And finally, I have finished drawing the cast of Atlantis, only 4 years after I started! My art style has changed a bit from my first pencil drawing of "Radek-unglassed".
So here is "Teyla-Woman of Two Worlds".
Many, many thanks to crysothemis who helped me to get over my "artists block" on this one. *waves*


Teyla -Between Worlds by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART

I did this as a very big picture, so here is a close-up of her face.


Teyla -Close up by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART

Enjoy!

The warm Autumn weather has brought a crop of mushrooms to my garden. There are at least 4 different species popping up around a blue planter which sits on an old tree stump. Then there are the elongated mushrooms growing off to one side and this morning I discovered drifts of tiny white mushies across the lawn, looking just like daisies from a distance.



The neighbour's hedges are awash with berries, probably as a result of the burst of warm weather that we had. If you believe the old wives' tales, this means we are in for a hard winter! Personally I suspect the birds will be enjoying the berries well before then.


And, lastly this; because they looked pretty!


Spot the spider!

( Sick Ramblings )
I *almost* feel normal. Apart from the funny cough at night. *sighs*
I have managed to finish artwork for the SGA BigBang challenge for lucky_cricket_1's story "Through a Cracked Glass". And I have done some photography too.


Autumn Quartet by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART

In response to melagan's postings, this happened. It's a shameless do-over of an earlier pic, but I don't suppose anyone will mind that much. Warning for male nudity. All done in the best possible taste.
*sniggers*

( sparkly!John )

ETA have changed status from Friends-locked to public, now that I'm sure that A)the lj cut is working and that I'm not offending anybodies eyeballs that doesn't want them offended and B)Someone might want to look at it.
Thanks also to melagan for posting a link to it and friending me as well. Porn floozie, you are my kind of person!

Haven't been on for a while, RL and hot flushes have ruined my concentration.
Last week Stephen Hawkins retired (he's 67) as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post which has run since about 1663. There is much speculation about who will succeed him.
I propose Dr M.R.McKay, though there is the distinct possibility that after an hour of "I told you so!" he might be beaten to death at his own inaugural dinner ...
And other things Stargate: Universe. Oh dear , oh dear. It's bad when barely five minutes into your pilot the audience (In *this* house, anyway) were giggling and quoting from "The Last Starfighter". (A charmingly vintage little film, one of the first to use the then fledgling art of CGI for space scenes. Basic premise involved a teenage lad, playing a video game which tested his ability to "fly" a spaceship against hostiles. When he broke the high score an alien turned up to recruit him for real.) As the Rush character joined General Jack at the hapless teen computer whiz's door to recruit him to the SGA we were chanting. "Xur and the Ko-Dan armada are massing at the barrier..." Ahem.
I've seen the first three eps now and all I can say is that it is indeed "Lost" in space, complete with flashbacks, folks with tragic, dark pasts, horrible science, weepy women and ghastly pop ballads playing *over* dialogue. If I wanted "gritty, dark, docu-drama style TV", I'd have been watching it. ("Lost"-I didn't.) What I want is exciting Sci-Fi, with interesting characters and a bit of upbeat, even optimistic "we-can-be-better" than now story lines and even some *humour.* Or as another fan put it, "Where's the snarky middle-aged men?"

We haven't even hit the whole Disabled/feminist/Lesbian/!Fail that had so many former SG-1/SGA fen swearing they wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.I thought I would at least give it a try.My mistake.

I'm hoping that TPTB are indeed filming "SGA:Extinction" so I have something to look forwards to.

I didn't win anything at the Stargate Fan Awards, but two of the artists that I nominated did, so congratulations go to leyna55 and astridv for winning. If I'd known that I was going to end up competing with your stuff, I *wouldn't* have nommed you! *g*
But thanks anyway to the kind folks who did nom five of my works. The new categories for art meant that I was competing against myself, which wasn't helpful.

I currently have a Teyla portrait in the works which has given me artists block.(You know, where you stare at something, knowing it's *wrong* but you can't see where it's wrong.) The kind and talented chysothemis has been helping me and hopefully I will beat the thing into submission so's I can post it. Also I have some nice photos to post as well.

Here are some more shots from my WriterCon '09 Trip, posted over from deviantArt.
( Photos under here. )

Flutterby by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART
Taken in my garden at home, since it posed so obligingly!

Since I've posted twice today already, I think this may be a personal record!
Today has been great.
Mitchlux has been getting increasingly nervous about his A' level results and asking what does he do if he doesn't get his entry grades?
Well, after a sleepless night, Col.K took him up to his college first thing to get the results.They came back through the door in utter silence and I thought, "Oh dear ..." or possibly a slightly less polite version. Then he was in the kitchen, smiling and saying that he'd got it and YAY!!!
He's nailed his entry requirements B(Biology), B(product design),& C (Physics) and thanks to the wonderful world-wide-webbyness he was able to log onto the Oxford Brookes site and see his place confirmed. So we cracked open a bottle of bubbly at 10:30 in the a.m. Shock horror! Then the post arrived,containing Serina's degree certificate proclaiming her to be a Bachelor of Science. Shiny!
So we went out to the Water Margin and had lunch. Yummy!
So I've spent most of the rest of the day mucking about on t'internet and doing very little useful work.
So now I can uncross one set of fingers and work on the other ones. That Serena can find a decent job and that K can keep his without losing his pension plan.

First off, many thanks to everyone who has posted/replied/friended me. Thank you!
and I shall get round to friending back shortly!
Some more photos under the cut!
( here )
Also, I have to apologise twice; to Blue, who is a Welsh Collie, not a Fell terrier. I may have got two different conversations confused. Sorry.
And to daiseechain who did represent Potter fandom at the Con. Sorry again.
Clearly the *water* in Coventry has some interesting properties. *coughs*

Here is the refined text of the speech that I gave at Midimeet '09. I simply used my Acer netbook as a prompt with the font size turned way, way up!There were numerous interruptions, questions and several times that I got my audience to LOL! I've polished it a bit, since I didn't so much finish as run out of time! Yes, kitty_poker you were quite right, it did just whizz by and since everyone was receptive and enthusiastic, it was a pleasure to give.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity!
( Under here )

Well I had a blast in Coventry over the weekend. The hotel was good,(Ramada Coventry) the food was pretty good and the company was fabulous!
Everyone was so nice, despite the fact that we represented a multitude of fandoms, from Buffy'verse to Supernatural, Firefly to Stargate, sundry Trek incarnations and absolutely NO HPotter'verse!
I'm just posting some piccies here quickly then I will add an account to those already up as well as the text of my speech. With all the audience participation and laughter the 45 minute slot just whizzed by and various folk were kinddeluded enough to thank me for it!

( Photos under cut )
There will be more photos of Kenilworth too!

Or not. We have 10/10ths cloud down here in the South. expletive
We had a go yesterday as the sky was clear and saw a few meteors flash by including a couple of quite high magnitude ones.
Our neighbours probably think we're a bit strange.
The four of us were sitting on chairs out in the garden with all the house lights turned off. Serina started giggling and Col. K tried to hush her (citing small people asleep next door. We weren't worried about the meteors hearing us ... )and you know how it is, the more you try not to laugh ...
So there are the four of us out on the lawn sniggering helplessly but furtively and calling out "Ooh! there's one!" every time we saw a streak of light.
No, really Officer, we were looking for Perseids, honest.
Another priceless family moment there.
I'm off to WriterCon UK (Midimeet 2009)in Coventry on Friday. Wish me luck as I've signed up to give a talk and I've never done anything like this before! O.o

I'm going to Midimeet 2009! This is a small writer/artist fan Con in Coventry next weekend. I've been to a small con like this once before, BC (Before Children) held in a lovely family-run hotel in the Yorkshire dales with a load of like-minded "Professionals" fen. It was a blast! (Actually, I did the cover art for the programme of "A Weekend in the Country". Must look it out *g*.)
So I decided to do a photo manip for the art challenge and here it is!(I was going to *draw* art then realised I'd never get six portraits plus everything else done in the time left so I opted for the easier version. *hangs head in shame*)

What passes for my mind made the connection between the female protagonists and their glowing eyed and evil opponents. Of course after I'd finished it Colonel K came up with an even better idea. Destiny and Capt. Black had a relationship. So did Buffy and Angel/Spike and pushing the connection to it's limits we could have included Teyla and Kanaan (in his altered hybrid form)or even Michael in his Wraith form. Caption would have read "You kiss them and they turn into beasts ...")
Dang. I wish i had a brain! O.o
Also please pop over to the Stargate Fan awards and vote for all the fan-nominated fic and art goodies over there, before voting closes on the 15th. Vote here!
Yes I have entries in there (WoOt!) but I've also nominated a load of good stuff which is deserving of your attention.

Last Tuesday we all went up to Oxford for the day and serena_inverse graduated from Oxford Brookes. She got a B.Sc.(2:1 Honours) in Biology!! Yaaaaay, Go Rini-chan!


( More stuff under the cut. )

I don't know where three years have gone but serina_inverse has just finished her degree. She had her last exam last Wednesday, the Valedictory Ball was on Saturday and she will graduate on June 26th. (She will get her final results in a few weeks from now.)
We went up to Oxford to take her some stuff for the Ball and to congratulate her on finishing. We had lunch at La Cucina and then had a wander around town. Here's a piccy of her and Colonel K outside the Sheldonian Theatre.



( University Rage ... )

I have been enjoying icarus_ancalion's epic AU SGA Fic "Out of Bounds" for some time and last year (Oops!) promised her some art. Well, I got there *eventually* with the latest segment of the story for which this was drawn.I couldn't resist the notion of the eye-searing Hawaiian shirt!
"Out of Bounds" is here (the Hawaiian shirt segment, but you'll also find a link on the page to the start of the story-there's quite a lot of it, all good meaty reading, even if ,like me, the world of figure skating was a fairly closed book to you before this.



He was a skater boy ... by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART
( Fic Recs thisaway )

Here's some pretty things for you.

Muscari by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART

Happy Birthday to mirabile_dictu and here's a pretty for you! Sadly, while the Bumble bees are fat and healthy for this early in the year (Global warming anyone?)they're also much too active to get a decent shot of. This early visitor posed for photos, even when I lay down on the lawn next to it to take the shot!


serena_inverse and I have made a Simnel cake for Easter.I shall post piccies when it's finished. We're using the "River Cottage" recipe. *g*

So my art muse has returned from her extended vacation(!)with a bang. This started as a background piece to my Ronan portrait and then just wouldn't leave me alone. I have burned the midnight oil on this one (The only time of day I get to paint in peace, so I can go with the flow, as it were), and I am quite proud of it.
One warm point of light ...
( ...in the dark Hell of a Hive Ship.)


One warm point of light by *Miso-no-Tsuki on deviantART

And in other news; I have had five pictures nominated for the StargateFan Awards! Whee!

Your Animal is the Stag

You are a proud, independent person. You take care of yourself and are very attractive. You keep a bit of a distance from the world, but you still understand it well. You are both spiritual and intuitive. You are sensitive to all of the creatures around you. You enjoy travel, especially when it involves a long journey. You especially love traveling outdoors.

Oddly enough for this type of random quiz, it hits the spot several times, (well apart from the "You are very attractive" thing, obviously :D )I do find myself at a remove from the world, although I'm not alone in fandom in having friends in RL who have no idea what I get up to online! And I love to travel (wish I could do more, but the money, she is lacking ... ) and I love the outdoors, hence my involvement in Scouting and my frequent camping trips with the Cubs and Scouts.

Chevron 7.2 Convention Bedford Park Inn 20-22 February 2009

This is just my recollection of the Con, not intended to be exhaustive, I’ve just run together what the guests said and did at their various talks and signings.
(  Comment under here )

I went up to Oxford yesterday with Mitchlux, as he wanted to Check out Brookes as his first Uni choice. He knows the area, of course because we have been there many times over serena_inverse's first two years there, but he had never been inside the Uni itself. We saw a couple of lecture theatres and several labs. An Environmental Scientist named Stuart introduced us to a range of strange items. Large African Millipedes- about 8 inches long, were "Boring, because when you pick them up they just curl up and poo on the bench." Which it duly did. The Madagascan hissing cockroaches were interesting, one stayed stuck on his jumper while he was talking, while he pushed and poked at a number of others till he got one that made a satisfactory noise. They do hiss! Apparently it spooks the local predators big time. Since like most Insecta these have no mouthparts suitable for vocalization, they are using their breathing holes (spiracles) to make this noise.
Then he went and got us a six foot long American Corn snake to play with. Henry, I think the snake was called, was obviously a departmental pet and perfectly used to being handled. Mitchlux asked to hold it and was told to make sure the body was supported. The snake then made a bolt for the nearby sink, leaving my son apparently trying to tie the thing in knots to stop it from getting away! Not your average boring talk!
We also saw the confocal microscope that Serena has used in her research project this year, although the team using it were looking at protein migration in a Tobacco plant cell. Then we had a nice chat with some more of the teaching staff in a very relaxed atmosphere, (Tea, coffee and some very nice biccies!)and the lecturer who'd given the main talk was very gracious about the prospect of yet another Crazy Casey cluttering up the place!
So despite the miserable non-stop drizzle, that was a result! We only got to see Serena briefly as she was between lectures and Lab work. I got *pouted* at for that but we were done an hour and a half before she was due to finish her work, so we went home.
SORRY!
And tomorrow we are off to Chevron 7.2 in Bedford! Yes, the royal "we"! Colonel K is coming with me as we haven't been to a Con together in years! So, I have washed the "Daedalus" flight suit and looked out an evening dress for the "formal" party and hopefully we will have lots of fun! I am finishing a "Ronan" portrait for Jason Momoa to sign and NO I'm *not* going to ask the Flan to sign the "Sunset Sheppard" pic. But I will have copies of it ...
I know that flubber2kool is going. Anyone else?
Cheers!