Carved in Stone - update

At the weekend I visited Black Rock, a much loved destination from childhood.  My son loved it as much as I remember loving it as a child.  Whilst I was there I took a closer look at some of the fine detail and the effort put in many of the engravings on the rock face and I was amazed.  There are some beautiful and almost profound inscriptions left for posterity.  I wish I had a photograph, but the next best thing is to link you to an image I found on flickr.

Trolls or Hippopotamuses?

As a child I found the Moomins television series quite scary.  I didn't understand the story lines and they always seemed quite dark.  Now I am older I am very fond of these characters and although I wouldn't choose to watch an episode of Tove Jansson creations, in animated form, I do appreciate the simplicity of the characters she created but I am confused as to why they are said to be a family of trolls when clearly they are a family of hippopotamuses, are they not?

One of my paintings

I used to paint quite a lot but I don't any more.  Its one of those 'I like doing it... but I'm not really sure if I'm any good at it' sort of hobbies.  But why should that stop me?  I don't think it will any more.  Committing this to my blog may now encourage me to pick up my brushes again.  What do you think?

Carved in stone

As a child I tried on several occasions to etch out my name on large boulders and rock faces always ending up with a chalky line when I could see people like 'JAG + JO' (albeit in slightly angular font) managed to seemingly effortlessly carve the deepest letters, as if writing in butter with a hot knife.  Obviously I now no longer try to deface the natural environment but it would be nice to leave my mark.  Although in retrospect I'm glad I don't have to look back on my name in the same classy fashion as JAG + JO.

Artistic stone masonry is just amazing take the 'Seed' carved out of a piece of 300 million-year-old Cornish granite by Peter Randall-Page at the Eden Project or the works of Isamu Noguchi or Andy Goldsworthy for instance who's master-pieces have amazed visitors at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the past few years.  I am truly in awe of such amazing pieces of sculpture.  But honestly where do you start? I certainly don't think these guys started out by attempting to carve their name at Blackrock?

The Mind of a Child

It always amazes me when a child does or says something unexpected.  Today my son drew a picture of Colin.  I won't go into who Colin is suffice to say he is of average height and evenly proportioned more or less.  But my son obviously see's him in a different light.