Window dressing

By popular request, here are some photographs of the blinds/movable canvas screens I have arranged on my bedroom windows.

Above is the view at night. In winter I hang curtains on a pole across the top of the window.

I wanted a modern, minimalist look to my room, even though the house is about 100 years old. Japanese interiors seemed to offer the best influence, so I decided to get bamboo roller blinds. These were great for filtering the sunlight and for allowing light in while offering privacy during the day. At night, however, it was like living in a goldfish bowl.

I decided that I could not afford rice paper shoji for the windows, and looked around for an alternative which was cheap but which offered privacy while allowing light through. I chose artists' canvasses because they met these criteria and were lightweight for fixing on curtain wire at each side of the window frame. They are attached by the wire through metal 'eyes' on the rear of the canvasses to enable me to slide the canvasses up and down to allow access to the sash windows for opening, and to be versatile to allow differing amounts of light into the room.

I was hoping for a sunny morning to demonstrate fully how well they work, but in the absence of the sunlight, I hope you can still get a good idea of them. I will eventually, I hope, have a good day for the photos and will upload some more.

Feel free to comment!

apologies for the delay in posting....

Hi! sorry for taking so long to post to this blog. It has been a very busy week. The highlights, if you can call them that, are a visit to the doctor, who required a second visit for blood tests, and a visit to the dentist, who had to extract two teeth. I was not feeling too well afterwards yesterday, so had a short nap in the afternoon before getting up to go and watch the football. It was the Schools Under 18 International football match between England and Scotland. It was a very exciting game. England won 2-1. The most surprising thing was the behaviour of some of the spectators. I was very annoyed that they let everyone down, smoking on the premises (forbidden) and drinking in the stadium (you are allowed to drink but not in sight of the pitch) and the foul language in the family stand!! However, for those of us who actually go to watch the game and support the teams, it was a very good game and more equal than the score suggests. There are definitely some up and coming players for the national sides in a few years.

I feel a little better today, still sore after having the teeth out but not to worry. I am looking forward to having a meal with friends this evening, which will be a pleasant event.

I will try to do better with my Twitter and Blogging, health permitting.

First Japanese lesson

Saturday:

I decided it was time to catch up on my personal journal. Thursday was busy as Eli had to go to Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for a check up (she had heart surgery last year). I did not go with her this time so some friends met up with me and we had lunch together in the Woodrow Wilson Pub in Carlisle. After Eli returned from the hospital, we had our first Japanese lesson with Harumi Sensei. It was very interesting, with Harumi Sensei speaking almost entirely in Japanese and Eli and I doing our best to understand what she was teaching. We had to learn how to recognise some of the basic hiragana and katakana, for the names of countries and some simple and useful everyday phrases.

I am really looking forward to next lesson, and am making a strong effort to learn all 46 of the basic hiragana by then.

On Friday we had a quiet day as Eli was tired and I was not feeling up to doing much, but in the afternoon we visited my sister-in-law. It was the first time since she and my brother moved into their new home that we had a chance to go and see her so it was good to have the opportunity.

Saturday.. football day of course. I was not feeling well after a bad night with toothache so I slept a bit later than I wanted to. I eventually got up at lunchtime and Eli and I went to the football match for a 3pm start. Sadly, Carlisle lost to Oldham by 2-1 but it was a sunny day and we were with friends so it wasn't all bad.

We are hoping to attend the under 18's schools international England v Scotland match which is being held here in Carlisle on Friday. I hope to post about that next time.

I feel like I haven't had any time to do any writing or artwork for so long now, because of my health being poor and having such cold weather I haven't been out much. I really must make the effort now spring is here and get writing again and creating installations.

Watch this space :)