Ash Wednesday

Productive evening at Ceramics class yesterday.

1) Completed the carving and shaping of the HO scale model of St Paul - St Louis.

Actually, another couple of decorative pieces had been added after this photo was taken.

It will be left to dry out naturally over the next few days and then fired - hopefully ready for next week and the application of various coloured glazes (or, to use the correct term, 'underglazes').

2) The slab which forms a row of Parisian tenements (can think of no other word) had been fired and was ready to be underglazed. The goal was to replicate, with black and gray underglazes, the appearance of the cardboard prototype with which I'd been really satisfied.

Amazingly, I think I achieved that replication.

The cardboard version and the ceramic version with one coat of gray.

The technique was to rush the brush across the clay to capture the feel of the cardboard version.

Then mark in the windows and doors in black.



The finished version - plus gable end.

Fictitious French billboard - the 'e' needs an acute.

During the week, this will be returned to the kiln for firing. There is  always a degree of uncertainty as to how the underglazes will turn out. I'm willing to accept that element of the unknown. I'd be surprised if it emerged from the kiln much different from gray and black.

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A reminder of how the above two buildings will relate to each other - the church will be at the end of a street lined by the tenemental row on one side.

Here's the cardboard version.

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Eels:

Great excitement in one half of the Morris household.

One of my favourite singers of the last 18 months - see blog postings of 2011 - Mark Oliver Everett aka Eels is coming to Glasgow in March and I've got tickets to see him. Not only that, because he is not a hugely popular artist, I got the tickets at their face value, and didn't have to use one of those e-touting companies.

Mind you, if I can't get anyone to go with me then I'll have no hesitation in using one of those self-same companies to sell my extra ticket at a profit.

Mark Oliver Everett

BUT, I haven't  listened to any of his recent recordings. He strikes me as an artist who doesn't rest on his laurels and perform his back catalogue. So, for the concert to mean anything to me, I'll have to spend some money downloading his more recent stuff from iTunes and then familiarise myself with same.

Started today with 'Tomorrow Morning' from 2010:

Sounds extremely promising.

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

Standing up and dipping a few pieces of bread into a pot (literally) of spouse-made tomato soup.

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Ash Wednesday:

Attended Mass this morning at St Paul's, Whiteinch, and received my Ashes. Very well attended considering it had been snowing continuously since the middle of the night.

Fasting:

For the last 4 or 5 years I have not felt like fasting during Lent. Prior to that I gave up sweets and alcohol for 6 weeks - and with no difficulty whatsoever. I felt no guilt or regret about this failure of the last few years - I needed the alcohol to survive and I know that God understood that.

This year, I want to mark Lent by some fasting. I hardly eat any sweets so there's no point giving that up. But, I will cut down my alcohol intake. Not entirely, though - couldn't face that.

So, the plan is to abstain from alcohol mid-week unless there is a pressing social event that requires it (and there are 4 of those coming up in the 6 weeks of Lent) and only have alcohol on either Saturday or Sunday at the weekend.

I only ever drink with food, and only at night. I find a dinner without wine to be a tedious event. The exceptions are curries or fish and chips or Chinese cuisine or meals with my brothers and sisters and their families. So, we'll increase our intake of these over the next month and a half.

For me, the purpose of Fasting is to intensify one's awareness of God.