Work in progress

I had vague ideas about going for a walk and finding something lovely with which to end my second year of blips. It rained all day with fierce gusts of wind, and in a way I was relieved, as I didn't have time to go outside and was pleased not to feel I was missing something. In between J's personal care and meals, which always take up a large slice of each day, we've been animating all day. The Christmas animation which turned into a new year animation will probably now be a 3rd January animation, and J is disappointed; we've had a few setbacks, and some other things have got in the way. I'm more relaxed about it, partly because I'm not as obsessed as she is with posting on social media on specific dates, and partly because I've learned that these things always take a long time to set up and troubleshoot before we can really start shooting. We should also know by now that anything involving falling snow is a bad idea for stop motion animators in a hurry. We didn't know that twigs from the hedge outside would be so difficult to stick to glass with blutack. We've made quite good progress today, and of course we've been taking photos all day, but they are under wraps until we are ready to unveil the finished work and the good camera can't be moved from the tripod mid-scene, so my year end photo is just another quick snap on my compact, with apologies for the appallingly scrappy storyboard (my bad drawing, J's direction). The music is P's work, annotated with timing and frame numbers so that I can try to match the animation to the score.

It's been quite a challenging year for us, so I'm pleased I've managed to continue my daily journal entries even though too many of my photos have been hasty snaps of whatever was around and I too often upload them late. One of my resolutions for the coming year is to get back to some more challenging and varied photography and try to progress and improve.

I apologise for the erratic attempts at browsing and commenting recently. I always enjoy it when I do it, but often run of time. I wish you all a happy new year in which you can find joy and beauty in your everyday and hope for our world.