood available, I touch whatever's nearest, I seek out black cats - because I like cats, and I have been known to look for four-leaved clovers, though I've never found one.

On the other hand, I deliberately walk under ladders, if there is room and no-one on them.

I came to understand how such things might develop when I spent some time learning how to dye with indigo. After you've immersed the fabric, being careful not to get too much oxygen into the vat, then pull it out and the green colour gradually turns to blue - it is like magic. Working with a group of dyers was an almost spiritual experience.

But indigo vats can be temperamental: everything has to be just right, and even with modern knowledge about the process, what works one time may not work the next. So the first dyers, lacking scientific knowledge, may have developed superstitions about how they had to behave when dyeing.

Having a ritual to follow - wearing lucky socks, having a lucky mascot, turning widdershins three times before you start - may build confidence, and increased confidence may contribute to success. And so the ritual is reinforced, perhaps taught to others, generalised to other situations - and a superstition is born.

Throw(s)

Once upon a time I had a knitting machine. Well, to be accurate, I had three. I also collected a lot of yarn to knit on them.

After 10 years or so I got bored with machine knitting. I had a mad burst of knitting sweaters for Oxfam with all the acrylic yarn, gave away the machines, but kept the wool yarn, with a vague idea that I would knit it by hand. Three and four ply? By hand? Yeh, right.

Another 10 years passed. The wool sat in a cupboard, gathering dust and moths. There was quite a lot. What the heck could I do with it?

Eventually inspiration struck. I came across a pattern for a square throw knitted from the middle out, in US worsted weight. If I used two or three ends together, it would be roughly equivalent to worsted.

There was a problem. There were some full cones (probably 400/500 gms) but far more odds and ends. I had the idea to use one or two of the bigger cones along with a mixture of the smaller ones. Fortunately there's a fairly restricted colour range, so I assembled three groups - blues, pinks and greys and greens. (Why so many greens? I have never worn green!)

I knitted and knitted and knitted. It was a simple slip stitch pattern, which was mindless enough to do while reading or watching TV, and helped to blend the colours.

So now I have three warm woolly throws on the sofas. Only the blue one matches the decor, but on a cold night we can snuggle under them, so who cares!

 

 

 

Leather

Earlier this year we bought a new car. What has this to do with leather? Well, it has leather seats - which we have never had before.

I am old enough to remember when cars had plastic seats. It coincided with the era of miniskirts, and on a hot day, if you weren't wearing tights, extracting yourself from a car seat was a sticky, sweaty and painful process. So, when cloth seats appeared, I thought they were wonderful - bare legs didn't stick to them!

But, I have to report that leather ones are even better. Arthritic joints slide over them and grandchildren's spills are easily wiped off. Black handbags tend to become invisible on the black leather, but apart from that, they are definitely an improvement over cloth.

However the leather covered steering wheel is a different matter. I don't like driving in gloves, and when we set off to go grandparenting in the early hours, that steering wheel is cold!

I spotted one of these in Halfords, with fluffy dice to match, but my husband didn't seem to think it was a good idea. I can't imagine why.

 

Colourful?

 

I love colour. I'm fascinated by it, by the interplay of colours, the strong contrasts of the primaries and secondaries, the subtleties of all the wonderful colours you get when you mix two colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel, or the muted shades of what I have recently learned are called chromatic greys.

And yet, in my clothes and in my art, I use colour very little. Most of my winter clothes are black (although there is usually a bit of red somewhere). In the summer it's blue and white, because black is too hot - that's when we get a summer.

In the textiles I make my fallback colours are black, white and magenta. (You maybe able to see a pattern here.) The work I am making for my upcoming Degree Show is cream or brown or black - chosen to be reminiscent of skin colours without being too literal. But having been working in these colours for nearly two years now, I am beginning to dream of moving into colour - I am attracted to the strong colours and stylised flower shapes of Eastern European or South Amercian embroidery. Something bright, cheerful, and totally without any deeper meaning!

 

Half-light

 

 

Light thickens; and the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood:

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.

Shakespeare: Macbeth.

 

Today's Wordpress photography prompt was to post a photograph inspired by a poem, song or story, associated with the theme of 'half-light'. Of course, being me, I did it the other way round - looked for a photo and thought about what it meant to me. I love photographing evening light, so I was spoiled for choice, but this one instantly brought to mind the first couple of lines, which I often say when I see rooks or their nests.

Of course, I couldn't remember where it came from, but Google was my friend, and turned up this rather dark quote from Macbeth, where he is planning dark deeds for the night. And the photo does have a threatening feel to it, I think, which matches the tone of the quote.

 

Dance

Joyfully chasing bubbles.

 

One Love

The apps were Phototoaster and Jazz.

 

Blogging the Senses: the Sense of Touch

 

 

Harmony

 

State of Mind

The topic for this week's Wordpress photo prompt is 'State of Mind'. I have a cold. This is my state of mind. Soft, beige and crumpled.

It is actually a photo of used tissues in my waste paper basket. You are allowed to say 'yuck'.The app was PhotoToaster.

 

Seasons

 

The Human Seasons. John Keats

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;

There are four seasons in the mind of man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear

Takes in all beauty with an easy span:

He has his Summer, when luxuriously

Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves

To ruminate, and by such dreaming high

Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings

He furleth close; contented so to look

On mists in idleness—to let fair things

Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,

Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

 

Life Imitates Art

Or maybe not. I'm not sure I've got this Wordpress challenge right, but if not, I had fun doing it.

I think Giorgio Morandi is one of those artists you either love, or just don't get. I'm in the former group. I don't know why, given that I don't usually like representational art or still life, but his images really speak to me. I love the colours and shapes, and the way they are all so similar and yet so different - a community meeting often in different combinations and having similar but different conversations every time.

So here is my effort: some of my favourite objects having a chat. The apps were IColorama and Phototoaster.

 

Valentine Haiku

Forty-five years married.

Older, wiser, not so slim.

Still looking forward.

What's in a name?

Why is is 'Cheese Snaps' called Cheese Snaps? Simple, really. When I first started my other blog mumble-mumble years ago, I wanted a name that would be fairly anonymous, but personal as well. Difficult. I chose 'Cheshire Cheese' because I come from Cheshire, although I haven't lived there for several decades, and I like cheese. It turned out to be quite a good choice, allowing me to invent blog names for my family - Wensleydale, who comes from Yorkshire, my sons Cheeses Major and Minor, and my granddaugher Babybel - although when my grandson arrived his mum called him a very hungry caterpillar and he's been the VHC ever since, albeit one who loves cheese.

When I subsequently wanted to start a photography blog, 'Cheese Snaps' seems the obvious choice - although the focus of this blog varies quite regularly, as you can see.

Time

 

The app was iColorama.

 

Learning new skills.

Talking about learning styles seems to have gone out of fashion since I was teaching, but I found it very useful to think about how I learn best, which is the subject of this Wordpress prompt. ( Why am I writing about Wordpress prompts on a Blogger blog? Well, it's a neglected little blog, and I felt it needed a bit of attention. Also I don't think anyone reads it, so I can waffle as much as I like without boring anyone to tears.)

But I digress. If you had asked me about my learning style before I did the test, I'd have said I was a verbal leaner - I love to read and I talk a lot. But I'm not a good listener: I switch off too easily. According to learning styles tests (and I've taken several different versions) I'm a visual-kinaesthetic learner - that is, I like to be shown, and then I like to do it for myself.

However, I'm not completely convinced by this. The kinaesthetic bit is definitely true, I need to try things for myself. And, dead give away, if I do have to listen to a speaker or read a text book, I have to make notes. I may never look at them again, but if I've made notes I have a much better understanding of what I'm being told, and more chance of remembering it too.

But the visual? I've found, since I've started taking on-line courses, that I much prefer those that provide pdf's, to those which just have videos- even if I make notes. Videos help, but they are not permanent - watching them again Is a bore. And for me they are no substitute for the written word. I think my visual learning is limited to still pictures and diagrams.

For me, the best way to plan, or learn, or explore ideas, is the mind map. It's kinaesthetic, because I have to draw it. It's visual, because it's a diagram. But it's also verbal, because it uses words. Perfect.

 

Choose your own ending!

She was late getting to the bus station, after gossiping with friends over coffee. Now she was on the last bus, a small, battered single decker, trundling out of Ipswich, heading for home. It was winter and already dark. She sat on the back seat, muffled in her coat and scarf, looking sleepily out of the window at the streets of the town. As the bus moved out into the countryside the streetlights disappeared, a mist fell, and the only illumination came from the distant lights of the scattered cottages.

She lived in the depths of the country, at the end of the bus route. The bus had been quite full when she got on, but in ones and twos the other passengers got off as they reached their stops, until she was the only one left. The bus trundled on through the mist, which seemed to be getting thicker, making the road unrecognisable in the dark: she wasn't quite sure where they were. She peered through the window, looking out for the lights of the pub at the end of her road, but could see nothing. She glanced at her watch: the mist had probably delayed them, but even so, she should have been home by now.

Anxiously, she made her way down the bus, to speak to the driver, hidden in his little cabin at the the front.

'Are we running late?', she asked. No reply. She peered into the cabin.

There was no-one there. The bus trundled on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vibrant

One of my thread drawers. The app is jazz.

 

Me and my phone.

What is my relationship with my phone? The first question is landline or mobile?

 

With the landline, fear and loathing. It interrupts my peace and quiet, it's rarely good news, it's often someone trying to sell me something or con me. I have it set up so it is very difficult to get an answer unless I actually know you: if I don't, I'll let the answering machine pick it up. If you don't tell me who you are I won't ring you back, and if you persist in pestering me I will block you. So be warned.

 

With my mobile, my relationship is marginally better, if only because I can take photos, play games and sent texts on it - although I prefer doing all of those on my tablet. My phone doesn't often ring because I rarely give people my number, it's usually turned off anyway, and people who know me know it's better to text me.

 

So , put me down as phonophobic.

 

Making changes.

I like to think I'm fairly decisive about making changes: once I've decided to do it, I do it. For example, earlier this week we received a very good offer from our local garage on their new cars, we talked about it that night, today we went in, and now we have a new car.

 

But, we had been thinking about replacing our elderly, 100,000+ car for a long time, and we've discussed it a lot - so was it really that quick? All we've really done is bring the date of purchase forward a few months.

 

So perhaps the answer is 'yes and no'!

A room of one's own.

What would be my perfect room for writing (which I don't do that much of) and reading (which I should do more of)?

A prompt from here.

Essentials:

1. A comfortable sofa with a large coffee table next to it.

2. A log fire - and someone to keep it going. This person could also provide tea, coffee and wine at appropriate intervals, and cook, wash and keep the house clean.

3. A good view, preferably of the sea, or the Downs, or both. One or more bird feeders would be a nice addition.

4. A plentiful supply of books, obviously. I usually write on a tablet, so a state of the art iPad and printer, but I would still like notebooks and a variety of pens.

5. Given that I would need to move occasionally, a work table and a supply of materials for knitting, embroidery, and paper crafts. (I'd be very happy to make my own notebooks.)

6. A good radio tuned to Radio 3.

That should do nicely. At least to begin with.

Foxy

Fragment, phototoaster

 

Another Sign of Spring?

 

 

A glass of water

The app is Jazz.

 

Window Glass...

meets iColorama.

 

Under the Spotlight

IColorama and Phototoaster

 

New Year Haiku

One post-New-Year task

Is taking the evidence

To the bottle bank.

 

 

Larder shelves

Not mine, unfortunately.

The app is Jazz.

 

The last of Christmas

All packed up and back in the loft - though this one belongs to the National Trust.

The app is Jazz.

 

Through the glass darkly.

Through the glass darkly,

Rain falling on sodden ground.

Will the sun ever shine?

The apps are iColorama and Photos.

 

January 1st 2016

Orange juice at breakfast.

IColorama