marble paintings & more – lockdown 2 day 7

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Time to share some marble paintings I made the other day and forgot about. How do you forget about stuff you made? Well, you set it aside to photograph, then forget about it. Easy.

No need to adjust the screen. These ones are free-er and more watercolour-ey than my usual work which is a little more detailed. I like them though.

So, other than that what have I been doing? More errands with mom. And more errands for mom who forgot her walking stick in a store so I had to go back for it, and forgot to get some pills so I have to go back this evening to get them. Oh while I’m in town for the pills, I may as well swing by yet another supermarket to get something else she forgot she needed.

I had forgotten my shopping list when I went out this morning so didn’t get things I wanted, so figured thats ok, I’ll get them this evening. Then I’ll stay in all day tomorrow and not go anywhere AT ALL except to walk Lainee.

Then I remembered mom wants to go see her sister.

Sigh…………………………………………………

I miss being lonely…

Meanwhile, when I was making the bed yesterday I found an old sheet or something which was given to me as a gift a few years ago. It has the best embroidery on one end and I was going to make it into a curtain for my bedroom. No more visibility when I have the light on.

However I decided it would look just as good, if not better, as a temporary bed skirt to hide the suitcases I keep under the bed for storage. I plan to paint them all white when I get painting stuff out, but till then this works nicely.

Nice. Even a small change like that can make my day.

Note: I love my suitcases, but all white would look better.

The wild little kitten I took to the vet a few weeks ago with a severe respiratory infection is back. She was always very wild but she got so sick she let me pick her up! The couple in the end house cared for her till she got better and she hung around their place as they continued feeding her. She’d been living somewhere up the hill and disappeared when the couple returned to Athens. Thankfully she’s back and today ate some dry food I put out for her at the feeding station outside my place. Hopefully she’ll come down here to eat from now on and not disappear again. And hopefully she’ll learn to trust me so I can touch her and take her to the vet when she needs spaying.

Another cat without a name… though this one looks like a lemur with her striped tail so a good lemur name will be ideal. In the cartoon movie Madagascar one lemur is Julien but that’s wrong for a girl kitty… maybe Julia. Aye Aye is cute though… Any thoughts? I need two names that suit greeks too. One for the fluffy kitty and one for the kitten.

And I made another friend… How cute is this little guy?

z

gone to the cats – lockdown 2 day 6

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This is what I saw coming down the hill from my walk with Lainee this morning…

And here’s a closeup.

I don’t know these cats’ names, but I call them Fatcat on the left and Stubby on the right cause she’s a very small compact cat. Both very cute and sweet, they were waiting for me to give them a pat.

A bit further on I see Gringa waiting for me on the wall.

And the newest cat on the block. She doesn’t have a name. I took her in to be spayed about 2 weeks ago and she is gorgeous. She hangs around but never seems hungry enough to eat the dry food I put out so she’s obviously getting food from somewhere. She’s incredibly cuddly and purry.

Lastly Bob, who followed me the rest of the way home, cause she actually lives outside my place in a crate I have there (yes, Bob is a girl. If you can have a boy named Sue, you can have a female cat named Bob). She and Gringa and Cheeky cram themselves into that crate at night. They belong to my neighbour and greet me every time I open the door.

NMC (Not My Cat) is still around, though no longer sleeping on my patio. The girl cats made sure to let him know he’s no longer welcome there. But he’s here every morning for some breakfast of cat kibble.

Anyway, I have no finished projects to share yet but I have been busy. I’m working on a ton of things all at once – I’m making sculptures, experimenting with mixed media and have a couple of wood projects on the drawing board, What that means is that one day soon I’ll have a ton to share as each piece gets finished.

At least that will keep you interested!

z

i ate too much – lockdown 2 day 5

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Today I didn’t do much work. I mean creative work. I had a serious craving for vietnamese rice paper rolls so I put most of my energy towards that. I have coriander growing in a pot on my front patio and it inspires me to make thai and vietnamese food…

Oh, I also moved a couple of small bits of furniture around in the house, but that doesn’t really count.

I went to the supermarket, the grocer and a mini market to get the supplies I needed to make the rolls. And I spent a really long time on 3 phone calls.

But I did make the rolls, and they turned out amazing!

I’ve made them before so I already knew what I was doing. But I’d never made the peanut dipping sauce before. I’m glad I made it though, it really is the best way to eat the rolls.

This is the recipe I followed, very simple. And apart from having to have everything prepared in separate bowls to put together, really easy to make, even if you’re not sure how to roll them.

I made mine with prawns, some shredded leftover roast chicken breast, rice noodles, cucumber, lettuce, red pepper and carrot. And coriander of course. I skipped the avocado cause the only ones I found would have been more use as a weapon of mass destruction and cost more than I made in a hour at my last job.

End result: they were delicious. But maybe eating four of them was too much…

Meanwhile I’ve started another animal scultpure and worked further on one of the dogs… stay tuned.

z

brain dead – lockdown 2 day 4

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Enjoy a pretty picture of my cousin’s pink corner.

I love it. In fact I want it.

But that’s not what I planned to post about today. Today I wanted to post about being brain dead.

Seriously. My brain is stuffed. Or its leaking like a sieve… I’m not sure which. I’ve had to make calls today and I keep making mistakes. I mean, I’m not dialling wrong. I’m dialling one place and asking something unrelated to where I called. For instance I called the accountant and asked about travel to Australia. I called the council and asked details about my unemployment status. Next I’ll ask the Australian embassy about cutting down a dead tree on the road outside my place…

Brain dead. As I said.

So, having established that, here is a photo of the next two dogs I’m working on next to the rag dog I’ve already finished.

I think I’ll end it here for now. There are just too many things going on in my mind to actually make sense. And I have a few more calls to make. Hopefully the right info to the right people this time…

z

yogurt ‘ice cream’ – lockdown 2 day 3

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I’ve been promising to share my yogurt ice cream recipe for a while now and thought it was about time…

Before I get into specifics let me explain that I found this recipe in a magazine many years ago and made it, loved it, and have since been trying to make it less fattening and guilty making. So, basically, its not the original recipe any more!

So… originally the recipe called for 750g yogurt, 400g cream, whipped, 1 cup fruit, 1 cup icing sugar. You blend the fruit with the yogurt, add the whipped cream, freeze for 3 hours, then chop it up and blend it again. I can’t remember if it was supposed to be repeated, but I know that it was always rock hard when it was ready.

First time I made it I used raspberries. I had more than one cup, more like two and a bit, so thinking ‘more is better’ I added them all. Wrong. More is not better when dealing with fruit that has pips… The ice cream was amazing but I was constantly spitting out pips .Lesson learned.

The next few times I made it I experimented with using flavoured yogurts, my favourite being a fig yogurt I could get in Australia. For fruit I’ve tried tinned peaches, banana, figs, strawberries, rockmelon. I even tried coffee but don’t recommend it. Yuck.

By far the best flavour I found is banana and strawberry. Together,

On to the cream… when I first made it, in Australia, the cream was so rich and gorgeous it would coat the inside of your mouth. Okay, sounds gross, but I loved the richness of it. Here in Greece cream leaves a lot to be desired. Its like the thinnest of thin whipping creams in Australia and doesn’t have the substance or flavour. Whatever. The point of my experimentation is that I was trying to find a way to make the ice cream better suited to someone (me) who has no will power and is addicted to the stuff. I’ve tried just not making it, but then I crave ice cream… so better to make my own healthier stuff.

In the process of experimenting the first thing I did was use 1kg of yogurt instead of 750g cause I just buy the large tub. I’ve used 5% fat yogurt and 2%, and actually prefer the 2%. Having said that, let me just say that while cream might suck in Greece, the yogurt is out of this world. Better than the greek style yogurt can get in Australia.

Next thing I did was cut down on the sugar. In fact I’d cut down to 1/2 a cup sugar right from the start. Now I use honey.

So, I used more yogurt to cream… then I began cutting down the cream. To be honest, I’m now using no cream at all and it seems fine, even when using 2% yogurt. I can’t really tell the difference. The ice cream is no softer, I still have to cut it into slices and either wait for it to soften so I can eat it, or suck on it like its a popsicle. It really is hard as a rock.

Right. This is my recipe for frozen yogurt/ice cream.

Ingredients:

  • 1kg natural yogurt (no sugar added)
  • 2-3 ripe bananas
  • 1-2 cups strawberries (I use frozen when I can’t get fresh)
  • 1/2 cup honey (you can add more if you need or if the fruit isnt sweet enough)

Put the fruit in the blender and blend till smooth. Add in yogurt, top with honey. Blend till well mixed. Pour into a cake loaf tin and place in freezer. Remove in 4-5 hours and slice. Put in a freezer proof container and return to freezer. Serve slices as required. Eat without feeling guilty cause, like, yogurt is good for you!

How easy is that? You just use the fruit you have and mix it all up in one go, come back 4-5 hours later to slice up and its done!

z

a cat & AJ – lockdown 2 day 2

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Day 2 of lockdown and I achieved a lot.

Firstly I did some baking. I made a cake and some apple crumble. The cake was something I just felt like making. I hadn’t made a cake for ages. It was a plain butter cake but I’m thinking maybe it had a bit too much butter… I used the pure butter made here on Paros cause I was told it was the best for baking. Maybe it was too strong? Who knows.

The apple crumble is something I enjoy making in cold weather usually cause I love to have it as breakfast with yogurt. Yum. I made some more of my yogurt and fruit ice cream as well, cause I’m addicted to it. I promise I’ll share that recipe soon.

I did some washing (well, I just put it in the washing machine and hung it out to dry in the sun). Today was a lovely day, windy but sunny. I took Lainee for a short run on the beach and continued working on my cat project.

This is how the cat began – I started it at the same time as I started the rag dog. I made the body out of cardboard from a weetbix box, the legs and tail out of wire.

I’d been slowly building up the cat body using scrunched up paper, aluminium foil and masking tape, then layes of papier mache. Today I added the head and continued layering paper to give it strength. With papier mache I found that I build up as I need to, even trimming bits off when necessary as I did with the bulldog. I will most likely begin working with papier mache pulp for the next steps.

I had good company while working… I was watching country music videos on YouTube and there was a lot of Alan Jackson in there. I love Alan Jackson. Nothing better than good music and singing out loud while you work.

The cat begins to take shape. Its a slow process as it needs to dry between layers. In between I did other things – its always good to have more than one project on the go.

And, cause Lainee won’t leave me alone, here are some pics of her on the beach. She really is quite demanding… she thinks she’s the only thing I should post about…

She was so happy on the beach today. Its funny how Lainee has been coming out of her shell slowly. I’ve had her for 1.5 years now and it seems like every day she shows me a little more of her character. The first thing she began doing was playing on the bed after I’d had her for a few months, but would stop the minute I tried to join in. Now she wakes up and wants to cuddle and then plays with me. Its our special time.

Since the weather cooled down she’s begun jumping around and even running when we go on our walks. Today she ran up and down the beach. It fills my heart with joy to see her like that.

Well. Gotta go. More tomorrow…

z

lockdown. again. day 1.

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We’re in full lockdown again as of today. Alert messages that scare the crap out of you. Having to send an SMS every time we leave the house – only allowed to leave home for specific reasons. The codes that got the most use for me last lockdown were shopping (2) and exercise/walking the dog (6). This time i can add ‘assisting an elderly person/relative of the first degree’ to my list. In fact I’ll be using that in a few minutes to go see mom.

This time we added a curfew: no one out after midnight. Well, that was in force up to last night… maybe its earlier now? I don’t know cause I’m usually in bed by then anyway! I sure do live the life!

Lockdown comes as no surprise. We could see it coming a mile away. We went into preventative lockdown in March and we had amazing results with very few cases of COVID 19 and very few deaths. Our cases have reached about 3,000 per day now and the capacity of hospitals to cope with critically ill patients is being stretched. Decisions were made that people over 80 with other health issues would not be treated… Is it any surprise its come to this? Open borders with a pandemic in full swing and what did you expect would happen? Whatever…

I envisage my life will be the same as last time: Adding in one elderly mother I’ll need to shop for cause she’s still on Paros, not in Athens this time. I’ll post something every day, even if its nothing much, just to keep doing something positive. I’d already begun working on some stuff, but this is a great reason to kickstart creativity again.

Lets start with something I finished a couple of days ago, ie pre – lockdown… Sorry about the poor quality of the photos… this phone just doesn’t have as good a camera as my last one.

This little patchwork rag dog is a textile sculpture. His frame is wire and papier mache, then fabric in layers ending with the patchwork layer on top using the tiny scraps I can’t bring myself to throw away when I make something. I have a whole suitcase of small scraps…

I love his cute little face…

A closeup of the stitching. I’m not neat. But I like it that way! The entire outer layer is handstiched pieces and his feet are slightly padded to create toes.

Please excuse the bad photos. I really need to set up the camera and a ‘lightbox’ again. Somehow in this little box of a living room/kitchen/dining room/office/studio…

And here is a photo of the ‘real’ dog.

This is 8 month old Morty. He’s not the real model for the rag dog, but he’s pretty close. He’s gorgeous and doesn’t seem to realise he’s a 25 kilo lump of a dog so I got some GREAT cuddles. I miss my big dog cuddles…I adore Lainee, but a whole body hug is just something else.

z

oops i did it again

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I disappeared again.

Partly cause I had a minor existential meltdown. Partly cause the weather was still so good I had to continue swimming while working and attempting to create in my spare time. Partly cause I got lazy.

Mostly cause of the existential crisis.

I won’t bore you.

Let me just say that I have been creating, just very very slowly. I started a couple of sculptures a while back and one is standing still while I work on the other one. And its slow progress. Mainly cause I chose to finish it in fabric, so I have to sew every little bit on by hand. It takes a while.

I think I’ll stick to clay and glue next time. A mix of paper mache and whatever else I decide to add to each piece. I have ideas. Its time and energy I seem to be lacking…

Mind you. I have done a few things in the last couple of silent weeks.

I’ve socialized and been out to dinner and lunch a few times with friends and cousins.

I packed away most of my summer clothes and am still washing to put away the rest. Its funny to think that 2 days ago I was swimming and today I had to carry Lainee to work cause she wasn’t wearing her life vest!

I took down all the winter clothes and boots: hello Blundstones! I’ve missed you!

I cleaned Lainee’s teeth with the tooth scraper I ordered on ebay.

I found a rug I fell in love with, ordered it, was told it was no longer available (twice, from different stores) and called around till I found a store which had it in stock and ordered it again. I should have it next week.

I ordered a rice cooker. I miss my rice cooker. It just didn’t seem worth bringing it to Greece with me for some reason, yet its something I use a LOT.

I’ve been making (and eating) yogurt ice cream. I’m on the last batch before I share my recipe. Cause I’ve been experimenting to make it low fat and non sugar… while still maintaining taste.

I’ve cooked a couple of meals… its something I don’t do in summer and am still not doing as mom is always cooking and giving me food. In fact so much food I often don’t have time to eat it… Today I bought dill so tomorrow I’m making spinach pie. I told mom not to cook for me! I still have beets, fried red peppers and salad in the fridge from yesterday and today!

Moms are great, aren’t they?

I’ve been busy trying to organise some doctor appointments for mom and giving her things she needs now the weather is turning cool. I’ve loaned her my dehumidifier as the damp is bad for her arthritis. My small heater. A wool blanket. Some warm tops. Some warm socks. Some warm legging pants which will hopefully fit her – she’s so tiny now.

I’m still working thankfully. No idea how long for, but still going strong for now. Work while there’s work to do! I’ll be without work till next season soon enough.

Anyway, here is some island colour to brighten up your day since I don’t have much to say. Enjoy.

What can I say? I love the bright flowers and the old doors best!

z

summer days continue

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It’s been the best October ever. Like September used to be. Warm weather, not too hot, no wind at all most days. The sea is still warm and the beaches are no longer crowded. We still have more people on the island than is usual for this time of year, partly cause a lot of people who have houses here and no jobs to rush back to are chosing to remain rather than return to a big city rife with COVID 19 risks. There are also still tourists on the island, though not tons.

My routine continues much as it has all summer. I wake up, walk Lainee, take her to work with me, come home, change into my swim suit and go for a swim. Spend the afternoon doing something while watching Netflix or else doing nothing and watching Netflix.

Twice a week I bring mom up to my place for a visit. Twice a week or so I have lunch or dinner at mom’s. Every now and then I meet friends for a coffee somewhere. This last week Lainee and I had breakfast at an outdoor cafe and on Sunday I went to Alyki with mom for a swim and lunch. Its a little custom mom and I started a few years ago: lunch, just the two of us, at Alyki. A taverna right on the water. Just the way I like to eat: tzatziki, taramosalata, fried potatoes and fried zucchini. Yum.

There is so much uncertainty about almost everything right now. I have work till the end of October for sure, but if we get another big order maybe longer. I just keep turning up till I’m told there’s no more work for me. Then I wait till they’re ready for me to start work again some time next year…

Mom and my aunts are all still here, thinking of staying at least till the end of October. Why go back to Athens and lock themselves up in houses or apartments? Looks like at least half of them will winter on Paros this year. Puts a bit of a crimp on my workshop at my uncle’s place if he’s using his garage…

I’m really hanging out to use my power tools again. I’ve missed them all these months. I have some pallets I want to pull apart and make my shoe storage and the cupboard to keep linen in. Itching to get to work on the antique wooden couch too… at least paint it so its ready whenever I am to finish it off.

Travel is also iffy… my plans to visit my friends in Denmark and Norway keep getting put off to some vague date in the future. First it was to be March, then October, now… Christmas? Christmas in Germany for the markets with my dutch friend was cancelled for this year. Maybe next year… Who knows? If we get hit with another lockdown (entirely possible) I doubt I’ll be going anywhere. I mean, I might be willing to risk myself, taking all precautions while travelling etc, but what about mom and the others once I return? It really sucks.

Anyway, you know I love being on Paros and in my own home, surrounded by my own work, projects and hobbies. The problem isn’t there. Its that I have no idea what the future holds – with things the way they are its impossible to make plans in advance. Everthing is up in the air. And I really don’t like so much lack of direction in my life.

So I’ve made one goal for myself: soon as I stop working for someone else I will start working on my own projects full time. I’ll go back to painting on marble, making mixed media art, making art from trash, sculpture, and whatever else takes my fancy. I might even make a few new dolls. I’ll find a place to work and I’ll start working on projects which require space and power tools.

I might even start cooking for myself on a regular basis again! I made thai green curry last night. Its been so long!

And next summer I’ll plan an exhibition of my work, all the different kinds of things I like to do.

But first I need to find out if I need a registered business to exhibit.

Sigh.

Greek bureaucracy.

Wonderful.

z

labels on cubbies

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The other day I finally got around to making up some labels for the little boxes and cubblies I store odds and ends in. You may remember the hotel key box I made little drawers for, and the little boxes I bought from a bargain store in Athens. The idea being that I’d get my bits and pieces out of the suitcases in my bedroom and into spots that I could get at them easily (without having to lug suitcases out and dig through tons of stuff).

I basically wanted something similar to the cheap little cubby drawers I had in Australia. They were SO handy, so cute. Its one of the things I regret not keeping, but at the time I thought “they’re just chipboard and cardboard… why ship them to Greece?” … Well… cause you can’t get them here, that’s why! sigh…

The idea was great, till I realised I now have too many little drawers to memorise where things were. Its pretty time consuming to open every single little drawer to find what I’m looking for.

So I made up labels in an old typewriter font on my computer, printed them on plain white paper… glued the paper onto a thin sheet of cardboard, stained them with a used tea bag, then cut them into small tags. I then used a single hole punch to enable me to hang them off the drawers. I needed to be able to change tags when/if I changed contents of a drawer, but also didn’t want to hide the old magazines glued on the little cubby drawers.

I’m liking my little dangly tags. I put them on everything. Well, ok, not everything, there are still some drawers with nothing in them and some without tags cause I forgot to make a tag for that particular drawer…

But I’m getting there. That’s the take away I’m holding onto for this. I did something constructive.

Cause lord knows I needed to feel I achieved something some days. Every time I try to do something most of the time I get knocked back to square one. For instance:

I went to get money out of the bank for mom and discovered I hadn’t activated the card I got for her. Back to the start on that. A visit to the bank is necessary.

I went to pay my rates and found I need to change my PIN. All very well and thankyouverymuch greek bank for forcing people to change their pins every month… but when you can’t get it done easily on your phone using the app cause you need to go into a bank, log onto web banking (but haven’t set it up) or whatever… yep. Back to the drawing board on that too. A visit to the bank necessary.

I went to apply for a new greek passport. I need stuff I haven’t got. Still waiting on getting all that sorted.

I went to book a new ticket to Denmark (the trip that seems will never happen) cause they cancelled my flight, only to discover I needed to apply for a voucher. Did that. Got it. Now I’m not sure I’m going, or if I am, when…

Sigh.

Is it any wonder I need the occasional win?

z