Saturday, 4 April 2020

St.John Ambulance Service

The NHS staff are doing a wonderful job at the moment. Sadly some have lost their lives.  St.John Ambulance Service staff are volunteering throughout Britain and have many staff working at the new Nightingale hospital.   They will also be volunteering at all of the new field hospitals.   Funding may run out in August and if you can possibly do so, please make a donation. 



Couple recreate beach in their living room to remind them of holiday home.

'Couple recreate beach in their living room to remind them of holiday home.'  That's the title of the article on the ITV.com website.  The title varies depending on which website you come across and it's a little like Chinese whispers where every time the story is passed on it changes a little.   One article mentioned a surfboard.   I don't know where that came from as we didn't have one in the video.  Around three weeks ago as a tribute to Olafur Eliasson's wonderful 'Riverbed' and as something to post on my Instagram feed I created a small 'installation' using recycled plastic pebbles, lightweight artificial rocks and some lava gravel. A very short while after that the coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head.  We were early adopters of staying at home and avoiding unnecessary journeys.   Our family and many of our friends did the same.   In the early days of the pandemic the loss of life was still quite small and we shared quarantine themed jokes and videos on Whatsapp.   After day three of the lockdown the jokes were getting few and far between and were getting way off topic. On the spur of the moment while considering all those rocks and pebbles that were at hand I decided to create a beach scene.   The mock-up was based on our local beach in Cornwall: Crooklets.   The top end of Crooklets is a pebble beach with a massive expansive of sand when the tide is out. It's an accurate representation if I say so myself.   It took around 30 minutes to set up and Liz kindly posed as 'the sunbather'.   We really should take up film making as it only took two takes and the cost was zero.

artificialrocks.co.uk

'Not Riverbed' after Olafur Eliassons's wonderful 'Riverbed'. Those pictured are lightweight artificial rocks.


Artificial pebble beach.

Fake beach in the lounge made with lightweight artificial rocks.