Lime green

Posted on 6th Apr 2012 by essiep

8°C, grey after a blue start.

I have painted the top landing in this house. It’s a complicated shape on that landing with lime green on the sides and a paler green on the end and ceiling. It looks great from below (which is painted a wheat-cream colour). But if you go up there, the colour bleed from surface to surface makes the whole space a Stygian abyss. You feel as if you are drowning in the deep & briny.

I may change my mind tomorrow, or maybe have the urge to over-paint some of it. There are some good ranges of classic paints to choose from. These are more like the Farrow & Ball ranges- more chalky flat matts with gentle colours that give a more contemplative mood to a room. Crown do a “period flat” which has attractive colours, but the surface is not washable so can’t be used in some places.

I hope I wake to the feeling that it works anyway. Even so, it’s a good problem to have.

Panic on the streets

Posted on 2nd Apr 2012 by essiep

8°C, grey with a little rain.

I went for a bit of panic petrol buying yesterday. When I got to the Panic Station, there was only one car before me. Perhaps I have missed a window of opportunity all the drivers who have already panic bought a tank of petrol will have run it near dry just in time for the coming tankers’ strike. Now, why would they do that?

Charming stop-frame video:

We tried to do this at work with year 7s. They didn’t really get the idea, but at least they made a video of some sort.

To be doing?

Posted on 1st Apr 2012 by essiep

-2C~? Clear

I know language is an organic thing that evolves over the decades. But there is a trend that doesn’t rest easily with me, the prevalence of the passive present continuous voice. It’s everywhere and sounds so weak and excessively wordy. One day, not too far in the future you’ll hear this:

Will you be taking this man, to be having and to be holding…?

Yuk! Sometimes this form is necessary but more often it’s clumsy , wordy and just glaringly ugly.

Worried

Posted on 27th Mar 2012 by essiep

18°C, drive dammit.

I can’t see the frog’s spawn, I shone a torch tonight into the water. They’re supposed to float, but no sign. I expected them to gather at one corner. I hope I’m wrong.

Introverts: timely articles from The Guardian and BBC. A significant part of my current troubles?

Frog’s Porn

Posted on 27th Mar 2012 by essiep

19°C, endless blue

I have a bucket of Frog Spawn from a colleague who brought it into work. You have to admire my ability to drive home with a bucket of water+ this spawn jelly stuff without spilling any. My pond will have fulfilled its destiny if they thrive into adulthood. There has been no algal bloom this year, good for the tadpoles. Perhaps a sign of good health in that little body of water.

This is a time of year that your aesthetic sensibility breaks out as if to desperately demand time in your mind. There is much work overload to block it out. I drove home listening to an Aria by Handel. The shapes made by that pure voice were delicious. Traffic was bad enough for some time watching a magpie hopping along a roofline in a manner like a weightless astronaut.

I need a holiday from work. the last one was demolished by the influenza. I felt cheated. Continue reading →

Gay marriage- where to draw the line

Posted on 25th Mar 2012 by essiep

17°C, no clouds. CR:68miles.

I’ve heard this challenge to Same Sex marriage a few times. Most recently from a colleague with some maturity & standing, though he does wear his Christianity as a badge (literally). The argument goes like this: If you allow same sex marriage, then what’s to stop someone marrying a donkey*, where will it end, where’d you draw the line (etc.).

*the animal suggested varies with each time the argument is used. Curiously, they never seem to choose an animal that mates for life. Perhaps they can’t think of one, or maybe that would weaken the strength of their case. Who knows?

It’s a surprisingly persistent argument for one so easy to dismiss.

The line is an easy one to draw- we use the same line that prevents forced marriage or underage marriage. The limit is defined by consent of the parties involved, plus societal norms. Marriage is a consenting union between adults. Neither donkeys nor children can give convincing consent to a marriage so they can’t, therefore, be married. So what problem can there be with a gay couple joining in a marriage with mutual consent?
The next argument that is trotted out sometimes is that it somehow, weakens the institution of marriage. No it doesn’t, traditional marriage remains unaffected. Straight marriage remains untouched and continues to exist as before.

Christianity plays some role in all of this, but don’t they have some idea about all men are created equal in the eyes of God? Clearly they’re not all equal in the eyes of the Church.

My remaining, unanswered question is – why would a gay couple want anything to do with a bigoted, homophobic institution like the Christian church anyway? After the way they have been treated in this debate and many before, I’d want to keep well away if I was in a position like theirs.

Bread

Posted on 24th Mar 2012 by essiep

4°C, very dense fog. Hot later.

Made bread. Okay, so I was given the bread machine over a year ago, but finally decided to use it. You can buy small packets of bread flour with yeast included. This solves the problem that put me off for that time- I have no kitchen scales.
Now the house smells gorgeous.

Today promises to be very warm, for now fog is so dense that visibility is less than 60 yards.

Break back in

Posted on 22nd Mar 2012 by essiep

12°C, dry & springy

To take a break from blogging and make a return is strangely difficult. Time is swallowed up by work-stress, that much is unsurprising. Coming back to make a post is not as easy as it you’d expect. I may put a few thoughts that have rattled around in my head for a week in retrospective posts here on WordPress.

Never Let Me Go

Posted on 18th Mar 2012 by essiep

11°C Sun CK:44 miles.

From the same writer who gave us Remains Of The Day, this is a sad but beautifully shot film with a rather forgettable name. For me, the film stood out for the feeling of inevitable doom, and a haunting resignation in the characters who knew and accepted their fate.
I loved it, but many commentators on the web have pinned it as a poor relation to the book. I tend to feel that this criticism is unfair. A book takes, what, fifteen hours to read? To compare with a film that lasts 90 minutes is no real comparison in my view. I’d have been happy with a longer cut than this, it could easily sustain a 2 or 2½ hour film.

Can you tell that I’m reluctant to give away any synopsis of this one, so make do with the trailer

VIDEO:Trailer

Is it happening again?

Posted on 10th Mar 2012 by essiep

8°C, clear

Jupiter and Venus blaze in the evening skies recently. They’re near to conjunction and are still striking to anyone who looks westwards.

I have a sticky throat. I shall be so annoyed of this develops into another cold. I’ve had a heavy cold followed by ‘flu this term already. Could it be early hay-fever? Beech and hazel trees to release spores at this time of year. So it could be…

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes