Back to Weaving

I have managed to quite a lot of weaving on the Schacht and am getting along nicely. Jerry has given up sitting on the treadles which does complicate weaving. Also the Guild is gearing up for a weekend with Melanie Venes and I have found some nice yarn in my stash. The warp  is wound and needs mounting. I am doing deflected double weave. Never done it before. I have put on a five metre warp with the aim of doing two scarves on what is left after the weekend.

I also found a book on photography that I cannot remember buying, it is called Wabi, after the Japanese simplicity thinking. The photos are all taken in.a nature reserve in North Germany with a macro lens. (Gerhardt Dibudda). I may have found the solution to my angst over photography.  They are really abstract

photography

It is one in the morning and I am wide awake - thinking. Woe is me. Or maybe just a scream of rage. Basically I am unhappy about photography. When I was doing the OCA course, at least I had projects to complete. They may not have been wonderful photos but they were photos and usually not of something I would have dreamt of taking.

My current problem is the trip to Uzbekistan. I took close on a thousand photos. Lots of blue tiled domes, beautiful minarets, none of which are more than picture postcards. I went to a meeting a few days ago where photos were critiqued and asked the question about these photos, what should I have done? And the consensus was take photos of the patterns. No, no, no. What I like best were the ones shot in the markets or people working. I am not much good at street photography because I think it is intrusive but I got several shots where the people did not realise they were being photographed. This is in fact just as intrusive but how do you ask for permission to photograph when you do not speak the language.

I have some photos from the market which are just sacks - of spices or rice or lentils. Sort of pattern , actually nicer that the minarets. Still not satisfactory. Composition is not my strong point. There are 'rules' in photography about composition. Not satisfactory either. The trouble is that I hope that I will turn into a Cartier-Bresson or Ansel Adams all of a sudden. And that is not going to happen. What is happening is that I am so dissatisfied that I am not taking photographs. I reckon I haven take 10,000 photos this year and I have not even taken ten that I think are good. Lots in Iceland, lots at the Goodwood races, some good portraits at Tom's wedding but there everyone knew who I was, I asked for permission weeks before hand.

Looking back over 2018, it seems to me that the best body of work was the posters showing people doing things. Otherwise everything is just a record.

And talking of records, I had five plants of squash, 'Sweet Dumpling', one of the best. I thought I would get one squash per plant. Instead, here are a few of the crop. I have given several away as well. And the freezer is filling up with tomato soup and tomato puree.

And the lord and master of this house (so he thinks).

So tomorrow I will take the camera and sally forth and just see what I can find.

Woe is me

You will have noticed a long period of silence. I brought home a bug from Uzbekistan and have been so ill that I have lost 6 kg. Dorothy had it too and has also lost weight. She is rather pleased about that. I am not. My trousers do not fit. Anyway last Friday I was definitely on the mend but Monday it struck again. This time I had had enough and visited the doctor who listened to my tale of woe and prescribed powerful antibiotics. The result is that I feel better already and quite hungry.

The result of all this is that I have not done much. We are having a two day workshop with Melanie Venes and I have wound the warp for the new Voyager. I also got to the linocuts class last week and cut a new block, not a cracking plant this time but a chemical plant in East Germany.  Nevertheless I am so feeble that I had to come home early.

Not much in the way of photos taken though the trees are turning autumn colours and I ought to get out. An interesting piece of info is that the new small Canon is very good indeed. The focal length is limited of course but it does a better job of macro than the Nikon.

 One piece of news. I have decided to replace my laptop which I use to drive the Megado. The existing one is nearly ten years old and I am worried about it packing life in. So I am having the existing hard drive cloned. It should be with me this week.

So I think I am on the mend. Jerry is his usual energetic self and needs more walks than we are well enough to give him. I have discovered that he much prefers pavements to woods because he gets people and dogs there. So he comes shopping. He loves the world and is startled when someone does not love him back. I took him to the vet for his monthly check up on Monday and the nurse gave it as her opinion that he would probably be 7 kg when full grown. I was expecting him to be bigger than that. Still I can tuck him under one arm.

On the Way Home

Yesterday (Monday) I walked down to Registan Square early (before 0800). One or two other tourists with cameras and everyone else was local and cleaning the place. Ladies with witches brooms sweeping up the leaves, men with scissors deadheading roses, a man with a sort of hoover/polisher doing all the steps. And me. More interested in the people than the architecture.

But the architecture is still outstanding.

Later in the day we visited yet more blue domed tombs. They are all merged into one now. At 1840, we were on a train to Tashkent.

Four of us plus luggage shoehorned into a teeny closed space. That was first class. I wonder what the nonfirst class was like. 

This morning I had my favourite grapes for breakfast.

These are used to dry and make the very best sultanas. Definitely my favourites. 

At 1230 today we are going to set off home. Plane out at three, in Heathrow at 2000 hours. So what did I think? It is a very clean country. Only saw one beggar. Never saw a ragged, hungry child. Children spotlessly clean. I get the impression they love children. Our guide is always telling us about his four year old daughter. They are also very keen on preserving their ancient buildings and are spending a lot on conservation. The people are friendly and English is compulsory in schools. The hotels were good. The downside? The food is boring and a bit tasteless. Both of us have lost about two kilos in twelve days. Unusual on holiday!!!

(Backup) Athens

The way I can tell it is Athens, is that,if I step out on to my balcony, I can see the Acropolis in the setting sun. See below. Tomorrow I get to visit it. Tonight I am too tired to appreciate it.






Up very early this morning and off to Heathrow. It was Terminal 2which I have not visited since they rebuilt it. Very posh, it has a Heston Blumenthal restaurant, and loads of couture shops. Air Aegean was a bit disconcerting. The staff  just talked Greek. A four hour flight then 40 km into Athens which is very spread out. Apparently in the 1970s, someone put up a tower block. Everyone was horrified and it is now illegal to have more than five floors. So a very spread out city.

I have a personalised walking tour organised for tomorrow.so will report tomorrow evening.
I have worked very hard over the last few days. The Open Studios stuff is all hung up or laid out and the studio is tidy. I shall be glad when the Open Studios is over, end May. It has been a lot of work.

I have spent the last hour trying to get photos from my iPad into the blog and failing completely. It is a very new iPad and there has to be a way of doing this.

(Backup) Driving round Britain

Yesterday I drove to Leamington Spa by way of Worcester which is far from direct but my accountant works in Worcester and I had an appointment with him. He said several things of interest and I ended up at Anne's house in time for her to give me last minute instructions. Then they were off to Glastonbury while I prepared to drive Alex to a party.  But the postcode was wrong and we ended up in the countryside with nothing visible but fields and cows. So we were both miffed and went home.

Today I drove back to Malvern to see people and fight with banks. All of the battles were won -- by me. Then I drove to Castlemorton Common where I inspected the black poplars. These are centuries old and were pollarded for many of those centuries. Now they have thickened trunks which have rotting bits, in other words, very interesting. But a number have died. I was delighted to see that someone has planted twelve small black poplar trees. They are now about ten foot high. Whereas old ones are 40 to 50 foot high. I took a large number of photos.

 

The 

This evening taxi drive was okay in that I got Alex to his swimming class and home again without incident.

I have been thinking. I am keen to do some Lino cuts and have some good ideas for two or three colour prints. The truth is that I have gone off weaving. MIT is a lot of effort to warp up the Megado. For what? In 2006, I suddenly went off antenna design. No new problems. I had done everything before. Boring. So I was not too bothered when I retired two years later. I suspect the same is happening with weaving. I know what I create a draft for is going to work, so why bother. I can see trouble ahead here!

On our way

We (Dorothy and myself), arewaiting in a Boeing 757, for takeoff to Tashkent from Heathrow. Uzbekistan Airways. It is not quit the same as Virgin! There is an air of casualness about and the business class seats are just wider than the Economy ones. No beds here! 

The dogs have gone to our dog sitter, JuLia for their summer hols and they will love it. Lots of other dogs to play with. The adults adore them all and spoil them rigid. Jerry got off to a bad start by steal a plastic bottle full of lemon yellow acid due and destroying it In The garden. This was done at home just before leaving for Julia’s. I noted he had bright green whispers but thought it was green tomatoes. After he left, I discovered the partly destroyed plastic bottle and yellow dye all over the lawn and, I admit it, panicked. But it turns out that acid dyes are used as food dye. So no problem there.. When I  phoned Julia, she inspected him and reported he had four yellow paws!. He was washed. He does not like water. Serve him right. And the first thing I have to do when I return is put forty odd bottles of acid dye. On a high shelf in stead of under a table in the garage.

I was in Uzbekistan in 2013 and looked through all my photos taken then. Interesting, they are records of things, silk weaving, food, bazaars and not at all good photos. I must try harde this time. I have been doing an onLine course with David duChemin which is a real eye opener. Not much on ‘use this f number’ more you need to engage with the sitter. He is most interested in people. And not in what he calls picture postcards. I will post asi grand you can see if I have cha ged.