Well Smack My Wrists!

Hello Friends!

ICAD is done and dusted for another year.  Thank you to everyone who enjoyed what I did and for your kind words, support and encouragement.

It's tradition to share an image of all 61 Index Card pieces, but in the interests of Health and Safety I'm not doing the usual floor spread which means clambering on a chair to get the shot, so I got creative.  Here's my 2024 stack of 61 ICAD's

Normal blog wittering is now resumed.

Ever the one to encourage wildlife, my garden should be a haven for butterflies and bees, but contrary to this they are noticeable this year only by their absence.

Due to having Parkinson's, I cannot garden at all, except for the odd spot of weeding where the weeds are easy to pull and there is minimum risk of falling.  This has resulted in lots of pollinator friendly "weeds", such as teasels, dandelions, clover, mullein, brambles, the list goes on.  These are all in addition to things I have planted that are pollinator friendly, such as lavender, buddleia, mallow, verbena, sedum, mint, oregano, rosemary, and so on, focusing on single bloom type of pollinator friendly flowers rather than the double flower type of bloom.

When full of these, the right kind of plants to attract butterflies into my garden, it should be buzzing, but like those of so many others it is not.  Where have the butterflies gone?

WHERE HAVE THEY GONE???

I wonder if the BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT 2024 will reveal any patterns or hints?

I even allowed a RAGWORT to take root in my garden, so smack my wrists!  To be honest, it grows wild nearby and if you read up about it, it is fine to have it in my garden as I do not have livestock, and it will be removed before it goes to seed.  I had so hoped it would bring CINNABAR MOTH to the garden, but it did not.

This is the Bridlepath, not 50 yards from my cottage, a couple of years ago it was lined with Ragwort. Given all the regulations surrounding Ragwort, I am surprised it was left to get this out of control.

These are a few of the many species of butterfly and moth, with some caterpillars and bees that used to regularly frequent my garden but the numbers are well down this year.

I don't normally share other artists, but came across this and could not resist.  I've tried to attribute it but it came off Facebook. 

Have you noticed a difference in butterfly numbers where you live?

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie x 

And That's a Wrap {updated with announcement}

Hello Friends!

Well, ICAD is over for another year and these are the final cards that round it all up once more.

Editing to say that apparently the tangle in the centre of this doodle is totally original and I may have created a new Tangle!!! I now have to look into this and possibly get it authenticated and registered as such.  How exciting is this?!

Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your kind support, comments and encouragement.

Until next time

Stay well stay safe

Debbie 

Dodged A Bullet

 Hello Friends

Well it looks like I dodged a bullet.  There was a family gathering for my Godmother/cousin whose 90th birthday was earlier in the month.  Family came from far and wide, including America and Taiwan, for the celebrations.  I am not at my best these days and do not feel up to socialising, especially evening parties, so I gave my apologies and ducked out.  Am I glad I did?!  Two of the party brought more than birthday wishes and presents with them and now most of those present have gone down with Covid.  I know it's here to stay but with my health as it is, it is the last thing I want to have to deal with.  

My hwyl, as we call it in Wales {mojo or energy} is non existent.  Consequently, my arty stuff is bordering on non existent as I am uninspired by the provided prompts and lacking in imagination to come up with anything myself.  However I did manage the following.

This first one was playing with a new tin of Faber Castell Graphite pencils.  They are a joy to use.

Now the random ones that just happened

These bring me up to 49 out of 61 {so I am about a week behind as I should be up to 56 out of 61 or thereabouts}  I will do my best to finish but will not lose any sleep if I don't.

I think I can now claim official Nerd status, and add another notch to the Belt of Eccentricity.  I could not sleep and ended up on YouTube watching videos of how to sharpen pencils.  These are not my pencils but photos I snagged of what can be achieved.

Now these are what I call points!!!

I can only aspire to such sharp pointedness!

In the meantime, there are the Olympic Games from Paris to entertain and amaze. 

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie

Running Out of Steam . . .

Hello Friends!

I am running out of steam on the Index Card A Day but am pushing through.   I have decided that rather than aim for the 61 cards, this year I'm just going to use up the pack which means, as I already took a few cards out for a different purpose, I will have somewhere in the region of 80 small pieces of art.

Here's what I did this week.  Only one is on prompt, that is the seashell.

The following are all variations on a theme using a different medium for each card

Inktense

Graphitint paint

Neocolour II

Polychromos

Watercolour pencil

Graphite

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie x

Do You Spuddle?

Hello Friends

Do you Spuddle?  I recently came across this 17th century verb which amused me.  In a nutshell, it means to work feebly or ineffectively.  It can also be used to describe someone who is extremely busy but achieves nothing, or someone who is distracted or not fully awake.  This sounds familiar. I am most definitely a spuddler.

At the time of writing, it is approaching mid-July and I have had to put the heating on.  I snuggle under a quilt of an evening and have even contemplated a hot water bottle.  I am not alone in this as the declarations of dealing with the unseasonably chilly weather pop up all over my social media feeds.

We have a new Labour government and a new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.  All I can say is he and his new cabinet have hit the ground running.  I did not envy him his first few days in office as following on from six weeks of hard campaigning and a sleepless night as the Election results were declared, the following morning he had an audience with King Charles to become the 58th Prime Minister, followed by a whirlwind tour of the four home nations, appointed his new Cabinet and held the first of many cabinet meetings before being whisked off to Washington D.C. to the NATO Summit.  He returns to the UK only to sprint off to Germany to see the historic UEFA European Cup final between England and Spain on Sunday evening.  How much sleep is he getting?!

We also have a new Member of Parliament for this constituency.  One of many newly elected MP's, he looks very young and I wish him well in the hopes he serves this constituency to the best of his ability. It is one of the newly formed, re-boundaried constituencies.  

Of course, one wonders what Larry makes of all the comings and goings at Number 10.

The Summer of Sport continues.  I've lost track of it all.  Various tennis tournaments including Roland Garros, Bournemouth, and Wimbledon; the UEFA  {mens} Cup; UEFA {womens} Cup Qualifiers; Royal Ascot; the Tour de France; cricket,; rugby and more in the run up to the Paris Olympics in a couple of weeks. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

Good Luck England!

For those of you who follow India Rose Crawford and Frog, there is a new video coming out.  Here is the trailer Frog.  I hope the link works, and all I can say is we need more like Frog in our world today.  You can follow the adventures of this wee, gentle creature on Instagram and Facebook.  Well worth it!

These days, I am overwhelmed with lethargy and apathy.  I have only done two index cards now in just over a week.  

and as I uploaded those, so I discover Google has made changes to Blogger again.  Sigh.

by the way, the butterfly birthday card was very well liked by the recipient.

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well

Debbie

A Big Birthday

Hello Friends!

What do you get for a relative who is celebrating a BIG birthday and who has everything?  I have puzzled for weeks and then I finally settled on sponsoring a donkey for her at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon.  So, FELICITY has been adopted.  The paperwork arrived earlier than anticipated and has been very gratefully received and declared a thoughtful and original gift.  My relative is happy, I am happy, and the Donkey Sanctuary is happy.

I always make a handmade greeting card but wanted to make something really special for this year so this is what I created using various butterfly dies cut in many different types of paper and card.  I took a photo mount frame and covered the aperture with a pretty butterfly print vellum before covering with the butterflies.  It is an A4 and I've crafted the back so that it can be framed if she wishes to do so once her birthday cards are taken down.

Last time I finished with this WiP index card

which went on to become this one

Sepia

Parfait

off prompt

Pixel

Random bonus card

Castel watercolour pencils

The Summer of Sport continues to delight and here in the UK we step into a Brave New World with a new government which has come into power after fourteen long years of Tory discontent.  Time will tell if we are in a safe pair of hands or not.

I have been otherwise occupied this week so am a wee bit behind with ICAD.

Until next time

Stay safe and stay well

Debbie