mamma mia!

Just over a year ago, I unexpectedly fell into cat-sitting.

If you'd told me then I'd do it again, let alone that after a year I'd have regular kitteh clients and had cat-sat ten kittehs across five homes, I'd probably have laughed in your face.

And yet, this month, I'll spend just under two weeks with my eleventh kitteh client in the sixth home.

I'm looking forward to becoming better acquainted with Lottie, the kitteh master of my long-time Flickr friend, Sarah.

Lottie is a black cat with a sweet nature, and we seemed to take to each other well during our first meet and greet last week. I'll pop in to see her again this week before becoming her temporary companion.

I'll also return to be the ever-obedient servant of Lily, Sammy and Poppy later in the month. I think there have been only two months since December 2021 that I've not served those three kitteh masters faithfully. They are already pencilled in for December this year or January next year (or a bit of both).

And so, I finally set up a profile on CatInAFlat. Who would ever have thought my Top 8 (well, 10 actually) would be made up of cool cats? Tom never saw that coming...

Though I'm already booked out for most of October with overnight stays, I'm open to once or twice daily visits locally around those. (I think it's wrong to have affairs with other kittehs during my overnight stays. Lottie, Lily, Sammy and Poppy will smell other kittehs on me).

And I'm open to meeting more kittehs locally and further afield from November.

If you or anyone you know needs a cat-sitter, feel free to hit me up here or via my CatInAFlat profile. There's plenty of information on my profile but slide into my DMs if you have further questions.

I'll also sort out getting a police check done later this month, and I can provide references on request from those I've cat-sat for before.

Meanwhile, please enjoy this adorabubble portrait I took of Mia whilst we sheltered from one of the UK heatwaves this summer.

damn paparazzi!

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 25 August 2021].}

on the fence

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 12 July 2021].}

Despite the hormonal cocktail of the past weekend and a bit, it was predominantly filled with much-needed human interactions.

Long conversations - both virtual and face-to-face - with people I've had long-lasting friendships with.

A mix of topics, a mix of emotions. But all, ultimately, supportive, inspiring, empathetic. And, once again, demonstrating how lucky I am to have built up such a wonderfully supportive network of humans around me.

I had the chance to repay one of those good friends by visiting him in hospital yesterday while he's in for observation. (He's doing well and in good spirits). That's pretty much the only way you'll ever manage to lure me into central London on the day of a football final, especially where England are in the finals and hosting them.

Unfortunately, England's loss last night resulted in an utterly predictable outpouring of racism, hooliganism and destruction. I'm not convinced a win would have changed that aspect of the night. The only positive I took from the situation was a deathly silence post-game which I would not have enjoyed if they had won.

On the positive side: venturing into the city yesterday provided me with a chance to refocus my attention on someone else's situation and away from my interior monologue.

We had a two-plus hour conversation about our respective futures. About writing. About my art. About grasping opportunities.

On the negative side: I finally saw the National Covid Memorial Wall along the Thames, below St Thomas' Hospital, firsthand. It was overwhelming in its sheer extent, and I didn't have the emotional strength to walk the length of it. The complete lifting of England's covid restrictions in a week feels all too soon.

Some contract work I've been doing has now ended. My latest freelance gig was completed last week. So this week, I will be busy drumming up some new work, creating for you, and having at least one potential flatmate viewing my flat.

I also have many ideas whirling around in my head that I'd like to start developing.

And, at least for the rest of this evening, I'll be enjoying the sound of the rain outside my window while I edit more photos.

I hope your week is full of rainbows after the storms x

056 elephant slide

Day fifty-six of The 100 Day Project for 2021.

I didn't allow myself enough space for this guy, and the tusks are a bit off. I managed to correct the left leg length (elephant's left leg; not what the viewer sees as left) in overdrawing the original sketch.

As has become my wont, I sketched the elephant slide with a 4H pencil. Most of the overdrawing I completed with an HB pencil. The shadowing in the elephant's interior was done with a 2B and a 4B pencil.

The source image for today's sketch was taken the day before the referendum on Britain leaving the EU took place. I took it after a morning spent wandering on the shingle beach at Dungeness.

I was slathered in sunscreen, and the cooling sea breeze deceived me into thinking I wasn't burning, though the mirrors in The Pilot Inn told me otherwise when we paused for lunch.

Foolishly, I went back out on the beach to continue taking photos after lunch without reapplying sunscreen.

That sunburn was horrific. It was the worst I had experienced in years. I've posted photos of it previously.

It was probably the worst sunburn I've experienced, even by comparison to one I acquired, wearing the same dress, at Southend-on-Sea in 2018.

Despite hurting like hell and my skin peeling for months, it came and went. I had ridiculous tan lines created by the straps on my dress and bags many months later, but now you'd never know.

However, the impact of Brexit on the UK will last far longer than the burns and then tan lines of my foolish decisions in 2016 and 2018.

At least once a week, it's confirmed to those who voted remain that this was the wrong decision.

And it was a decision driven by disinformation campaigns sponsored by the Leave campaign, UKIP and the Murdoch media.

The Murdoch media that's also responsible for so much of the political mayhem currently taking place in the US.

The same media responsible for the anti-vaccination rhetoric permeating almost every country globally.

The fact Rupert Murdoch is an Australian has never made me proud to also be an Australian. It has largely had the opposite effect.

Similarly, if I already had UK citizenship, Nigel Farage would make me ashamed to hold that citizenship.

The damage continuing to be done to the world by entitled white men will never be something I forget.

Whether purely political for the purposes of greed. Or reinforcing inequality by silencing diverse voices, embracing racism, endorsing white supremacism. And/or destroying the environment for the sake of their own personal wealth.

I will never forget.

In that way, my memory is very much like an elephant's.

View fullsize

pony up* [or, thank you for your patronage]

Just over four years ago I set up a Patreon profile but, for various reasons, didn't go ahead and launch it at that time.

Over the weekend I finally launched it, and I’ve started sharing previously unseen work and new work there.

I now feel there's enough of a beginning to go ahead and share it here in case you want to become a patron and support my photography and other artistic and writing endeavours.

To begin with I’m going to be sharing:

• Previously unpublished images I’ve shortlisted for my interior/exterior book as patron-only, with the posts only becoming public when the book is published, or earlier if I decide the specific image won’t be included in it before publication.

• The best of my new images or newly-edited images as early access - usually a week ahead of the posts becoming public and the images being posted to my other profiles. These may be self-portraits, landscapes, portraits, photos from my travels, or images of my various favourite things (see: graveyards, gasometers, pigeons, dead creatures, etc.). These images may be accompanied by a post discussing the image, my thoughts about creating it, information about what inspired it, or no text beyond the title.

• New instalments of my postcards from another’s life project. These were originally being created as part of my 100 Days Project in 2018 and being posted to Instagram first, but I’m now making these available as early access posts for patrons only as I create them, seven days before publishing them to Instagram and my other profiles.

As I go along, more projects will likely appear as early access or patron-only. This is just the beginning.

Access to patron-only posts - some patron-only indefinitely, others early access - starts at US$1.50 a month, so it won't break the bank if you’d like to get the inside scoop.

There are more tiers if you want further benefits like print discounts, a postcard, the opportunity to be part of my creative process, or loyalty rewards for being a patron for at least three months. The current tiers are my first thoughts on what folk might appreciate, but I’m open to suggestion on how to improve them.

Thank you if you do decide to become a patron. And thank you for following my work if you don’t.

^{*Those who know me will know I like a good pun and/or play on words. The title of my post isn't supposed to be presumptuous or make you feel under duress to become a patron, I promise.}

animalia

Two of my images are included in issue #94 of F-Stop Magazine, Animals.