Friday April 29th 2022 11pm
As we approach the end of another April, I thought it time that I update this blog, especially as it now has a new home at .me.uk – which I felt was more appropriate – rather than .co.uk.
And with this new address I begin a new phase of my life, having finally closed the door on the interference from our truly awful English benefit system, which was far more harm to my mental health than the pitiful amount of financial help it offered was worth.
It’s sadly easy for me to feel like I’m stepping out into the next phase of my life right back at the point where I was two years ago when I began this blog – ie jobless and facing the prospect of an empty purse in a few months – but that’s where I find myself. Except I realise I’m not back where I started at all. When I stop and assess my achievements over these last two strange years I realise they are many, and they all have armed me for the next big steps.
Over the last couple of months I’ve been gradually migrating all my websites and domains over to a new hosting company – Krystal – from LCN who I’d been with since I built my very first website, ooh, can it really be a couple of decades ago. Krystal give every impression of being as LCN (in those days called Telivo) were all those years ago, and I’m grateful to Shoo Rayner (another escapee from LCN!) for pointing me in their direction.
Whilst I could have simply migrated the existing sites across, there were a few tweaks I wanted to make to this one, and due to a malfunctioning plug-in, a complete rebuild of Doodle Inn is going to be necessary. I also wanted to bin my original idea for The Big Shed Digital Studio from five years ago, that I never actually published, and so it was the ideal time to start a brand new site for that.
The Big Shed Digital Studio is now live, and this blog is up and running, so I feel a certain satisfaction, even though there is still a lot of work to do before Doodle Inn is ready.
Getting back to blogging here after almost a year has led me to look back at what I’ve achieved since starting out on this journey, and it’s made me realise that, contrary to my fears, I have moved forward. In the last year I’ve learned how to use various creative apps, particularly in the realms of video editing, and have given myself the skills to produce far more professional videos for The Big Shed Digital Studio than I could have done two years ago.
I’ve also learned some basic digital manipulation of scanned artwork, and created several greetings cards in what I’ve termed “digilogue art”, mixing analogue pen and ink and watercolour with digital techniques.
At Christmas I even managed a very basic animation from a hand drawn and painted picture; my first ecard.
My drawings have been few and far between, but those that I have done I’m quietly proud of. There’s of course always room for great improvement, and I do hope this next phase of my life finds me able to focus more on creating a whole stash of stippled scenes, and ink and wash illustrations, particularly for the story of my garden that I’m looking forward to writing.
I was 61 Not Out. Then 62 Still Standing (Just), and 63 With A Plan. In a few weeks I’ll be 64 – what?
Suggestions on a postcard please.
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