Brian the Turd is almost Finished...

We said goodbye to Pam and George today - let's hope they get home safe and sound and don't repeat what they did on the way out and miss their flight!  Bless them they sat for ages at Stanstead watching the display board which said 'Gate Closed' and they wondered when it would say 'Gate Open' - it cost them a change of ticket, train fares to Gatwick and an overnight stay in a Yo Hotel!!!  We shall miss them being up the road and wish George all the very best as he has recently been diagnosed with male breast cancer and he is going home to have a major operation and treatment to deal with the growth - hopefully he has had a good rest over the last six weeks - he certainly went home looking well.  I went to get an uptodate photograph of them both but my trusty Canon let me down as the autofocus stopped working - can you believe it, it stopped working on both cameras - must be something to do with the heat.  Fortunately John managed to get both of them sorted hence there is a photograph of me getting ready to go to craft at Jeannette's.  I can't believe that this time last week Vix came with me!

 

 

John and I have been desperate to get a photograph of the bee eaters and we know that they sit on the overhead cables on the road which runs past the Egyptians house.  Normally I am not prepared but today I had the longer lens on the camera and I free-wheeled down the road so that I could try and get a shot before they flew off.  The return of the bee eaters leaves me feeling a little sad as this is a tangible sign that summer is on its way out and winter is round the corner, but in some ways we are looking forward to lighting the log burner and snuggling up with the cats outstretched in front of the TV and some sort of stew bubbling away in the slow cooker.  We are saving our stash of fruit and nut which Vix brought over for those long winter nights when we treat ourselves to a square or two!

 

 

At craft today, which was very well supported, another sign that summer is over, my first project was some more coasters - this time I am doing a set of six using the tiles that I managed to get sent over via the internet.  Having done the tiling I am faced with grouting next week - deep joy!!!  John has just seen the photograph and he thinks I should do them with a black grout.

 

Another sure sign that the weather is cooling is that we can just about manage to be outside and do sculpting.  Today Pauline was starting on a new project and was attempting to do a lighthouse starting with a large rectangular block that will need a lot of work to get it 'knocked' into shape but I can imagine that when it is finished it will be fantastic because Pauline is such a talented artist and everything she does looks brilliant.

 

I decided to keep her company as I am keen to finish Brian the Turd and I am getting very close now.  I have the shell to finalise and the neck and head but I am worried to death that I am going to knock that off and end up with an 'interesting' shell - for which read TURD!!!  Whatever it ends up as it is going in the garden!!!

 

Brian is all but finished - I have left the final touches to next week.  Apparently I have to go over him with some fine sandpaper and then fill in any holes before he is sealed ready to go into the garden and then I need to go and get a bit piece of the aerated concrete so that I can start on something else - in fact John is quite keen to give it a go himself!!