Ghosts of love

Ghosts of lovers past

Stalk my mind and dreams.

Golden haze of memories

Moments of passion.

Floating on clouds of infatuation

Dissolving into tender love.

Gratefully I carry my ghosts

With enduring love and gratitude.

Horse Wisdom

In the field next to our house there are three horses, a stallion and two mares. After my morning meditation I was watching them and words from Kahil Gibran's book The Prophet came to mind. The horses display affection to each other by licking and gentle pushing with their noses.

They also usually graze quite close to each other but when resting on the ground there is usually some comfortable space between them, although still close.

They reminded me of the words from the section on marriage." Let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of heaven dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls "

Edinburgh Galleries and Botanic Gardens

Just spent a couple of days in Edinburgh. I had a good look round the galleries on Dundas street. I was amazed at the prices some galleries were charging for work that I didn't find very good and again how modest some prices were for excellent work. I know art is subjective but it did seem those artists with lots of letters and maybe an OBE behind their name could charge up to £36000.00 for a very ordinary splashy painting. I admit I don't have an educated eye but I know what I like as they say!
It was also my first visit to The Botanical Gardens and I wasn't disappointed. Again I do not know a lot about plants but I felt the wonderful energy of the trees and the whole beautiful garden with birds and squirels. Vibrant and bursting with life.
Edinburgh itself is full of little cafes, bars  restaurants, all full with no discernable lack of money.

So bright.So big. So small.

The stars here in Scotland are so bright tonight.Venus and Jupiter were so close around the thirteenth of March as shown. Tonight they are not so close but much much more brilliant, So brilliant in fact that at first I thought it was a plane coming into Inverness. Than I realised it was not moving!
The night is quiet with the faintest whisper of wind on my face as I stand transfixed, marvelling at the immensity of the universe and my insignificance in it.

I am humbled and all my worries drop away.

This dog agrees.

As I was driving home from my family visit on Sunday a discussion on radio 4 caught my attention. Various religious luminaries were talking about the importance of certain aspects of worship. Some were of the opinion that it was important to remain within the boundaries of orthodoxy and others felt the boundaries were merely guidelines. One comment from one participant summed up my view on the argument.

" When dogma overrules love, religion is dead "

Links of blood and love.

I have just returned from visiting my family in Norwich. My granddaughter Isla is nearly one now and is full of joy and smiles as is the loving family unit. I am so proud of  Julian and Vicky who are both hardworking and good parents to Ben, Jayden and Isla. Ben was away during my visit so I unfortunately missed him this trip.

I also caught up with my old friends John and Peter with whom I spent a laugh a minute evening in a local hostelry. I even had time to visit my ex wife and her partner Jeff. Jeff and I had a cycle ride together which was very good for me after so much car driving.
I had a walk and talk with Julian on a beautiful spring day. We both value the opportunity to talk and reaffirm our closeness.

Wrinkly Rocker Completed

Finished ( maybe ) this portrait of Mick Jagger today. See if you can spot the difference. The skin tone looks better on the paper than in this photo.

I may revisit this for a little detail improvement but probably not as I am looking forward to my next portrait, the even more wrinkly and interesting face of Keith Richards.

Unfinished Knight

Had a very enjoyable afternoon with my art group and started this painting of Sir Mick Jagger which I will probably finish tomorrow.

Our group has been nicknamed SHAGS by Moray Art Centre where we meet. As we are all of a certain age we are not sure if this is entirely appropriate but on the whole we preferred it to the alternative WAGS. WAGS of course has association with wives and girlfriends ( of footballers ) even though in this case it stands for Wednesday Afternoon Group. In case you are wondering SHAGS stands for Self Help Art Group.



Did Yeats see Elementals?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCSePtGLl8Y 

From the Waterboys new albumn ' An evening with Mr Yates ' Do listen. The title is ' The Faery's Last Song '  This albumn is Mike's homage to William Butler Yeats.

Monty Python Moment

I wonder if this parrot is stuffed* or just trusting?

* Only members of the Gerry Active club will remember the dead parrot sketch, a Monty Python classic.

Euro Dizzyland

Dizzy must be the feeling of those unfortunate southern Euro Zone countries after being bludgeoned by the austerity hammer.

Surely Euro Zone leaders know default and devaluation is the only cure for some countries no matter how unpredictable the consequences?

There must be some hidden grand plan behind the present policies which will suddenly be revealed?The present policies are just a gigantic smoke screen and the leaders will suddenly announce an imaginative and statesman like solution?

Bermuda Beach Party

A departure for me. Painted very quickly without much attention to detail.