Sometimes we have to stand back and realise how lucky we are,

Sometimes;
We have to stand back and realise how lucky we are.

I keep reading about how we are all in a period of change, I guess we are, I feel as if change is all around me.
 I’m going to see my friend who lives a couple of hours away most Saturdays now; I went to see her today and spent a lovely afternoon with her.  She’s had so many medical problems for so long and I’ve lost count of her multiple diagnoses. The root of the problem is an auto immune disease that triggers may other serious illnesses.  The latest, and what will be the last of her many diagnosed illnesses is liver disease. It’s advanced, severe and untreatable; I go to see her as often as I can.  It’s so sad, she is two years older than me and some days she looks closer to 80 than 60.
On a somewhat brighter note; my two daughters are in serious training for the biggest challenge of their life. They follow an exercise programme 4 times per week and have completely changed their diet. My youngest daughter, has a horse and rides every day, because of this is has remained quite fit and has never become overweight, but even for her the training is strenuous.  My eldest daughter has an even bigger fight on her hands,  she used to be very fit but now has some early arthritis and needs to lose about  2 stone in weight. They are taking part in something called ‘’Tough Mudder Scotland 2013’’. It’s described as a; ‘’hardcore 12 mile-long obstacle course designed by the Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses and half a million inspiring participants, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world’’.
I get scared just reading about it. Their reasons are sad but also inspiring; they are doing this challenge in support of a young woman who has battled cancer for several years. The woman thought she had beaten it, her chemo finished, her hair and eyebrows started to grow back and she began planning her wedding. Then the illness came back with a vengeance and it’s now terminal. She’s living every day and still planning her wedding. 
My daughters are training to compete in Tough Mudder to raise funds for the charity that  helped this young woman, the charity is called ‘Bosom Buds of Scotland’ and my daughters has named their team ‘Mud Buds, a combination of the challenge name and the charity name.

This is their donation page
http://www.justgiving.com/mudbuds2013
this is about the challenge
http://toughmudder.com/
this is the ( rather scary) video  


My final eye surgery is to take place on Monday, I used to feel quite sorry for myself about the problems I’ve had with my eyes. I don’t any more. I’m extremely grateful that my sight in that eye has been saved and even more grateful that they can remove the cataracts and restore near perfect vision in that eye. I’m a coward about hospitals and procedures but all of this puts it in perspective, I’m looking for ward to getting it done on Monday and very happy its not something far more serious.

My retirement grows ever closer.

My retirement grows closer and closer,
Every day it’s a little closer
Seven weeks on Friday to be precise,
And then no more work, EVER !!!
And this little song has been in my head all day.
I wonder why? :-)

Life study, acrylic on canvas.

I've done quite a bit of life drawing over the last few years, but this is my first attempt at life painting since I was at college as a teenager. It's acrylic on canvas, not exactly anatomically correct but I quite like it anyway. Obviously I don't have a model lounging around my living room; this was taken from a combination of a couple of different pictures.

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison

 

I used to have an uncle (long since dead) who, I was told,  came home from work one day  and announced to his family that they were all going to be vegetarian. He played the sitar; I remember this instrument fascinated me as a child.

While we were still children he decided to move himself and his entire family, my auntie and four cousins, all the way to Wales. I never saw any of them again after they moved, they apparently moved to a cottage/ farm house type home in the middle of a field and half way up a hill. He became the village postman and … from what I am told, they all lived happily ever after.

When George Harrison developed his interest in the sitar it always made me think of my sitar playing uncle, my auntie, and my four cousins all lost to the hills of Wales

  

translation ( taken from the comments on youtube where it’s posted)

om saha nāvavatu saha nau bhunaktu saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai tejasvināvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ 

Om ! May He protect us both together; may He nourish us both together;

May we work conjointly with great energy, May our study be vigorous and effective; May we not mutually dispute (or may we not hate any).

Om ! Let there be Peace in me !

Let there be Peace in my environment!

Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me

Comments from Anonymous promoting moraly corrupt loan companies.

I seem to be inundated with morally corrupt individuals posting links to their dubious 'get an instant loan' sites. Any suggestions on how to block them permanently?  They leave comments on random blogs, (singning in as 'anonymous'), praising my talents and saying how wonderful my site is, and then leave a link to site that give instant cash for extortionate interest rates. I have to come here and check about twice a day to delete these comments and report them as spam, but they just keep coming back.
All suggestions gratefully received.

What goes around comes around.

A little ditty to amuse

Have you ever noticed how as you get older there seems to be some sort of role reversal going on between yourself and your children. ??

My daughter woke me up from a wonderful, deep and restful sleep by phoning to say I had embarrassed her and she was mortified. Was I worried??… um… no, did I experience immediate pangs of regret?? …. um…. no………….the first thought to pop into my head was a childish and gleeful……………..well now you know how it feels. 

She proceeded to reprimand me as if I were the child, and I ignored her and went back to sleep, much as she had done as a (very embarrassing) teenager.  

Well I guess there are some benefits to getting older after all, and granny was right, what goes around comes around……………..:-)

The latest thre paintings, snowscenes.

The three latest paintings, these are snow scenes taken from photographs I took a couple of years ago when wee had ‘the big freeze’.

It’s not been so cold this year, but I thought they were ‘seasonal’……….