Category: Uncategorized (Page 6 of 20)

I have been asked for an update on the rat infestation I had in my kitchen. Sort leave you all in suspense like that, but the rat has gone, and this is how it happened….

To preci the situation. The cat had brought the rat home then had no more to do with it, we were unable to catch the thing, and it managed to settle in, opening all the packets in the cupboards whilst subsiding on a diet of cats food, which it also stock piled around the place. It was living under the floorboards somewhere, possibly under Eva’s wardrobe.

I had tried blocking its hole when it was out visiting the shops, but it had alway shifted the blockage and got back to bed. Eventually I blocked the hole with wire wool, which did the trick, and it took up residence in its old haunt in the refrigerator.

At this point my master plan could be implemented. I did not want to kill the poor thing, after all it was not its fault that it was in the house, it was a mere plaything for the cat. I had been trying to catch it in a “humane” trap, weird that word “humane” its not people being trapped, only our sensibilities being offended. Poison had been ruled out because of the potential smell of a decaying body, and the break-back trap was part of a future artwork so I didn’t want it stained.

The master plan involved building a wall. There are no Trump connections, the wall was only 3 foot high and made of cardboard, but it did lead from the fridge to the back stairs. With the wall in place the fridge was pulled out and the rat was off. It bounced from wall to wall and down the stairs, followed by Odanis and myself, this was not with out the requisite shouting for a major wild animal hunt, the door was opened and…

…and, well the rat stayed on the threshold looking out and sniffing. It was the start of winter, and the rat was coming from a warm home, with all mod cons, and being thrust into the cold outdoors, even if it was on a full stomach, it even turned to look at me with a tear in its little black eye. A gentle nudge with the foot had it off down the garden path, at which point the cat got interested again, noooooo. I could see it all before me, the catching the thing and rushing back up the stairs and it starts all over again. So the cat was grabbed and removed from the scene and the rat was seen no more, dead or alive.

Well it has turned into 2017 and its time for an update. So much for my regular updates. I appear to be somewhat tardy in my dedication to this blogging business.

2017 and a new year, the E17 art trail occurs this year, I turn 70, and I’m trying to have a one person show, don’t laugh.

In the Arts Trail I will be having all my mobiles hanging from the ceiling of Gnome House in the Inky Cuttle fish studio. One of the mobiles will feature Swifts, as part of the wetlands swift project.

St Barnabus will be hosting a participation scheme on a theme of building bridges, part of the campaign for migrants and against racism. It’s one to get involved in, a participation event, and put your engineering and architectural skills to the test.

Mitre Studios will also be open at some point, I’m not sure what will be there, but it will include working progress, both prints and sculptures.

At some point I will be thinking about having a party what with me turning 70 and the Russian revolution 100. But I don’t know when, possibly at the end of August or September.

I was also tying to put on and open exhibition on a theme of “windmills and bridges”, to help commemorate Frank Brangwyn’s 150th birthday. But as it seems impossible to hire the Winns Gallery, good old LBWF, I don’t know if that will happen. For those of you that don’t know about Brangwyn, an apprentice to Morris, he was one of the 3 people who set up the William Morris Gallery, or to give it its full title “The William Morris Gallery and Brangwyn Gift’. The other two were Haygate Mackmurdo, a friend of Morris, and Walter Spradberry, a local artist and the driving force to setting the place up.

The current exhibition at the WMG features Brangwyn and his relationship to the art of Japan, not to be missed.

On the one person show front I have booked Pictorem for August. I’m glad 2016 has gone, but only for a very personal reason.