Circle, Triangle, Square, Star, Splat

Like the previous post, this is written for a blog link-up party hosted by ‘I live, I love, I craft, I am me’. The theme this time is photographs of geometric shapes. Do have a look at the other entries.

Circle

Here's an almost perfect circle (spotted by Frog), formed by a bridge on the Grand Western Canal near where we live.

Along the Grand Western Canal a week or so ago. (Spot the dog.)

And here is a picture from the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal in Somerset which we were able to visit yesterday after a three-month absence. It was very busy, lots of people obviously having the same idea as us. The sun and planets are ranged along its length at correctly-scaled intervals and in their relative sizes, which is an inspired idea, and has almost (but not quite) got me remembering the order of the planets. The sun is an enormous orange ball about ten feet high (but we didn’t go that way this time so I don’t have a picture).

Saturn, on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal

Triangle

Here at last is our shade-sail, temporarily installed. As explained in a previous post, sunshades, gazebos etc don’t stand a chance in our garden as it gets so much wind, and the shade-sail is our latest ruse. Thanks to Primrose.co.uk for getting it to us, in spite of the difficulties the lockdown has caused them. We did have to wait seven weeks, but we trusted them.

Spot the dog, slinking off. Because of the noise the shade-sail makes, she thinks it might be a new form of hot-air balloon, one of the few things she's really frightened of. Hopefully, she'll get used to it.

Square
It took a lot of digging to create the 2 ½ foot deep post-holes for the shade-sail, most of which was done by Frog. My job was to trundle away the earth in a wheelbarrow and tip it into my new raised vegetable bed, also made by Frog.

Star
The bees are loving this geranium in flower in our garden at the moment. I’m loving the flowers' colour and their delicate markings. I’m not a painter but I’d like to be and a few days ago I tried to paint one of the blooms. I found it impossible to re-create their loveliness.

And I can’t resist showing you this picture of elderflower blossom yesterday, shining like a constellation of stars from a dark hedgerow. Its scent was intoxicatingly lemony and for the first time I understood why people use it for making drinks.

Splat

I don’t know if this counts as a splat, but here is a mind-map I’m creating for a possible new novel. I haven’t as yet made connections between the items as all I’m doing at this stage is writing up things like dreams, memories and stray thoughts as they occur to me, as well as more conscious ideas (which are probably the least helpful). In true lockdown fashion, I'm using the back of large pieces of patterned paper I found lining the drawers of a chest I've inherited from my mother.

I’ve used mind-maps in a more structured way (with connections and sub-connections and pathways) for novel chapters and blog posts for a while but this random mind-map is a new idea.

I’ve also been formulating a list of dos and don’ts connected to creativity – more of this in due course perhaps.

Own choice

And here is my lockdown indoor project, the tunic of many colours (and many geometric shapes) made from leftover pieces of material, intended for those rainy days which we haven’t had. Consequently I haven’t got very far with it.

This is the top of the tunic. There's a handkerchief skirt to come, made up of a pink piece of material, a green piece, and three purple pieces. 

And that's more than enough about me. I intend in future to write in a much more general and informative way . . .

PS As I said in the previous post, if you've arrived here through the blog link-up party you may not be able to access the links. Tune instead to www.belinda-whitworth.blogspot.com