Spring has Sprung

ART
I found this artist after posting a picture wishing everyone a Happy Easter on Twitter. It has taken me sometime to find who the artist of the illustration is, this week I'm featuring him. Gordon Ross was an illustrator who was born in Scotland in 1873. As a teenager he sailed (by this I assume he paid for passage, as opposed to sailing a boat on his own) to San Francisco where he studied art at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute. He worked in the art department of the Chronicle until 1904.

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He died in New York City on Boxing Day 1946, before which he had illustrated books such as Merry Wives of Windsor, Great Expectations, and Pickwick Papers.

Puck was a magazine he contributed too, the first magazine to successfully print full-colour lithography printing on a weekly publication and illustrate paid advertisements. It was a humour magazine full of cartoons, caricatures and political satire and was published from 1871 until 1918.

BEER
I blame the fact I haven't blogged for awhile on the beverage named beer! Been very busy at work, trade seems to have picked up since the floods subsided in Cumbria although it has taken  some places till after Easter to get back to 'normal' trade. A wet Easter didn't help some businesses either.
In light of all this the boss trotted of to Japan in search of new business – he could have gone to Yorkshire, but, no! He left me to run the place whilst he was gone, and surprisingly, I didn't break anything and the building didn't collapse! Although the pump decided to leak badly on me whilst transferring beer from the Mash Tun to the Kettle. I had an idea for new beer last year which the boss laughed at and ridiculed. I pestered that much he finally let me do it in January! A small victory! Stealth Pilsner goes on sale at Tebay services soon, much to the delight of the boss – who actually loved the beer and had to eat his words! But, while he was away he did a blog about me, his way of saying thanks I suppose lol "Homage to Halfpint" and here's the blog about the Stealth Pilsner "Flying below the radar"

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COVERED IN WEEDS
Spring has well and truly hit Great Britain. It's a wonderful time of year if you are a gardener, the crocus in our garden are the first to poke through the cold ground and shortly after the Daffodils appear (here's where I dedicated Covered in Weeds to the Daffodil last year "Narcissus you plonker"). You know the warmer weather is on the way when the Snakes Head Fritillaries are starting to poke though.

In our garden we have lots of pots, mainly because we don't have a big enough backyard and because we live in a rented place and aren't prepared to set down roots in this house. I have two pots, that last year I planted bulbs and seeds in, which I am hoping will turn out to be like the pot which has something flowering every month. But, I've done my usual trick of planting at the wrong time of year and waiting a whole year before something appears. I like the magic of something appearing like that, especially when I have forgotten about it.  But, commonsense sometimes forgets to engage brain and neglects to write on the pot what is in it! Oh I do save the ticket, but that's in the shed along with hundreds of other labels.

With this in mind I thought I'd post a few of the flowers that have appeared in the garden from the end of March till now and see if any of you clever gardeners can help identify them for me.

MUSINGS
I'm all mused out this week. Think I should consider writing my blogs on a weekend when I feel fresh, cause I know I'm only going to get busier at work. And I have art to produce. There is a gallery in Appleby (Cumbria) which is displaying my artwork now. It's all exciting, I'm just going to have to get on and produce another painting. In-fact it's fired me up with another few ideas.

Tunes of the week
Not only do I like Punk, Rock, Blues, R 'n' B, a little bit of Country (mainly from the TV series Nashville) and Indie music  I am also prone to a bit of Classical music too. So this weeks Tune of the week match the Blog title. Have fun this weekend.

Vivaldi - Spring