Monday, August 9, 2010



It is pitch black here already by 10pm now, so when I went to bed yesterday around that time I could see nothing when I had turned out the light. I always have an open window during summer (with a mosquito net :-) ) so I like to listen for all sounds out there for a while. The only thing I heard last night was the sound of grasshoppers and katydids. Sometimes I can hear an owl or two if I´m lucky.






I then realised that I have troubles hearing the sounds from the katydids with my right ear. I always use ear protection at work and have always done so, so this must be a normal aging thing. The sound is made in such a high frequency that when as one gets older it´s more and more difficult to hear them. I got a bit sad there for a second or two because I will miss it once it´s gone.





I don´t know if I only had dozed off or if I was sleeping, but suddenly I heard a loud screaming noise. Have You ever heard a hare scream when a fox gets it? It is creepy because it sounds much like a human scream and that was what I heard last night. It´s not a good thing to wake up to that sound I can tell You. It took a while until I realised what it was, but my heart kept beating hard for a long time afterwards :-)


If You click on this photo to make it bigger You can see a dark shadow in the and of this road, just over the gree string of grass. Since that place is close to where I heard that raccoon like sound yesterday I got a bit curious.

But it turned out to be this deer that You can see in the middle of this photo, just where the light green grass meets the darker green trees. You have to click on the photo so it gets bigger to be able to see it.


I woke up to a foggy, damp and quiet morning. Not a sound could be heard and only my closest neighbour was up since he has to go to work. I love walking around in fog even if I finally get so wet that it´s unpleasant :-) There are no sharp edges and the light is creepy in a way. I can see shadows moving around and it can be an animal but it can also just be the fog. Those times I feel like I´m the only one living.





It´s still rather silent outside. I can hear the warnings sounds from some birds in my garden. I guess it´s Teodor out hunting. They would never even have noticed Bertil, he´s a too good hunter for that. I can also hear a moped passing by my cottage. It´s a neighbour that is about to fetch his morning paper. He really could walk, the distance isn´t that far to be honest, but he just loves that moped of his :-)





I promised Didi I would show You some of my drawings I´ve made long ago. Well I promised to show her really but since You all can see my photos I´ll allow all of You to look at them :-) :-) :-) I usually throw away everything I´ve drawn because I always find something wrong with them. But for some reason I have saved these. I also draw a rose yesterday and I´m really not happy with it. It looked ok until I started the shading of it. Personally I think it looks like a piece of meat that someone has walked on. In my defence though, I haven´t been drawing for a long time.






Well, now it´s time for a cup of tea and some breakfast. Today I have to papers to read because they don´t deliver the Sunday paper here on Sunday mornings. I live to far away from Falköping for that.

Have a great day now!

 
This is the rose I tried to draw yesterday. I´m not happy with it at all. I did try to draw a rose perhaps a year ago, but that came out so bad no matter how I tried that I stopped to draw again. GThis one, however bad, does give some hope that I might be able to draw decent once again.
 
No, this is not Jesus :-) It´s actually from an old commercial for Ecco boots. I didn´t like the boots so I never drew them :-) I unfortunally failed with his face, but the rest is ok.
 
I think this was a one or two summers popstar. They come and go so fast that it´s impossible to remember them for any longer time :-) It´s decent as a drawing I think.
 
This might also be a one summer popstar but it might also be anyone I found a photo of :-) There´s much I like to change here. Even if the eyebrowses should be thin back then they would look much better as thick. The ears isn´t good nor are her lips. But for some reason I´ve saved this one too.
 
 

24 comments:

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Well...I thought you did well with your drawings.. all of them. Do you think everyone can draw like that?? NOT on your life! Always keep your work..and then you can eventually see the gradual improvement and it's a good feeling. Keep drawing...do something every single day..even if it's just a little. "Practice makes perfect" is an old saying that as usual..is SO true.

The photo's are beautiful too. Especially the dogs!! :)

Briefly...one night some months back, a horrible scream happened right in our bedroom at the foot of the bed. Both Howard and I sat bolt upright saying "what's that!!??" It took a long time for us to calm down. It's horrifying.
I know how you must have felt. That is enough to make one's heart pound!
It really happened and it was right in the room because it was recorded on our voice activated tape recorder. (Howard had been having trouble with his breathing at night, so we caught the scream on tape! Isn't that wierd??
Still scares me to think about it.

Thanks for your positive thoughts for Howard. I appreciate that! Your comments always make me smile! Glad you liked my garage sale bowls! :)
Mona

decareis said...

Christer good day
Would comment your pictures, but seeing their designs have changed my focus! hehehehehe
Who said you're not an artist? Outside the clay, you still draw? How cool! Being an artist is this, do have that!
Draw the face is what is most difficult.
But it's pretty cool, I would have half his talent for drawing.

Regarding your photos, they got soul! That's what differentiates your photos a great photographer.
Here I love hearing the sound of birds, agree with it then great, but I have friends who know when they arrive here at home just want to put loud music (I've been so, while living the big city, but it was not heard birds) .

As your hearing, even working with guards would be advisable to make an audiometric annually because what we call the acoustic trauma is nothing more than treble the loss initially, common in people who are exposed to constant noise or a blast, already presbycusis would call a hearing loss of old age, but I think you still are new to this.
See you soon.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
I thankfully never compares with other peoples drawings, that would drive me nuts :-) :-) Perhaps it´s a scandinavian thing since we live under "The law of Jante". This "law" is unwritten rules on how the society should work and they have been lived by here in scandinavia for centuries. They are as follows:
1.Don't think that you are special.
2.Don't think that you are of the same standing as others.
3.Don't think that you are smarter than others.
4.Don't fancy yourself as being better than others.
5.Don't think that you know more than others.
6.Don't think that you are more important than others.
7.Don't think that you are good at anything.
8.Don't laugh at others.
9.Don't think that any one of us cares about you.
10.Don't think that you can teach others anything.
11. Don't think that there is anything we don't know about you.

Thankfully the grip of these rules are getting looser these days.

That scream must have been terrible! It´s bad enough when it´s outside! I wonder what it could have been? I do hope You don´t have to hear it again!

Take care now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Andrea!
I used to draw a lot when I was younger, but then the internet came and I never got the time to draw :-) But it is fun when I manage to draw something good.

But if You ask a professional artist they don´t like those who draw or paint realistic, they look down on them and call them Illustrator :-) :-) Mostly because they can´t draw themselves :-) :-)


I´m glad You like my photos!

The fun thing is that while I lived in the big city I usually could hear so many more different birds than I can here :-) Cities are full of places for birds to put their nests protected from other animals. But I love to listen to them all and all the insects too.

I think we actually soon will have an audiometric via my job. I´ve had them before and my hearing has been good. But this I´m afraid is the beginning of aging :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I didn't hear that scream. It would bother me forever. Sad. A life is gone forever. Nice photos Christer, I love the fog too. And I think your drawings are really good. Keep them.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I´m glad that I have heard that kind of scream before :-) :-) It really sounds like a human :-) But the fox needs food too.

I love taking photos in fog. Everything gets a bit mysterious then :-)

I´ll be saving the old ones, since I have this far. But the rose, don´t think so.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
I've heard rabbits cry when something gets them. It sounds like a human baby.
One day I heard a pleasant sounding whistling song coming from my back yard. When I went to check, my terrier pup had gotten a shrew. She didn't know how to kill yet so she was playing with it. It was making the sound. I got hold of the dog and the two of us watched the shrew recover and take off into the nearby stone wall. About a week later I heard the whistling noise again but it was cut off a second later. My pup had gotten that shrew or a different one but this time she had figured out what to do. From time to time I will hear that whistling song out in the woods. It's a pleasant sound unless you know that it's a shrew singing it's death song.
Raccoons make the loudest, creepiest racket I've heard so far. Now we have fisher cats, a type of weasel, and they scream at night. What with the deer, hawks and coyotes, my thickly settled community is getting quite wild. :-)
Have a great day. Hope the fog clears and the sun comes out.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer....i think that the scream of bunnies is one of the most awful ever!!! they scream like little kids and it is unnerving to say the least. i think your drawings are very good. i give my stuff away as fast as i create it. artistic ability is so strange. some people are awful and call themselves artists. some people are so talented and hide their art. it is a very personal thing. what time is it getting light in the morning for you now? it gets dark here now about 8:45 in the evening and the sun comes up around 6:45.

ana_didi said...

Hi Christer,
I love fog :) Of course, happens a little in the big city. But I always vacation in a very cold town called Campos do Jordao and there was frequent. So I went alone to wander through the fog. And today as I think even funny, being a person of a big city, I had no fear at all. The mist gives me a great feeling of peace. And that's how I feel when viewing your photos.
As for his drawings you have been kind enough to display.
They are not terrible as you made me think. I think to be very good for those who do not practice with frequency.
Even the rose is a rose and not a steak :)
Drawing is really a matter of practice. Train the look, train your hand. And the rest is to do with joy.
I want to use the word "affection" to describe the feeling but do not know if it will make the same sense in English.
Some of those rules that guide the way to live in your part of the world, seem cruel.
Some are good, because remember that modesty is always better than arrogance.
But some of them need to be changed after all we are all special and important, because each is a unique human being
We are all in the same situation, living in the same planet, so we'll take care of each other and the planet. We can always be good to do something and we can further improve.
Laugh at yourself and others may be with respect, laughter brings people together.
Anyway, now I understand a bit more than I know about the Swedish people.
I have friends who live there. One is Brazilian, and the other two are Swedish brothers who were born in Falkoping coincidentally, despite not living there anymore. I have for them a deep feeling, people are kind, cheerful, who had conquered my friendship and affection.
I talked too much today :)
kiss
Didi

Chris in the Emerald City said...

Walking in the dim morning fog is simply magical! My morning runs don't compare - although there are forests and wooded areas here and there along my route, it is still just mainly residential streets.

We heard what we thought to be a bobcat taking a fawn during the night a few years ago - very unnerving, sounded just like a human child.

Your drawings are very nice! You have a good eye for it. Please don't throw any more of them away! I know how you feel, though. I am a compulsive doodler, nothing worth saving - in my mind; but my husband takes them out of the waste basket. Not sure where he puts them, though. He also takes a car to get the newspaper each morning! He found a old salvage Honda Hobbit (like a moped) in fairly good shape last year, but found he could get lots of $$$ selling the vintage parts on ebay. He regrets parting with it.

Have a great day!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
The hare sounds more like a grown up woman. Not a sound Yoy want to hear in the middle of the night :-) :-)

Our shrews doesn´t have that sound it´s more like pulling a fork on a china plate :-) very squeeky. I had a parrot once that gave up the most beautiful sound when it died though.

I looked up fisher cat when You wrote about them over at Kat´s. They look very much like gigant martens actually. But I have never heard a marten make a single sound. Beautiful animals both of them. But the Fishe cat is a bit to big I feel.

The fog has stayed all day and now it rains heavily too :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Since the hare is a bit bigger it sounds like a grown up woman screaming. Nasty to hear any time, but even worse at night! I´m glad that I know what it´s all about otherwise I would have to get out and search for that poor person :-) :-)

I´m destoying most of what I do direktly, so there´s not a chance for someone to ask for it :-) :-) But I agree with You, some are really awful and call themselves artists even if they don´t have a clue to what they are doing. They also often look down on people that actually knows what they are doing! Jealousy I guess.

The sun got up 5:14 am today and will go down 9:06 pm. But it is light outside an hour later and gets dark around 30 minutes later in the evening.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
Lets start with those rules. It was a way that the nobility could keep the people calm and have things the way it always had been here. If nobody tries to achieve more in life nothing changes. But thanks to our immigrants times are changing thank good!

It´s funny but You are right about feeling safe when walking in fog :-) It´s like walking in a world of cotton and everything is soft and nice :-) :-)

I must have liked those old drawings since I sawed them. It does take a lot of practice and I haven´t been drawing for many years. Perhaps I´ll start once again :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Chris!
I always expect a gnome or other creature to come out of the forest when I´m out walking in fog :-) But none has shown so far :-)

We have bobcats here and they got a deer in a neighbours garden and they too said it was a trerrible sound. I was sleeping so heavy that I didn´t hear a thing thankfully :-) Really unpleasant sounds to be honest.


Well I can´t promise anything when it comes to not throw away any more drawings :-) But I´ll bare it in mind though.

Why can´t I find that interesting things? All I find is garbage :-) :-) I wonder how I would have done. I´m way to lazy to sell anytning on ebay, so it would probably stand somewhere here and collecting dust :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

So your brother isn't the only artist in the family!!!
Keep at the drawing it seems you have a knack for it and it will get better with practice.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Woody!
I used to draw quite a lot back in the days, but it has been a couple of years since I made something to be honest. I think I might give it a try once again :-)
Have a greast day now!
Olof.

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
Further thoughts on how you feel about your drawings. I'm a knitter. When I knit stuff for people they think my work is wonderful but all I can see are the mistakes. It's because I've been looking at it too closely. When I see the item after 6 months or so I think, yeah, I did do a great job on that.
Sometimes the artist isn't the best judge of his own work until some time has passed.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
I think You have a point there! I do like these old paintings much better now than I did when I drew them. But I think I do need more than six months, I have a realöly good memory :-) :-)
Take care now!
Christer.

Chris in the Emerald City said...

About that last item in my post, I don't think the pole originally goes with the base either. The white plastic pole definitely must go away!

Take care!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Christer, we had fog here this morning too, but looking out my back yard was not nearly as nice as your walking through the woods. My view was of the roofer working on a neighbor's home.I have a story as well. Before we moved to our home full-time, we used to commute here from NJ on weekends sometimes to do painting and renovations. In the warm months we would hear loud sounds that sounded like screams and we were confused. Later we found out that the neighbor's fish pond had some frogs in it that made the sounds. They stopped awhile ago and the the neighbor no longer has the pond.

While I didn't post any fog photos, I did post a sunset one today and practiced inserting a link in the comments section, so here it is. Take a look at my sunset shot

Cindi Myers said...

I really like your drawings. I used to get upset if my drawings didn't look exactly like the real thing but then I thought to myself, if it looks exactly like the real thing then why not just take a photo of it? Most of my paintings are done in a folk art style I guess. I'm self-taught and I just let it come out as it comes out. I always not completely happy with whatever I paint but other people seem to like it, so I will go on creating and trying new things. But what about your photos!?
OMG! Usually they are so beautiful and make me smile but these of the fog...they are so beautiful and yet they scare me a little! Looking at them and thinking about you hearing that scream! It was so vivid in my mind as I look at your photos....I felt like I was caught up in a suspense movie! You are SO TALENTED and I don't think you even realize it!
Take care, Cindi

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Chris!
So it is plastic. I wondered if it just had been painted white :-)
Take care now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Cindi!
I don´t think that it should look just like the real thing, but it must at least look real. Like the one I call "No, this is not Jesus" most of it is quite ok, but his face is really bad and that irritates me a lot. But I must have liked it enough to save it anyway :-)

Fog makes everything look a bit mysterious :-) Not strange that people believed that there were things out there like gnomes. When a scream like that happened when the fog came, naturally it must be one of those mysterious beings making it.

I really like Youre scary little cat :-) It is so cute :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Beatrice!
It seems this comment got stuck in a junk comment file I didn´t know I had.

So frogs can scream like that too!! It´s awful hearing sounds like that when one doesn´t understand what it is :-) :-) Our frogs just sounds very nice :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.