15/05: ALLSORTS OF STUFF

Its been a busy day (again) and a real mixed bag of weather.

This morning we went to the Air Ambulance HQ.   David (hubby) is a volunteer speaker for the Charity - his normal fundraising  'sessions' involve talking to business groups, retirees, ladies clubs etc about the wonderful work that the charity does.     Actually, I think everybody loves Air Ambulance - its a service that means life or death (literally) for many accident victims so people are always happy to 'dig deep' into their pockets/wallets for this wonderful cause.

David agreed to stand in for a volunteer who is sick and 'man' a fundraising stall at a small dog show this weekend.  He's roped me in to help him and I'm hoping that (a) the weather will be kind to us and (b) that I'll be able to get a few photos for my ref. photo files - I believe this is a Beagle dog show - such a lovely breed!    We have a table and some small advertising/gifts (keyrings etc) to sell.  We've also been provided with a small gazebo which will keep us dry in the event of rain (but isn't robust enough to withstand strong winds - so fingers crossed)!!

Here's a photo I took of one of the helicopters on standby today

I've been doing some tidying up of all the stuff I've stored over the years at Roxy's stable yard .... much of it won't ever get used again so I've put a mountain of things 'up for grabs' if any of the other horse owners want it.  Lots went to the Tip and some will go to 'Riding for the Disabled' charity another day.      Roxy has been retired for more than 6  years and I have no wish to have another horse after her ... I'm still storing her saddle and bridle (superstitiously I feel something awful will happen if I get rid of those just now).   

As you can see from the helicopter photo - we started out in sunshine .... by the time we got to the stable yard and I was tidying up there, and grooming Roxy the sky got blacker and blacker ...

and we had rain, hailstones and thunderstorms shortly after .... this is the middle of May and temperatures are more like March I think!

anyway,   I tried to photograph a coloured pencil drawing I've been struggling with.  This is a picture of 3 whippets I photographed at a Dogs Trust Fun Day a couple of years ago - Mum and 2 daughters.   Its my first cps drawing on MountBoard and I've had problems and not very happy with progress.   I selected this reference specifically to fit an octagonal/oval shaped mount/frame I have at home but really not sure if it works.  I need to get the back off the frame and fit it all together before making a final judgement. .....   will post more about it in a few days

The light isn't great but basically this is the drawing

I'm not au fait enough with photo-manipulation packages to draw the shape of the mount/frame but managed to get a simpler one - just to give an idea of where the crop would be

Right ... enough for today/tonight.

We'll be doing our Wednesday stint at Pilgrims Hospice eBay office tomorrow.    Hope to make a start on a coloured pencil entry for the UKCPS International Open Exhibition (Nuneaton) on Friday.  Deadline is July so I need to get cracking PDQ!!