Shedcast 14 - Rest in Peace Prince Philip on 09 04 2021 at 16 29

Sad news! Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh died yesterday morning at the age of 99 years, may he rest in peace.

Meanwhile, life goes on for the living and the good news is that some of the Corona virus restrictions will end on Monday as the number of people infected continues to drop with deaths now down to below 20 per day. The Barnsley area is still one of the highest infected in the country together with surrounding northern areas. Pubs will be allowed to open on Monday, but only as outside venues, so those without a beer garden will be out of luck. Our beer garden is ready for the onslaught! 

So, here is last night's shedcast:

Poetry and Prosecco - The Zoom event organised by members of the Shortlands Poetry Circle was a lovely event and made for excellent Friday night entertainment. Not being able to get wifi to the shed, we converted a corner of our living room into a shed lookalike for 2 hours of poetry- it was fun!

This is my set which we recorded earlier in the shed:

For the first time in a long time we had visitors last week and we all sat in our garden in the freezing cold, in the hail and snow, in the perfect happiness and joy of being together. Thank goodness for fire pits!

And David and I went for a few walks during the week, at least we can do that:

So, it has been a good week for some, and a not so good week for others. I am looking forward to the week ahead, to more artwork and hopefully to a bit of cello practice, AND a bit warmer weather - please!

Have a good week, everyone, keep safe and keep smiling,

Love from Jane and David xx

Shedcast 13 - Happy Easter on 02 04 2021 at 17 13

Happy Easter to all!

I wish you a pleasant weekend full of love and hope and lots of Easter Eggs. As you will see on the Shedcast, David and I have a bit of chocolate in the house for the weekend. The weather has turned chilly so we shall have to put on an extra layer when we walk out today. But hey, it's not mid-winter and the spring flowers are out, and the birds are singing. We shall enjoy the fresh air, and thank God for our health and the freedom to enjoy the countryside. 

The past few days have been lovely and warm and we were able to sit out in the garden and even have a chat to our neighbour, over the fence. Things are almost normal!

 

My artwork of the week - subject 'Birds' took a few days to complete and I have now started a big picture commissioned by my sister. The bird is a Bearded Vulture which lives on Crete and is an endangered species. The person is a Cretan poet, Kostis Moudatsos. As ever, I know there is room for improvement but I do so enjoy the challenge:

Endangered Species

And I know my friends will not mind me showing you their paintings because we all work so hard every week. I think this week's efforts were especially good:

So, the challenge of a new week is ahead. I know it is going to be a good week because we are going to have visitors on Tuesday. We will sit in the garden and share an hour or two, something that we have not been allowed to do for months. The restrictions are easing and we can now meet up to six people in an outside space. The number of people with the virus is now going down, millions have been vaccinated and slowly, slowly, the world is opening up in Britain. Unfortunately it is not such good news for many other parts of the world where lockdown rules apply. This virus is not going to go away, we know that, and we must all be vigilant for some time yet.

In the meantime, we shall do our best to enjoy life. It's another month and another book. I'm not sure what to read this month yet but last months book 'Daemons' by Anthony Peak was very interesting, though a bit tedious to get through, and in such small print that my eyes were certainly struggling.

So, keep safe everyone, and keep smiling. 

Bye for now,

Love from Jane and David xx

Shed Night12 - Greek Night on 26 03 2021 at 18 23

Hello Everyone,

Last night's Greek Night was fun but it was no substitute for the real thing. We played Greek music and ate Greek food, we even did a bit of dancing, but at the end of the day, we were at the bottom of our garden, not in a Cretan taverna. Well, we tried. Anyway here is the video:

We did keep ourselves busy during the week, David had an unexpected walk out to collect a new flushing mechanism for our toilet as I had been a bit heavy handed and broken the loo. Oh dear! Anyway he sorted it out. He also spent a day putting shelves up in his shed - yes, David has his own shed. Meanwhile I was painting or poet-ing.

This is my painting of the week - Subject, Dreams:

And here are some more photos of our Greek Night, a bit of a lonely affair!

And today we are a bit sluggish but the sun is shining and we had a good walk out this morning. The local riding school were out exercising their ponies, and up at Pilley, tea, coffee and pop were being served at the village hall, where people were sitting outside with their drinks even though it was quite cold. Had we taken any money with us we may have been tempted. The daffodils looked lovely on the banking as we went up the hill and it was a lovely walk.

Now I am going to do a bit of reading and enjoy what is left of the day. I hope you are all having a lovely day too, as ever, keep safe and keep smiling.

Love and hugs,

Jane (and David) xx