Archives for posts with tag: thoughts
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The old fool

June 10, 2012 //
0

…I have to make this clear, I want to help Lou. Yet, I am not sure how. I have to admit, I am at a loss here. I know how important it is to have someone to pour your heart out to. Lou has made it clear to me, I am not the one he trusts in this matter. It hurts a bit, but I have to accept it!

My reader “Whichwillitbe” suggested in a comment to my post yesterday, I should introduce Lou to Philosopher. Thanks so much for the suggestion.

Not a bad idea, I thought initially – I value Philosopher’s opinion a lot. He has so much life experience. But… (and I don’t know whether “Whichwillitbe” has read the book Hermit’s Web, as this is a very big BUT!)  Philosopher is in the same boat as Lou, just at the other end of the age scale. All our friends call him The old Fool, because he is secretly in love with Deutsch Fraulein and he thinks we don’t notice. (This picture is one of my favourites from the book).  I wonder how old do you have to get for this carry-on to stop?

Anyway today is Sunday and Witch puts on Sunday dinner. I might talk to her how I could help Lou. Or does anybody else have any suggestions?

To be continued…

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

It’s all in the head

June 8, 2012 //
0

Someone remarked the other day, they were surprised my puppets are just heads, they have no bodies.

This is an artistic statement: I am convinced that communication is largely a discussion in one’s own mind. Even if I sound like a real weirdo here, I have my doubts that one ever can get across precisely what one thinks. One can but try. The perception of the message depends also on the life experience and current situation of the receiver (on which we have no influence). I am pretty sure we all know how easy it is in particular to mis-interpret brief messages written on the computer.

With the puppets at least everybody knows they are totally imaginary. And this is the reason why they are only heads. It’s all in there….

By the way, they do have dresses for when they are performing. I have five simple black robes with hands, which they share around. So they are true friends, sharing their wardrobe.

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Categories Art, Life

Broken Umbrella

June 7, 2012 //
0

When I was rummaging through my old photographs yesterday on the hunt for my Tui image, I found this one as well. This was one of my first images I took with my Macro lens and I always loved it. It reminds me so much of an old weather-beaten umbrella, in fact it is a parachute perfectly designed by nature.

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Categories Art, Photography

To award or not award

June 6, 2012 //
2

When I received the Sunshine Award recently, I had to think for a while whether I will participate in passing on the award or not. In the end I decided to go for it. Mainly because I appreciated the gesture of the person who gave me the award. I know she is a regular reader of my blog and judging by her likes and comments, she obviously enjoys it.

To answer the questions was relatively easy. I believe the answers say more about the people answering the question than meets the eye.

The third part was the most difficult one, passing the thing on. After a bit of deliberation I viewed passing it on as an extra acknowledgement. Not just a like for one particular post, but a big like for the entire blog for various reasons. I left some of my favourite blogs out as I assumed (assumptions are often flawed) the recipients wouldn’t appreciate the gesture. All those people who received the award from me can be sure I check their blog regularly, even if I don’t leave my mark (like). And be assured, I can very well understand if you don’t pass it on, it’s up to you :).

Unfortunately, one of my recipients got tired of receiving too many awards. There is a bit of work involved in passing an award on and to make his life easier he packaged his latest three awards into a new one: The Super Nova Blogging Star Award. The new award is given to two bloggers only and to simplify once again he bounced it back to the last two people who gave him an award. So, I got lucky again :)

The Super Nova Blogging Star Award!

I believe his intentions were to make the award system easier, by just asking one question: “Why do you blog?”. Mmmmhm. In my opinion, this question is in desperate need of the right intonation! It could be a simple innocent question (which most bloggers answer on their About page) or it could be a real anti-award statement, basically saying “I don’t get it… Why do you blog?” And then it would be anything but an award you would want to receive.

Once again, since this blogger reads my blog, I will go with the first of my two interpretations and accept the award.

The dede puppets correct answer to the question “Why do you blog?” can only be

We blog, therefore we are!

And the two new recipients of the award are… Now this depends on who wants it?

I invite you to apply for it! If you have something to say about the subject, go for it. As you have read this far I guess you must be interested, so have your say and leave me a comment. I will choose two recipients in due course!

The award was donated by Christopher Charron on his blog Off the Wall: http://christophercharron.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/more-awards/

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Categories Art, Fun, Life

Morning encounter

June 2, 2012 //
0

I wanted to start this day by taking a photograph of a Tui. These native birds love to congregate in one of our trees in the front garden. Their beautiful song is just such an invitation to get up and get going.

Unfortunately Tuis never sit still and it wasn’t an easy task to catch one. The sun just touched the crown of the reasonably high tree. Only one of them popped up long enough for me to get a couple of mediocre shots. It’s good that I don’t need high res images, so I could crop it drastically. It’s not an artwork, it’s just to show what the birds look like with their shiny black plumage and the two curly white feathers on their throat.

I walked around the tree to get a better angle, and there I found this mean looking little cat sitting under the same tree also waiting for the Tuis. I guess he thought the song was an invitation for breakfast.

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Categories Fun, Life, Photography

Thank you Queen

June 1, 2012 //
0

I thought I would finish this week with a generic feel good photograph I took this morning in the garden. It is a glorious day out there. Monday is a public holiday, courtesy of the Queen. It’s her birthday  (as an aside for all those people who are not living in the Commonwealth – or is it Common Wealth? Ah no, impossible!).

I have a lot of stuff lined up I want to continue on. The dede puppets had some news this week, but they are still pondering whether it is a blessing or a curse, so they are not making a statement just yet…

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Categories Art, Photography

Mrs Esta Blished

May 31, 2012 //
0

When I met the senior citizens last week, an elderly gentleman asked me whether I make the puppets first and then invent their character traits, or whether I conceive their story first and then make up the faces.

It goes both ways. With Chance for example, I accidentally pushed her face in when she hadn’t dried properly. I looked at her, and not wanting to throw work out, decided she must become Chance, the weird ol’ bird. I strongly believe in every mishap lies something good.

At the moment I am working on a new character and in this case I have the complete story and will make the puppet (hopefully this weekend). The puppet is called Mrs Blished, the Fairy Godmother. In lieu of  a photograph, here is a very rough draft. And, yes, her eyes look suspiciously like the ones of my blind cat.

Okay, Mrs Blished  is the only one who insists on being addressed as Mrs, but we all know her first name is Esta. Hard to believe she was young once and rebellious (it’s amazing what you find out when you visit a rest home).  Now she lives by a very rigid set of rules and keeps herself busy protecting her assets, while her wand collects dust in the attic.

Her rule thing would be okay if she needed it for her comfort. Unfortunately she expects everybody else to adhere to the same rule set. I might be a bit naive, but our opinions differ a lot lately.

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Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, Self-publishing

Not Lady Fortune

May 29, 2012 //
0

I have to set a record straight: Chance is not Lady Fortune. Chance is a dear friend of mine, but I am not acquainted to Lady Fortune. Apologies… this is not entirely correct: I knew her way back at school, when she still was Miss Fortune. I haven’t kept in touch with her. Why should I, I couldn’t stand her then and I wasn’t the only one wary of her, nobody liked her.  She, on the other hand, was attracted to a few of us and followed us around like a bad smell. We just couldn’t shake her off. Only when we left school our path parted.

Thinking back now, she must have been very lonely. She was an only child and inherited the title and a lot of money when her father died. Devil says he meets her from time to time at the pokies, and the punters there, really love to see her. It’s a bit sad, isn’t it? But I won’t go there.

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Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Now, I am in the poo

May 24, 2012 //
0

Last night Devil paid me a visit. He wanted to talk to me as the spokesperson of the dede puppets. They are all very concerned. I didn’t know the dede puppets had a spokesperson. Honestly I don’t think he was voted in. But he obviously thinks he is the Patron Saint of the dede puppets, as he is the oldest. (Patron Saint… it’s a bit rich isn’t it?)

Anyway, he said they are all concerned about where the dede puppet blog is going. He reminded me I had promised to set it up for the dedes as a forum. He, Devil,  now accuses me of hijacking it for my other artwork. He actually said, “What’s so beautiful about a Giant Weta, all  the dede puppets have nicer eyes…” He quoted the one post where I said it is all about eyes at the moment.

Okay, point taken. Devil himself has gorgeous eyes… I still think (and I am not being defensive here) there should be a place for other photographs on the blog.

So, we had this long and heated discussion about whether I should be allowed to put other artwork up. In the end I had this feeling he was mainly miffed with me because the film features Pirate and Mouse. He insisted it was him who broke the news of the book to Mouse, so he should have been in the film. I promised him he will be in the next one. (We are moving towards winter and I will have more time to do this kind of stuff). I basically made this promise to get him off my back. It was past midnight when he finally disappeared.

It took more than an hour to get the smell of sulpher out of the house. This is the reason, why I normally like to catch up with Devil at the pub.

I think I will canvas the other dede puppets about what they think on the subject. I am still not sure whether he made a mountain out of a mole hill.

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Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets

Giant

May 23, 2012 //
4

Here is something that looked at me from my washing, when I picked it from the line. It is the biggest insect we have in New Zealand, a Giant Weta. At the first glance, one couldn’t call it a pretty creature (needless to say, I dropped the towel, but the Weta held onto it). Looking at it in a photograph so close up, I find it absolutely amazing and it is totally harmless. It’s always worth having a second look.

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Categories Art, Photography
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