This is a lovely model horse by my niece Flora. Flora is 10 and has gone horse mad.
This week has been dull. I had a 12 hour blood pressure monitor as I always get white coat hypertension, so I am sure it will be normal when I get the result.
I think I posted a photo of an unusual beetle last year; the beetle reappeared when we had a warm spell a few weeks ago. Anyway still curious I showed it to Jane who looked in her bug book but there was nothing like it there.
Not to be put off I contacted the Royal Entomological Society and thank you to Professor Jim Hardie, Professor of Science there, who sent me a very nice email. It is not a beetle at all but a western conifer seed bug, Leptoglossus occidentalis, family Coreidae. They are native to USA but arrived in UK, via Europe, in 2007. They can damage flowers, cones and seeds of pine trees but are harmless to humans.
They overwinter as adults and do come into houses.
I’ve been painting almost everyday and managed to produce my biggest work yet which I put in an old frame:
Not sure if it’s finished yet; as always it’s knowing when to stop.
These are some nice paintings by John Blackburn:
I'm still waiting for that phone call from Papworth. I read this which I thought might give some idea of what it’s like not being able to breathe although I can’t imagine anyone actually trying it:
First, get a straw. Now roll that straw up into a nautilus from end to end and then straighten back out. Put a clothespin on your nose so you can’t breathe through your nostrils, put the straw in your mouth and breathe only through that. Go about your normal day.
No, really.
So there goes my 6th (I think) week on the transplant list. Not long at all really but I can’t help wonder when it will be. I’m glad we are coming into warmer weather when the risk of germs isn’t quite so constant. There is still a dreadful cough circulating so I am continuing to avoid people where I can and up to a point that isn’t solitary confinement. So far so good for this past winter.