New Year ramble

First a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all my readers.

The picture is just a sketch of some of the children who were here yesterday evening, we have been entertaining family and friends over the Christmas and New Year period and I have just taken a blog writing break while everyone else plays poker, or with their thesis.

First the pinch and a punch business from my webstats, here is the link http://michaelsbookshop.com/laptop113/ this is only significant to other Thanet bloggers, but roughly forms a popularity chart.

Staying with the theme for a mo; do you say?

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month:

A punch and a kick for being so quick.

A stamp on the toe for being so slow.

Perhaps someone says, “no returns.”

Or how about; a flick and a kick, or, a punch and a blow.

Does anyone say, “white Rabbit.”

There is surprisingly little about this either on the net or in the obvious reference works, Brewer doesn’t mention it at all.

One important anniversary today, it’s forty years since we joined The Common Market, later to become the EEC, European union or whatever.

Perhaps forty years are enough, it is certainly looking as though the top European politicians are looking to put together some sort of inferior membership for the UK as we seem to be looking for a reduced level of membership.

I am trying to learn to use acrylic paint at the moment, the main problem seems to be stopping it going hard on the palette when you want to stop, I have modified a culinary implement to this end.

A quick sketch of the poker players, ink isn’t very forgiving before ones hand and eye decide to cooperate.

John Holyer has just emailed me the picture I took from the Eastcliff the other day, which he has adjusted.

Here is the original one.

and here the modified one

The business with the acrylic paint worked, the paint is sitting on wet kitchen roll round the edge of the dish, two fairly wet kitchen sponges in the dish with clingfilm over it and 48 hours later the paint is still perfectly ok to paint with.

Leaving it out on an ordinary palette and after about four hours it would have only been fit for the bin.

Painting with it is another matter, I may require lessons, the cheapest thing to paint acrylic on seems to be thick watercolour paper, you paint the back of the paper with acrylic paint to stop it curling up, then turn it over and slap it on the front.

This is cerulean blue at the top, yellow ochre at the bottom the two colours loosely mixed on the paper in the middle. The paint behaves differently to watercolour more going on the paper than going in the paper.

Same colours with watercolour, doing the same thing

I will try and ramble on here if I get a chance.