Bottled moon....

Hi there

The gorgeous spring-like weather is continuing for us, a far cry from the frigid blizzard conditions of a few weeks back. Yesterday was spent in the back yard where I finally installed an nice new door on the wood shed (the old one had seen better days and was rotting away to nothing) whilst Witchy reorganised the placement of the BBQ and many potted plants and garden furniture, trimmed branches from our tree that got damaged by the snow and a veritable plethora other small tasks that had thus far managed to escape attention. Although the garden is still a long way from ship-shape we've made a good start and we want to be ready to take maximum advantage of the spring regrowth that will soon be here to get some veges growing for the summer.

Today we went out to the Waimakariri River for a lovely picnic lunch in the sunshine.  A splendid afternoon was had.

Moon in a Bottle

Here's another old photo I've always had a soft spot for. Taken with a Pentax K 1000 waaaay back in the 1980's it was something of a 'trick' shot. The somewhat blurry moon was actually a slide photo projected on a screen behind the crystal bottle - which if I recall correctly was in fact a wedding present. I guess my ex-wife must have got it because I haven't seen that bottle in many,many years.

I was always intrigued by the way the light played in the glass. Of course I've leared a lot since the day I took this shot - today there's no way I'd cut the side of the moon of with sloppy framing!

Country House

Today's 3d art piece is a rustic country house.The inspiration for this piece came from my Grandmothers collection of Lilliput Lane models - little ornamental houses she kept in a glass fronted cabinet. I was always fascinated by these charming little places - it looked like a tiny village in her cupboard - and so one day I went looking at the Lilliput Lane Website for some ideas for building computer modelled houses. Whilst Lilliput Lane house are models of real buildings in the United Kingdom my versions are completely imaginary.

This picture, made with trueSpace and Vue, is one of many that serves to support my ongoing Sci-fi/fantasy story "The Chronicles of Inthandonia: The Wizard Wars" which can be seen on our website at www.wizitch.com in the 3d art section 

Familiar Faces 

Hubble

In my last post I introduced my wonderful companion Witchy. Pointy hatted perople are generally accompanied by Familiars, freindly animals who associte themselves with the pointy hat wearing person. Witchy and I have three such familiars and I'd like to start by introducing Hubble the Cat.

Hubble, so named because, like the telescope, she spends a lot of time just staring into space, arrived at our doorstep and essentially just kept yelling at us until we let her in. Gremmels (see below) our existing cat didn't seem to mind and so Hubble became a member of Wizitch.

Sputnik

Some time after that Sputnik turned up in much the same fashion, demanding to be let in and be part of the fun. Sputnik (the only other male here besides me) got his name because, like the satellite, he seems to constantly orbit around us and is almost always somewhere in our immediate vicinity. The original Sputnik was the first ever satellite to orbit the Earth, launched by the Russians in 1957, the year I was born.     

Perhaps because we lived on the river and people dumped their unwanted pets there or perhaps just because... these two cats have become constant and much loved companions and entertainers here at Wizitch H.Q. They are as much a part of Wizitch as Witchy and I.

Gremmels

Whilst I'm talking about cats I must add a word or two about Gremmels. Sadly she passed away last October, after a long life. Her kidneys just gave up on her. I've had many cats in my life but Gremmels was the classiest lady of them all, a truly aristocratic creature. Small (she was mostly hair on legs) light but very tough and wiry, Gremmels was utterly fearless. In the face of the largest attacking dog she would suddenly inflate herself like a puffer fish, sticking all her fur out and making herself as big as possible. In the neighbourhood she was undisputed top dog (if you know what I mean) and all the other animals, including the two HUGE black dogs that lived next door, walked in fear of her.... She will be long remembered.

Wzrd in I.C.U.

In my last post I referred to the bout of Legionella Pneumonia which had me hospitalised for over a month at the beginning of the year. I had renal failure, respiration failure, heart failure - the whole works packed up and for a three day period there was apparently a great deal of concern that I wasn't going to make it through alive! Here's a picture of me in the Intensive Care Unit, hooked up to a kidney dialysis machine, a respirator, assorted breathing, heart and blood pressure sensors plus tubes for nutrition and  many other things. Anyway, I eventually got myself together (obviously or you wouldn't be reading this) and started breathing on my own. I was still in an induced coma at this stage when Witchy asked me, "Is it all right if we get a dog? I'll take silence as a yes".

Tycho (the wonder dog)

Well, even in the depths of my unconsciousness I had the good sense to say nothing, thus saving the dog from a life of cruelty and mistreatment. We named her Tycho, after the Danish nobleman and astronomer Tycho Brahe who is famous for showing that the so-called perfect and immutable heavenly spheres theory of the universe was wrong. Tycho proved that the universe is changing, once again proving that a good idea is not better than a better idea! In the Wizitch universe the theory was we would never get a dog, Tycho (the dog not the astronomer) disproved that theory thus demonstrating that nothing is certain. She is already quite old in dog years.We were told she was born 12 years ago but she seems to be younger than that. Whatever her true age is she is a fabulous friend and companion to us and she has settled in as part of the family so well that it seems hard to recall a time when she wasn't here! 

That about wraps up this post - now you've met the gang of corporeal entities that are Wizitch (actually there are several other less-than-corporeal entities that are an important part of Wizitch too but as they only exist on an imaginary level they probably need a post or two of their own). Watch this space!!