march06

Other than art once again I've been absorbed in music. I recently got some cd's from Napalm Records... Falkenbach,
Iuvenes and Rivendell. Each band has qualities which are similar, a mix of viking/folk/epic metal. I suppose only my
fellow metal fans would understand what I'm talking about here. :) Yesterday I was listening to the doomy sounds of
Saturnus and writing some poetry.

It was once suggested to me that I should have a guestbook. But the reason I don't is because occasionally when I
look in guestbooks of other artists (or any site for that matter), the comments are often so lame. Okay, some
guestbooks are filled with compliments but even those can be pretty unintelligent and witless. And when I come across
negative remarks, some downright rude, I often wonder why someone would want that as part of their website. It just
lowers the tone. I figure if anyone wants to say anything, they'll drop me an email. Some people who have emailed me
have thought I was male. (I think I mentioned this before). It's a little funny. It's the simple fact that not many female
artists portray male nudity. And for me, it's not a sexual pursuit, just a natural expression.

We got a light snowfall here today. I hope it's the last of the season. I don't like the snow. It's dangerous to drive in, it
makes the cold even worse and snowballs get chucked at my windows by the neighbourhood brats! >:(

Oh yeah, I've been in the process of redesigning my Links page. I'll be including the links for the artists I mentioned in
my February entries (ie: the fairy sculptures). And I did receive an email from the lady concerning her "boyz in the
wood" and yes, the site is still under construction so if you visit the site, you'll find some pages incomplete.

It's been a fairly creative month and I've been working on some projects though so far I've not added anything new to
my site since my last update on the 7th Feb. I mentioned before that I was thinking of changing the backgrounds for
my pages and did an illustration, but I think it may be too elaborate for just a background border. I may turn it into a
painting. I'll put the piccy here once I've scanned it. It's still a work in progress and needs a few minor adjustments. I
haven't as yet started any new paintings.

The past few days I've been sketching some ideas for
the new backgrounds I want for my site. Occasionally I
struggle with drawing and spend hours on a simple
sketch, but these all came out real easy and quickly.
The one here to the left is for my StormMaster page. I
quite like this piccy and may also turn it into a painting.
To make it into a background all I do is change it to a
negative image and colourise it. I've so far completed
background pictures for my Wildflower, Fairy, Lords and
Dragon pages.

I think I'll end up changing the background for my Links
page too which I recently redesigned. It looks okay on
my screen but when I viewed it on another computer the
colours looked wrong. I added those new links I
mentioned above too.

I've been feeling quite reflective lately and rather quiet. I
value long periods of relative 'solitude' (though I'm never
alone) and even when I've nothing to do I am rarely
bored. Just my nature I suppose. I think my spirit self is
more active than my human self. :) I enjoy the peace but
I'm also eager for change... a good change.

Is this Spring? I'm sitting here listening to the band Hortus Animae and gazing out the window to a rapidly thickening
fog. It's been freezing cold these past few weeks with very little sunshine yet the first day of Spring was Tuesday but
there's not a hint of that! Just looking out the window again as I wrote this, the fog is thicker still. It's nearly blotted out
the houses at the end of the lane. They'll probably disappear by the time I've finished this journal entry. It's raining too.
Well, that's England for you!

I've been fairly busy these past few days. Yesterday I went into town to pick up a few bits and pieces, bought some
potting mix for my house plants and a door seal to keep out smells (I have a communal doorway) and a paint roller so I
can fix peeling paint in my bathroom. What fun. :S On Wednesday I had a go at cleaning up this room. It's a box
room, not much bigger than a walk-in wardrobe! and it's full of clutter. The dust and mess overwhelmed me, at one
point surrounded by comics knee deep, but I managed to clear out a lot of stuff.

On Tuesday I went for a walk through the woodland I mentioned in my Sept 05 & Nov 05 journal entries. It was
striking to see how different it appeared at this time of year. In those other journal entries is shown a spot where I took
most of my photos last time. I discovered it's a yew grove. When I first entered this place I immediately felt an
atmosphere. The trees seem to emit a bluish-green aura. When I got home I looked up the yew tree and found out
that it's symbolic of immortality, it's one of the longest surviving trees and one reported in Scotland is believed to be
around 3000 - 5000 years old! The yew features in mythology and is represented as the 'tree of life'. It's noted that in
the summer the tree emits a vapour which shamans inhaled to receive spiritual visions. (I wonder if I should give that a
try!) That would probably explain the blue-green aura I saw on my previous trips during the warmer months. The yew
tree is considered sacred and I can understand why. Walking through the yew grove is a magical experience. I'll put
some photos here.