Thursday, 28 May 2015

Miniature art (paging TW!)

This guy creates some extraordinary things employing unusual techniques. I tried to find out a few facts about him, but there doesn't seem to be very much out there... His name is Salavat Fidai and I believe he's Russian. He has a store on Etsy.








Here are a couple of time-lapse videos of the artist at work. (They're best enjoyed without sound because whoever chose the soundtrack has appalling taste in music!)



Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Witty old men and a Zen contribution from a wise woman...

Three old couples were having tea one fine day. They were all chatting and whatnot when one of the men, trying to get a chuckle, said to his wife, "Pass the honey, honey!” Getting the chuckle he expected, he smiled smuggly. A moment later, the second man said to his wife, "Pass the sugar, sugar!" This got a bit of a bigger laugh, so the third man, although not quite as clever or quick-witted as the other two, decided to join in the fun. He waited for the perfect opportunity, cleared his throat, turned to his wife and confidently said, "Pass the tea, bag!"


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GrannyJ sent us these clever "Zen" pearls of wisdom. Thank you, GJ!

1.   Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.  
2.   Sex is like air. It's not that important unless you aren't getting any.
  
3.   No one is listening until you pass wind.

4.   Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.
  
5.   Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
  
6.   If you think nobody cares whether you're alive or dead, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.
  
7.   Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
  
8.   If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
  
9.   Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
  
10.     If you lend someone 20 bucks and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it. 
  
11.      If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
  
12.       Some days you are the dog,  some days you are the tree.
  
13.       Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.
  
14.       Good judgment comes from bad experience ... And most of that comes from bad judgment.
  
15.   A closed mouth gathers no foot.
  
16.      There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.
  
17.   Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

18.   When you are dead, you don't know that you are dead. It is difficult only for the others. It is the same when you are stupid.
 

Monday, 25 May 2015

Fierce dragons, by a talented artist

These dragons were drawn by Patricia, the daughter of our very own Lynn in VA. Chalk is a difficult medium to master, but our young artist achieves very good results! The drawings are at Parkway Brewery, in Salem. Lynn explained to me that these are lung dragons, the snakey looking ones associated with Chinese art. Patricia allowed her mom to help with the scales! 

We'll done, Patricia, and thank you, Lynn, for sharing.






Sunday, 24 May 2015

Surreal lips

These pencil drawings by artist Christo Dagorov are beautiful, but somewhat disturbing...





Saturday, 23 May 2015

Yellow

I thought it would be a nice idea to do a series of posts about colour, so I started making several collections of photos and will start the series with my favourite. I love yellow because I find it sunny and warm and happy. How do you "feel" yellow? As the series progresses, we will find out how each of us sees each colour. Well, If y'all like the idea, that is...















Friday, 22 May 2015

Unique armchair

This is the Layers Cloud Chair by Richard Hutten for Kavdrat:







The chair is made of 545 layers, consisting of a total of 840 square meters of fabric, and took 400 hours of design, engineering and production over a period of six weeks to complete. 

The Layers Cloud Chair weighs a mere 650 pounds! Some cloud, eh?

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Hey TW, some posh English for you!


albeit
conjunction: though.

"he was making progress, albeit rather slowly"

heretofore
adverb,
formal: 
before now. 

"diseases that heretofore were usually confined to rural areas"

whence
formalarchaic

adverb: from what place or source.

"whence does Parliament derive this power?"

adverb: from which; from where.
"the Ural mountains, whence the ore is procured"

whereof
adverb,
formal: 
of what or which.

"I know whereof I speak"

wherefore
archaic
adverb: for what reason.
"she took an ill turn, but wherefore I cannot say"

adverb & conjunction: as a result of which.
"truly he cared for me, wherefore I title him with all respect"

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

We need to talk about food

The conversations about food have endured in recent threads, so I decided to share photos of some of my vegetarian meals. I must say, they're quite delicious and there's a trick to help keep hunger at bay: the secret is to eat very slowly.

Sweet potato, shredded red cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, zucchini and walnut bread with hummus. The dessert is fruit purée (no sugar added) and banana.


Quinoa cooked with diced bell peppers, black and green olives cut very small, leeks and garlic. Zucchini, spinach, rocket and lamb's lettuce salad, walnut bread with hummus.


Wholemeal spaghetti with carrots, bell peppers, broccoli and celery with tomato and green olives.


Sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli, hearts of palm, black olives and spinach, rocket and lamb's lettuce salad, plus my lovely walnut bread with hummus.


Unfortunately, I neglected to take a photo of another regular meal: whole rice with one of the following - chick peas, lentils, black, kidney or cannelinni beans cooked with loads of veggies, plus some kind of salad.

I always have the fruit purée desserts and they're really tasty. My favourites are mango, pineapple, pear, and recently I've tried quincy. Mango definitely tops the list!

Breakfast is a Marmite sandwich and banana mashed with oats, cocoa and a bit of honey. I also have avocado when they're nice and ripe.


Between meals, I snack on nuts and seeds, plus fresh fruit. I also have two squares of a chocolate bar (75% cocoa) and drink a lot of water.


The blood tests will be done in August. Hopefully, the results will be encouraging and I'll avoid the dreaded statins! Will keep you posted.