#i usually try to draw an oval and then mark where the horns are

[mybatimblog]

he just needs a little sleep i swear hes fine

There is something wrong with that guy....

[animaginaryartblog]

[Image ID: a digital drawing of an alternate universe version of Blaze the Cat, from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Behind her is a strange, almost angelic creature, glowing with fiery light. Despite the digital medium, the colors and shading have a blotchy, paper-y texture to them. Everything is cast in a fiery red-orange hue.

Blaze is poised in the air as if mid-jump. She has one leg extended and the other bent beneath her. Her hands are balled into fists and surrounded by fire. She looks to the side with a scowl, fangs showing. Her long tail curls around and under her like a live thing. Six red triangles underscore her eyes. On her forehead is an oval red jewel. It is cracked, like a bite has been taken out of its top right.

For her outfit, Blaze's top resembles her canon design, purple with long sleeves, white cuffs, and a gold necklace. Rather than her usual white leggings, however, she instead wears white pants with a slit down the side, allowing them to flap loosely around her ankles. A gold crown-like band ties her feathery hair back in a ponytail, and a red sash is tied around her waist. White feathers are on her ankles, and her feet are white, bird-like talons with dustings of purple scales.

Behind Blaze is Solaris, a being with a body plan similar to Blaze's but alien, statuesque features. Cracks mark her edges, as if she is made of stone. She is primarily a pale yellow-white, like sandstone, gradating to a dark red at the ends of her limbs and tip of her tail. In the center of her chest is an empty hole, shaped like an emerald. It is pale blue. Her head is smooth and bird-like. Her "eyes" are large, angular slits of pure ruby. Three slits of blue lie under each eye, like tear drops. On her forehead is a mark like a gem split in half. The left half is pale red, the right half the same color as her eyes.

Her limbs are slender and tapering. Her hands have three claws each. Her legs end in sharp points, with no feet. Her tail is long and jagged, ending in a spade-like point. Seven red shards fan out from its tip, not connected to the tail by any physical tissue. In the same fashion, six long shards fan from her arms like feathers, and ten rays arc out from the halo-like horns on her head. Between their tips floats an oval jewel, cracked the same as Blaze's. The left side is faded red; the smaller right fragment is rich ruby.

Solaris's pose mirrors Blaze's, making it appear as if her halo and wings are Blaze's. Solaris's left claws rest on Blaze's shoulder, while her right hand cups Blaze's own. /end ID]

some fresh art for my old Rush of Flame AU, a Blaze-centric AU with lots of Rush inspiration, an almost entirely original setting, overly elaborate worldbuilding, a dash of Sonaze, for flavor. Blaze's design hasn't changed much, more the way I rendered it. Solaris's design has changed quite a bit. I wanted to make her like more inhuman, and I think it turned out really well. better look at each of them below.

[Image ID: the same two characters from above, but now separated into their own individual drawings, allowing a clearer look at their designs. /end ID]

as for why I drew this now, when I haven't touched this AU in at least a year... well, I was going to do an AU August Challenge, but I immediately fell badly off schedule. very badly. and so I decided that rather than go through the same struggle I did with my extremely ill-fated OCtober last year, I wouldn't try and scramble to finish the challenge but just. draw. at my own pace. when I felt like it.

no checklist. no self-imposed challenge or time limit. just drawing what I felt like, when I felt like it, and taking the time to make something I'm actually happy with rather than rushing to make something "finished". it's a novel concept and frankly? unnerving. what is this. don't like it. take me back to planners and to-do lists where I belong. /lh

[ancientbrit]

Natter #11   12/2/2020

Gordon Polson <ancientbrit2@gmail.com> Wed, Dec 2, 2020, 11:04 PM I am not sure how this will work out as I am not sure what to write anymore. Apparently, the last one must have gone over like a lead balloon and as there are no clinics to draw topics from I tend to write about things I think you might appreciate. It looks like I guessed wrong last time. Right now I am in the midst of editing the old Natters - all the Natters that is that we have been able to recover. Unfortunately, there are some still missing and I think that they are probably permanently gone now. However, there are something over 120 now available with grateful thanks to Tom & Jo, Janet and Carin, who resurrected all those we now have available. It is interesting to read back on them, some I find are likely to still be of interest - at least I hope they will be.This Summer I was positive that my banana palms would produce fruit as they went through last winter with most of their stature intact. This meant that they would be starting their growth from high up with all that potential in their "trunks" which normally indicates fruiting possibility. I kept hoping as the warm weather turned hot but still nothing. Then last week Jean asked me about the weird-looking lump in the middle of the clump.  It was only visible from her bedroom window and when I checked, there were the unmistakable rows of bananas preceded by the large oval flower bud with the point on the end, looking something like a large bird's head. At the same time, I realised that my largest Brugmansia., which had bloomed it's head off all summer planted in the garden, was now devoid of all of its leaves, but the buds (all 35 of them) were still hanging on and twenty eight of them are now open and blooming away! Yet another variety, that I was given by the 'Duchess", which is a variegated type with white blooms, had been left outside in its pot last winter, so of course, it was cut down, leaving just dead stubs. Halfway through the summer, I noticed new shoots just emerging from the surface and right now it is almost two feet high. I intend to leave it again all winter just to see if it will make it. The big “Charles Grimaldi” will surely die back as it is more exposed and it is too big to dig and return to the greenhouse where it spent last winter, but at least I have taken cuttings which are ridiculously easy to root One of the more interesting facts which I re-read dating back to 2012 was regarding the word 'sequester'', which I have used without really understanding it's meaning accurately This example involves the production of material from gaseous carbon dioxide. Apparently, a Dutch biologist planted a willow sapling in a pot containing 200lbs of compost and over a five-year period the sapling was only given water - nothing else. At the end of the five-year period, the sapling was removed, cleaned and weighed, topping the scales at 169lbs.The compost was removed from the pot, returned to the same state of dryness it had been originally and then also weighed, coming in at 199lbs 12ozs! Not too difficult to see why trees are planted to soak up atmospheric CO2.

I just had an Email from a seed company back home in Devon, England where my folks lived. I have bought seed from them for the last couple of years and both Lucy and Alison have had plants that I grew from some of that seed. The mail was offering a 20% reduction on all seed orders before the end of December and I thought some of you might be interested. Their inventory is quite large and unusual and they can be accessed at PlantWorldSeeds.com. Bearing in mind the terrific run there was on seed last Spring and knowing how I was unable to buy any of the seed that I wanted, I will be taking my order there very soon. I don't know if the 20% reduction only applies to me as a former customer or not, but if any of you would like to buy and find that the reduction doesn't apply to you, you can always let me know what you want and I can run the order with mine for the reduction benefit. just let me know ASAP so that we can get in under the wire. One of the stimulating things I re-read was regarding the natural enemies of the Brown Marmorated Stink bug. There is a yellow & black spider, three different Praying Mantids with varying novel ways of dealing with them. One chews off their legs to prevent escape and then munches on it like a sandwich. Another injects a fluid that pre-dissolves all that interior pudden and then sucks out all the protein. And talking of protein, the BMSB is apparently more highly nutritious protein-wise than a good steak. I have no idea who first discovered that but I can't imagine biting one whilst holding one's nose. You've got to be desperate.

Over the last several months we have been visited by two beautiful cats - one a long haired tabby - very friendly and the other a gorgeous white long haired creature with slight  grey marking around it's head. This cat seems to be caught on the horns of a dilemma as it sits at various spots all round the house , just staring at us, but when you attempt to go near - he moves away. Last Summer he and Pickle had a difference of opinion regarding just whose property this was and I had to step in and break them up before they took off. This hasn't fazed him at all - now he comes right up close and stares through windows where Pickle can see him resulting in some foul language. I also believe that he is rather frustrated as he watches Pickle shove through his cat flap - just above and to one side of my bed, but cannot seem to work out how this works. And so last week, after Pickle came through at around 2:30 am with the usual bang, White cat followed him and hammered four times on the flap and ran off. He has since developed the habit of sitting just the other side of the flap staring in and Pickle is getting a bit paranoid. He hasn't used the flap more than six times in the last few months.

Then just a wee while ago, following a couple of days of strong winds, I was reading in bed around 1am. Pickle was sitting upright alongside me, watching the bedroom door - quite unlike his usual attitude, where he lays across my leg and sleeps.  I thought that it was a bit unusual, but was totally surprised when suddenly Big White Fluffy cat casually walked through the door, from the house side. I asked him what he was doing there, but he ignored the question, turning around and disappearing into the dark.

Pickle and I got out of bed and followed BWF cat, turning on all lights as I went, up and downstairs. no sign of him. I noticed that there seemed to be a slight cool breeze coming from my workshop and going in there I noticed that a new service door I had fitted was slightly ajar. I hadn’t yet fitted a lock, but just left a heavy chunk of wood leaning against the door to hold it closed. The strong winds had shifted the block and the door was swinging. I closed and wedged the door tight and fixed the lock next day, but from then BWF cat has never returned. I find small piles of white fur in odd places where he must groom, but no cat! Strange.

I think that I might try to get back into running a PeaPatch at Luther Burbank Park. I have no idea if there are any available right now nor how to find out with the CCMV closed up, but I have to do something. The raised beds that Jill has allowed me to use for some years have now been removed. I was told that she was afraid that I might get dizzy and fall off the edge of the raised ground - a six foot tumble over rocks. But I think it must be that their son has now taken up permanent residence in the house with his fiancee and they want to keep the coast clear. Reasonable.

Anyway, I need to do it as I currently have no place to grow veggies.

Sunday there will be a virtual re-union of those who attended the virtual clinics during the year - BYOB. Rather a neat idea but not to be compared to our bun fights. Another interesting thing that came to light in reading the Natters is that way back in 2013 it was proposed that advanced classes be offered leading to Advanced recognition for those who took it and possibly passed a test. The idea was approved and was to be pursued. 'Have to raise the question as it seems to me that there has always been the threat of MG loss purely because of stasis.Yet another point which should be settled is when existing MGs from outside States move to WA and wish to continue. Many have been turned off & away by being told that they must retake the whole  3 month class again including the $fee. This, I could sort of understand if they came up from Florida say, but two that I know of came from Oregon and how different can Oregonian plants be to WA?     Can we afford to be so profligate with trained and keen MGs, especially now that we will be missing a whole year of intake and possibly losing quite a few from this year too?

I have recently been in contact with a guy who was at my old school at the same time I was - just a year ahead of me. I have no idea how he found my details as I didn't know him at school, but we have been trading emails back and forth now for some time. His wife died recently so he is obviously now alone and I think this correspondence is good for him, I certainly enjoy it. The strange thing is that he lived no more than 1000 yards away from me and from photographs that he has sent I know the masters and most of the swim team he was part of - just not him. We seem to share a huge number of things in common. He also attended the same middle school that I did - well he had to, there was nothing else around. I had to remind him of the various staff names and subjects as he couldn't remember a single one. In biology, he sat next to one of my best friends - Dave Bellamy. His interests are similar. He and his wife worked in the States for years. They had Siamese cats too  He is interested in cars and he is rather lucky at the moment as his two daughters have taken charge of a sports car that he built and ran for years and are having it restored - just needing the glass replaced now and some final tuning work done on the engine. I was to have seen him when I was back home two years ago until my busted ribs and having to look after my sister intervened. Bedtime calls right now, but I am ashamed that I haven't maintained a more regular correspondence with you as I have in the past. I will try a little harder in 2021 - perhaps there will be more happening then - I certainly hope so.

Your fearless leader,Gordon

PS Don't forget - those whose CE levels are a wee bit below par. Don't leave it to the last minute. Talk to me.