A Kind Of Last Post

I have been thinking long and hard about this.
As I get older and The Old Man gets older, I spend so much time being angry about stuff that words fail me. And I don't find so much to laugh about. Of course this could be the consequences of old age and a long memory whilst I still have one.

This blog and your company have helped me through some rough patches, in particular during the early days (2010) when The Old Man became suddenly and seriously ill.

You can read those posts at "Heart Surgery" though remember they will run back to front chronologically.

But now The Doll and The Old Man are packing up the blog bags for a while. Mrs D will miss me (The Doll) I know... and The Old Man ... naturally! 

Meanwhile she continues with her own Syb&Me site where she struggles with learning animation and other things creative.

So for now, in this place, it's time for me and The Old Man to say "Good Bye, my dears. Take care. Keep safe. And Thank You."

Time Flies: The Doll Catches Up

What a difference a month makes. And where have I been? Not on a luxury cruise. Not in a remote corner of the Far East. I have been at home. Not sleeping, staring at the rain and feeling anxious.
But now (ta-da fanfare) the sun is shining. And here I am.

Why am I anxious? You ask. I grow old, I reply. And I don't like the way the world is going. Enough!

I am still reviewing crime fiction. Yes, me: The Doll, Mrs D (aka Lynn Harvey) -- ils sont tout moi. And you will find my review of Antti Tuomainen's "The Mine" over at the Euro crime blog. 
I am a fan of Finnish writer Tuomainen's crime books. Each different (so far) and each written from a fresh point of view. I am trying to catch up on the ones I have missed. So the next on my list is "The Man Who Died".

I am also still exploring dramatised fiction podcasts and hope to recommend some more series to you. Although I remain addicted to "Tanis" and find it difficult, frankly, to find something else that matches up ... but I have a few in mind to try.

As for Mrs D? It is hard to pry her/me away from her animation efforts. I/she ... am/is really excited about the possibilities of GIFs or animation loops. She says "At last something where I don't get bogged down in the narrative but can stay with the image... more like a poem or a painting than a film". (And no ... I am not including the chopped up videos of celebrity bloopers or gestures here). So the Mrs D part of me is embarking on a GIF series over at Syb & Me. It's based on imagery that started out as lino cuts that I made years ago. A childhood theme featuring a character I like to call Queenie. Please take a look.

And at the same time? The swallows are back and the sun is shining. My potatoes and broad beans are up in the garden... and I'm trying not to be anxious.
No. Don't mention Trump ...Brexit ... Climate Change ... the UK Government. Don't mention the Health Service... Social Care....
Don't mention any of it do you understand?

Mrs D Finishes Inktober

So Mrs D has worn her fingers to the bone in fulfilling her Inktober challenge of a themed drawing a day for each day of October. She is covered in ink and her room is full of screwed up paper.

She tells me that she enjoyed it very much and has come to understand her drawing a bit better: don't work on it too hard... she do say ... because all of the life drains out of it; working from photos is fine providing she doesn't slip into previous pitfall - and she do love her fountain pen (Lamy Safari with fine nib).

She is pleased as punch and quite unbearable about having mastered (well ... not quite) posting her drawings on to her blog via her new and unfamiliar smart phone. (Yawn, yawn.)

You can see all 31 drawings over at Syb&Me. Go and find them and give an old lady some pleasure in her declining years.

Inktober Postscript

Well what do you know! Mrs D has decided to do this challenge of an ink drawing a day and is posting the inky results over on Syb & Me.

Go see 'em there...

I'm off on holiday again soon anyway.

Animated Goings On: Mrs D Rotoscopes A Clockwork Mouse

Mrs D has been playing around with her beloved with TVPaint animation software.
She says: "My very first rotoscope. A clockwork mouse. Cute ... and another work in progress."

Animated Goings On - Mrs D's Work In Progress

Mrs D is still sat, for hours a day, drawing her animation...

This is all still part of a work in progress, Mrs D assures me. As is her knowledge of TVPaint. But here's a clip.

I seem to remember those red shoes, flamenco ones from Barcelona. At least they are getting an airing ... and what an airing.



Blown Away from Mrs D on Vimeo.
"Wind" sound effect - by Mark diAngelo.

Mrs D's Current Obsession ... with Animating

Night and day Mrs D sits at her desk: monitor on; pc on; graphics tablet all lit up and nibs for the stylus worn down to stumps and strewn about the place.

What is she animating? Your guess is as good as mine ... or hers. You can see her Mood Board over at Pinterest. There certainly seems to be a lot of stuff flying about.

Will she succeed in making a short cartoon? Alors! Me and Chunky the dog don't know. But here are a few frames for you to wonder about.

Current State Of Obsessions

We are a household filled with obsessions. Aren't you? For me, Bike Girl, it's fantasising a life on the road with my bike and my dog. Have you met my dog?
 Mrs D "arranged" him for me. I'd thought I'd like one of those rangy Lurcher guys. But I think some Chow Chow got in to Dog's mix by the look of him. Whatever, he is a good-natured old boy.

So what are these current obsessions? Grey Doll still reads crime novels and has just reviewed "Fatal Crossing", a crime debut by Danish journalist turned crime writer Lone Theils for Euro Crime. You can read The Doll's review in this post on the Euro Crime blog.

The Doll's eyes are tired and rectangular from her evening TV-viewing as well. She and The Old Man did give up on multinational crime thriller The Team ... and she is beginning to think that the third series of French dirty-politics and PR-villainies series, Spin, has ... spun. But she is happy to see Hinterland back on the screen. It's a Welsh crime series set in almost total darkness and packed with monosyllabic conversations... except for the Welsh bits. Loves the photography though, does the Doll.
Other viewing she has recently enjoyed includes globe-trotting situation comedy Gap Year. And, Oh, how she misses the weekly slot filled with pillage and war, tattooed Danes, prissy Saxons and the muscular, jaw-clenched Uhtred (nee Osbert) of Bebbenburg in The Last Kingdom.

You may ask about The Old Man's obsessions too. But why ask? Didn't you know that in the UK we have a General Election coming up? Shouting at the telly and radio has gone to maximum decibels in this household. Grey Doll joins in and then Dog starts barking.  Then I have to rev up the bike and dream of faraway hills and open roads.

Mrs D Cooks Up A Cartoon

Well... what do you know! Mrs D has managed to cook up a cartoon after all. It has only taken her about five months. But people say that the latest thing is "slow-cooking" and Mrs D is the Mistress of Slow.

I should perhaps explain that she has changed technique and is trying out hand-drawn animation instead of traditional stop-motion. As she has no dedicated 2D drawn-animation software, she has tried out a process based on her ancient graphics software program and her stop motion animation software. I could explain how she did it but unfortunately I fell asleep whilst she was explaining it all to me - so I'll spare you the details.

Find the cartoon on her Syb & Me project. It's called "All Change" and involves Syb, Mrs D and a cat. It's very short but it makes The Old Man laugh so press its arrow button and play.

Dream Time: A Woman's Work....

I often dream I am in my home. Except that, although it is familiar, in waking life I have never lived in it. This one is dark, rather old but full of rooms and... for a change... people, although maybe not people I know from waking life.

Anyhoo, I be muddling along quite happily when I do realise that it is almost suppertime and I have not yet started to make the dough for the meal. For some reason... fried onions seem to figure large too. I panic a little but start anyway, confident I will manage somehow. Then I wake up.

Not very profound, is it.
But I wonder... How many men have anxiety dreams about cooking? Do any men have such dreams?

Then maybe also... I do share Mrs D's anxiety that she has left it all too late to cook up some art. She draws and draws her cartoon frames of Syb and Her and Cats even. But there is always something else to draw, or record or edit.

Hmmm. Going to stop pontificating on dreaming life now, shape that dough... and turn it into something.

A Bit Of A Family Do

The other day we are visited by niece, hubby and their border terrier. Everything very jolly, much hugging, talking and eating of buns... By the end of visit we is all quite tired... even little dog is found standing... with eyes shut.... like a sleeping horse.

Mrs D do keep up the family theme this morning by dragging out her Mum's sewing machine to do some repairs. This fine, black and gold, knee-operated machine must be all of eighty years old and probably clothed and curtained and covered Mrs D all of her life.

Having forgotten how to thread it properly, Mrs D gets out the instruction manual and finds a piece of paper inside with notes written in her Mum's hand. These turn out not to be instructions for the machine but for assembling a 1970s chair which must have been passed on to Mrs D. It finishes with a cartoon of Mrs D sleeping in the chair.

..... Cartooning must truly be a family thing.....

Animated Goings On : More Sample Frames

Mrs D is working hard (well ... kind of) practicing drawing again and making frame after frame for her cartoon. She is contemplating making a series called "A Few Short Pieces About Love". (Pause to raise eyebrows.)

But let it be known that, quite cheerfully for her, she spends hours making images then bins the lot and starts again ... which do keep her quiet.

Here are a couple of the latest. I have no idea what is going on here.

Animated Goings On: Mrs D 's Latest Rushes

 Latest version of Mrs D's trial run at 2D drawn animation for her "Syb & Me" project. No sound yet, mind.

Explanation of Absence: Mrs D Tries To Animate..Again

Well, has your heart grown fonder during my absence? Perhaps not. I don't blame you. First rule of blogging. Post something.

But I can't drag Mrs D away from her latest obsession in order to help post something here. And her latest obsession involves drawing away on that graphics tablet. More to the point - trying to find a way to make hand-drawn animation. Yes. You have read me right. Having gone on for years about filming stop motion animation ... like what I be made for ... now she wants to draw it.

Do not hold your breath. There won't be a feature-length film anytime soon for it has been a saga. First it was a question of software. She tried downloading various software testers. The first would not run at all and her computer skills were not up to curing that problem. Then she tried  a second program - which was bit temperamental. She started to make it work but couldn't transfer the end product into a watchable media file! Others? Well, one look at the interface was enough to leave her jaw slack and her eyes glazing. And they are so varied as to how they operate. Bless her she is a simple old-fashioned girl and she did want to just "draw" the thing... like bitmap stuff. She cannot yet do this vector stuff, nor Flash, nor 3D rendering....

Anyhoo. She is currently practicing a very complicated work around involving using layered images in her ancient graphics package and turning each layer into a separate image file and importing the sequence into her current (rapidly aging version) of Stopmotion Pro package... which (bless it ) do allow you to import image files. So far... enough is happening to keep her glued to a stylus most afternoons. I'll show you a sequence of images. They are based on her Syb & Me project. What do you think?

Mrs D Takes A Tablet

No. She has not succumbed to one of them iPad thingies. Instead she has got above her station and has purchased a Wacom graphics tablet.

I do not know what this means for The Doll that is me. I must say that I do feel a little flat here.

And ... there has been much shouting and hair pulling by Madam. And much random opening and closing of software packages, images and losing of toolbars as she practices dabbing and scratching with her "pen" and swiping her fingers around the tablet.

... Don't expect another post very soon at this rate.

The New Man

I cannot believe it.
All that excitement, the waiting, the anticipation ... And what does Mrs D give me? Another Old Man.

The Making Of A New Man For 2016

I am so excited.
Mrs D is making me a new man. Well.... The Old Man have got in a terrible state ... arms hanging off ... legs dangling.
So ... Allez-Oop. She do start twisting wire and melting plastic as soon as the festivities and indigestion did die down. I cannot wait... what will he be like? Young, vigorous, handsome, exciting.... all that a Doll needs?

Bending The Truth: Old Spines And Possible Remedies

When one is somewhat elder ... one begins to accept that one cannot bend as well as when young. But in truth I do get very blue spending the best part of this year unable to straighten up first thing in the morning without climbing me own legs with me hands, so to speak.

Finally I take meself off to a recommended chiropractor (McTimoney. No that's not his name, that's the "school of"... so to speak). Well dears, the primary verdict is that one leg lies longer than the other... and me spine... Well, it do not know which way is north and which way south!

But what do you expect when I am subject to the makings of Mrs D? I mean naturally my spine be twisted this way and that. Look how she do make me. All sorts of sticky tape and plastic bindings.... 
Remember how my hand do drop off on occasion? She do not have a clue with those joints and screws. I swear I did last longer in my first incarnation based on pipe-cleaners and cotton wool. Oh, tut-tut and la-di-da, that lady is a lummox in the puppetry department.

But.... I am feeling so, so much better, now that I'm marching off to the chiropractor. My word but I am gradually straightening up. My leg lengths are starting to match and ... do you know... but I don't feel so old. Absolutely. Younger every day.

Mrs D And Me

It's very hard when a Doll has to review her career future. I wanted a taste of being a film star, a life in films... And Mrs D was supposed to give me that. Then The Old Man muscled in. Never one to dodge the limelight, that one. And now here I am... a would-be film star of a certain age. You know that there are no decent parts written for older women, don't you. OK, so I have lost my head and hands occasionally and things don't bend the way they should. (Mrs D is a slave-driver when it come to animating... a cruel and brutal director I must tell you.) I suppose I have to accept the fact that Mrs D is spending a lot of time elsewhere ... on a new project... a new website... a new life... Well, hardly.
It's all right for some.

Mrs D claims to be "devoting this new space to animating" ... but I have taken a quick look and I don't see much filming going on. I'm not bitter. If Madam prefers playing with plasticine at the moment I suspect it is probably a reversion to childhood. You will find her (frankly weird) site at "Syb & Me" .... and if you pop over there now, you will also find that she is bickering with her dead mother over a cup of tea. How long can this go on?

Look on the bright side... I know you will.... Me and The Old Man are still here. That will be a great comfort to you I am sure.

Animated Goings On: Mrs D Gets Personal With "Our Mothers"

I can't get much help out of Mrs D these days.... she keeps playing with plasticine.
This is her latest "work". Don't blink or you'll miss it.... and clearly she hasn't mastered the art of focus yet.


Our Mothers from Mrs D on Vimeo.

Mrs D says that this is about ...."The realisation that... I am my mother."
The animation and sound is all hers (sigh) with some "sound advice" from The Old Man, of course.
The music is "Baltic Levity" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0