goodbye 2016 it was lovely....

Delayed postings... pretty much covering the last couple of weeks. 2016 is practically gone - For some people it has been a difficult year, some people have lost close friends and family, Iconic and national treasures from the entertainment world have passed away reminding some of us of how old and vulnerable we actually are, but also conjuring up past memories of teenage crushes and adventurous exploits... (the lost car at the Milton Keynes Bowie concert). The political world has been turned upside down even for those who got what they voted for (if anyone actually knows that), but I've been lucky, for me personally it was a good year, we had lots of good trips, Skye, Ireland, Wales, Yorkshire, more Scotland, Peak District... loads of great get togethers with family and friends, college was mostly fun, the Snow dog experience was fab, I feel we got a moderate amount or sunshine which makes such a difference to life in general so up to the the last three weeks it was ok...

Of course then the car blew up and I got ill with this cold fluey thing everyone got for the whole of christmas - only really surfacing for the first time today - but all that can be resolved and in the grand scheme of world events its pretty inconsequential - unless of course you are me!!!

Christmas was salvaged as I have a great family and even in the adversity of having to vacate your bed for your ailing mama and then my youngest granddaughter having an ear infection we still managed a really nice christmas day - dinner was burnt, but edible, baby screamed but was bribed with chocolate so we could have 20 mins peace to eat dinner, lemsips and gin got me through the day and my lovely 7 year old grandchild survived the disappointment very stoically of not getting a grand piano from Father Christmas (in a back to back house!!!!!). I got great christmas present from everyone including the V&A published 'David Bowie Is Inside' by Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh which I'm really looking forward to delving into.

A couple of days and we are into 2017 - it will be an interesting year, political turmoil - serious civil unrest, too many unhappy people - we will see what unfolds, it will touch every part of our lives and the consequences will be far reaching for a lot of people - for me personally I am just going to try and embrace what ever comes with an open mind and try not to use up too much negative energy - I'm not bothering with new year resolutions this year - I never managed to master hoola hooping which was last years sorry attempt.. I did draw every day and I have now done two years without a haircut!!!! this now is very evident and its so bad I'm tempted to take shears to it myself but I'll hold off til after the weekend and seek professional assistance.

I've neglected college work over the 'festive period' so I've a lot of catching up to do - working up the screen prints and trying to bring some textural dimension to them - I've been using embroidery and beads which is looking ok but I have decided I want to used a more mixed media background so I'm going to try some collage paper and material work... watch this space,,

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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