Books - read, started, acquired in September

Rather than losing track of what I've been reading, or have lying around the house "somewhere" with intent to finish reading it, or have taken back to the library, the plan is to photograph the covers when books enter the premises, and perhaps write a note or two about them.

"Made in England" is fascinating - written in 1939, a record of a bygone age.
The others were found on the "2 for £1" table at my local charity shop: trees and
butterflies for the reference shelf. I've wanted and needed a tree book.
Nora Ephron's introduction to Heartburn, written years after the novel, is brilliant, the novel less so.

Repays slow reading. Lots of lovely images. My current breakfast book.

Of the crime fiction, Ian Sansom's grew on me, and Donna Leon is consistently good.
The language history is trying to do too much in a small book. Haven't read much of Silt Road.

Who knew sheep were so fascinating? I'm loving it.
Ed Yong's talk about bacteria (at RI) was SO good; haven't started reading it.
Micromastery is an interesting idea, and I've tried mastering the omelette,
but feel my "old" way is better....
Stephen Fry - "poignant, funny, intellegent, frank" and only 50p, why not?

Studio Saturday

What with one thing and another this week, such as not being able to use the camera on my phone ("low on memory"), not only have I not been to the studio, apart from a short visit late on Friday, but the production at home hasn't been photographed.

Record keeping is in a mess - images are needed, and it's not easy to tell from the written description which ones they might be; hence the need for a quick trip to see what was on hand and which pots missed out on being documented.

The forms I use have been updated, now that I know what info is needed, in what order, and they are easier to use. But I'm wondering if my coding/identification system could be simpler (ie, less confusing).

I'm thinking about how to collate the photos of an individual pot to show it at various stages. And - how to get good photos of the fabric pot and the finished pot, so that they could be used in further projects.

Also I'm thinking about the idea of transformation or metamorphosis, in terms of having a conceptual basis for these objects.

In fact it's more relaxing (is that the right word? less pressurised) to be involved in the making - the sewing, the dipping, the etc - than to have all these thoughts rattling around all the time!

Making continues, and on Friday I was able to take a few photos...

Halfway there for the new fabric pots

All in a dither for keeping track of what was done with which

This one needs its "passport photo"

These four were dipped last week but have no record

Oh crikey, which was which, or was one something different altogether?

After a lifetime of working in admin in some way, or jobs that need a degree of organisation and paper-shuffling, I find myself daunted ... if this was a paid job, I'd surely be sent for re-training by now! Or "moved sideways"...

Photo flurry

And now, all of a sudden it seems, my phone is full of photos, there's no more memory. I am archiving and deleting. And trying to empty the bin!

Emptying the bin has to be done a few items at a time, otherwise the phone gets stuck and needs to be turned off to have a little rest and consider the error of its willful ways. Tsk, tsk. 

I'm feeling a bit willful myself - hence the fixation on sorting out albums etc - and am starting to wonder why I'm not taking the easy way out and "obeying" the instructions on the phone. Once the photos are backed up in The Cloud, they can be archived and "you'll still be able to view them at any time". But given the problems with emptying the bin, I just don't trust The System....

Meanwhile there is no spare memory on the phone, and my efforts at archiving (10% have been archived this morning) seem to have had no effect. It's "interesting" to be unable to take photographs, especially of the pots in progress. Which is why there hasn't been progress on pots this week! I've been doing other things instead....

Tour of Emery Walker House in Hammersmith (website has a virtual tour; no photos allowed in the house; I sketched while listening) - downriver is Hammersmith Bridge, where his partner in Doves Press famously disposed of the type and molds for the Jensen typeface, what a story! Dorothy Walker lived in the house till her death in the 60s, and her companion till 1999, so it has original wallpaper and many other "William Morris" furnishings, as well as a lot of ceramics the family picked up on their travels, especially to Morocco. 

Talk at Geological Society -

Visit to Intaglio Printmaker for a look at supplies, brushes, etc for Japanese woodblock printing -

 Looking at the big, bright, haloed harvest moon -

... and the clear morning sky -

 A talk on Paula Rego's drawings (at Marlborough Gallery till 27 Oct)

Contemporary prints at Sotheby's (getting the room ready for the auction next day) -

 ... and some by Rembrandt, also Picasso ceramics

To Kew Gardens ... lovely combinations of plants in the renovated Temperate House -

Now, domestic chores and trying to make some room for future photos on the phone, and organise them so things can be found. 

Possibly a hopeless task, but worth a try. The plan (ah yes, there is always a plan!) is to do it a month at a time, starting a year ago. And here are the projected steps, lest I forget...

First, delete the sloppy stuff - blurs and duplicates. Note to self: be ruthless! or at least try to be ruthless. 

Second, do "big chunks" - multiple photos from exhibitions, for example. Walks. Courses / workshops. Those go into albums and then those pix are archived immediately. After that, go into the folder and add text (use the Tt icon) - what the show was, where the walk was, etc.

It may be possible, with Edit Album in the menu, to move pix around ("Select photos and drag to reorder") so that the most relevant/interesting/best/favourite are at the start, but that refinement will have to wait till the rough stuff is done.

It takes a long time to go through the photos (my phone holds about 19,000), but there are lovely surprises, and it's a pleasure to look back to this time last year ....

September 2017
After digging out all the deep roots and discussing the
placement of paving stones, it was such a pleasure to get
plants into the ground

September 2018
Some of last year''s plants survived and some even
self-seeded; it's a work in progress...

Addendum

A quick search found on "How do I delete photos from my phone but not Google Photos?" found this -

Delete selected device copy photos from the device in the photos menu

1. Open the Google Photos app on your mobile device .

1. Select one or more photos that are on the device.

1. At the top right, tap on the "3 dots" menu icon.

1. Select Delete Device Copy.

This may be the halfway-house solution that I subconsciously yearned for. But first I want to think carefully about why photos need to stay on the phone - what further use would they get - and thus, what subjects or situations could do with deleting. All those photos of gardens and plants, are they of interest to anyone but me ... and I have them on the computer ....

A Letter in Mind

The 2018 show of works on envelopes is up, at Oxo Gallery, but only till 30 September (open 11-6). All works in this fifth annual National Brain Appeal fundraiser are priced at £85 and the proceeds benefit the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen's Square. 

You can also see the works in the online gallery and buy via the website. 

Glowing colour for the felted sheep

A 3D, knitted, portrait of portrait painter Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun

More variety

More 3D - the red thread of connection

Some of the artists were definitely thinking "out of the envelope"

Red dots have started appearing

Click on the images for a better view

My contribution is number 183, displayed to reveal its contents - 

(centre of top shelf)

but the joke is that, for the theme of A Way With Colour, the envelope is black and white, with the word "green" (as in Green Park) among the travel lines. (Can't believe I didn't photograph that little detail!)

Last year's contribution (theme: a sense of place) also used travel lines, but freshly written on deadline day.

A walk on the wild side - Bond Street

So delighted to see Elizabeth Frink's "Horse and Rider" is back on view. It used to be surrounded by cafe tables on a corner opposite the Ritz on Piccadilly, and now has an admirable space on Bond Street. It's had a jolly good clean-up, though the perching pigeons will no doubt find it soon enough -

This unnatural environment does have other hints of the natural world, if you look carefully -

Drawing Tuesday - Horniman Museum

We happily spent time in the refurbished "World" gallery - a treasure-trove of amazing objects -

 and an interactive floor! -

Upstairs, this case had interesting things too - I was amazed by the Serpent Pipe - was it actually used for smoking? -

 ... and downstairs found a harpoon and traditional Inuit clothing -

Jo and Janet K also "visited the cold north" -

Waterproof gut parka, with mask, by Jo

Dolls, 12" high, by Janet K

whereas Judith headed for the desert -

 and Sue found a tribal mask -

 Carol collected "small things" from here and there -

 Najlaa collected patterns -

 Janet B found various birds -

Extra-curricular activities -

Sue took her sketchbook on holiday to Corsica -

 Judith brought along a giant, knitted cockroach -