I've started my Culloden Battle painting.
It took me some time to work out the composition I could live with. In essence I wanted to paint the Leanach Cottage, then out of the blue I felt like painting a misty part of the battle behind it. I really liked that, but then got into trouble due to the size of the canvas.
In the end I worked it out, cottage a bit further back, soldiers a bit to the foreground. (I had wanted it the other way round at first)

The soldiers will be painted in full detail, then I will put them in a misty setting. Hooray for having bought zinc white which is rather transparent! I hadn't expected it to need it again so soon after the Great Wall!

The cottage will be clear & bright, in full (sun) light.

Yesterday I got the basics done:



I've done a lot of work on the soldiers today. Not done yet, but for today it was enough.
Also altered the colour of the roof so it has the right colour to work with now :)
You cannot really tell, but it is a substantial difference. From the purplish blocking colour to a dark brown-red, it's true base colour.

That will be often be different for men and women.
Many men don't feel the need to get married or married again.
Especially not if they've been married before. They reason logically. It costs money, if we break up it costs money. They'll say, "what difference does it make? None!"

To a man making money, providing, being successful that way is extremely important for his sense of well-being, of being a man.

For a woman on the other hand marriage means a deeper commitment than 'just' a relationship.
For women safety is of the utmost importance. Only if she feels safe is she able to fully open up, thrive, grow, and love.
Marriage gives her that sense of safety, knowing he won't just bugger off on a whim, won't easily fall for another -maybe younger- woman, knowing and feeling he chooses her.
It's a big statement, and one a woman generally needs for reasons mentioned above.

So if a man wants his partner to be able to fully blossom and to feel safe, she can be totally vulnerable and open to a much deeper level for him, he gives her that gift. It allows her to grow in her love for her man.

This is stuff few people know.
Men generally think she's after his money, doesn't understand how incredibly important feeling safe is for a woman, which has nothing to do with his money.


As for what's better for you... only you can tell. If you want marriage then that's what is best for you. Don't compromise because of a man. Instead learn to convey your needs properly to a man so he understands why it's so important to you.

Also, I think sexy means something different to both genders.
I gather for men it means sex, lust, getting aroused. Nothing more, nothing less.

To women, however, it generally means she feels he's the Alpha man, the right man to make her happy, safe. The one who will love her forever, commits to her and so on.

That's why men can easily prey on women, and why it leaves them heartbroken.

Hmmfff, interesting question. I'm not for short answers, hihi. Not even if I try can I pull that off but recently learnt it is very much a female/feminine thing so I take that as a compliment :D

Sexy... behaviour, body-language, clothes that rouses sexual desire in the other gender, and with that begets attention.

In essence it's nothing more than that, it won't lead to love nor the romantic love most women dream about.
Being sexy as a woman actually means you're more on your masculine energy side, and a man needs to pick up oestrogen (via his nose, subconsciously) to become romantically interested.
Sexy will cause blood to flow to his nether regions.
Since it comes from a more masculine energy part, it makes women competitive, removing them from what is so healthy for women: sisterhood! Personally I detest competitive women, horrible creatures.

A sexy man... the truly sexy ones that exude that are usually the players, the ones that won't ever commit. Yet in a woman they'll rouse her desire and need for an Alpha male. She'll make the mistake of taking him for one.
The man will likely get a lot of sex and leaves a trail of broken hearts in his wake. And he likely won't ever feel happy and fulfilled.

Once there is love & bonding, "sex and sexy" take on another meaning as they're embedded in different hormones and thus feelings.

And... a woman needs a truly good lover. Not the player who's out for his own pleasure.
A woman actually needs 9 different orgasms (involving 9 different erogenous areas) in order to be truly fulfilled.
That can only happen when she feels completely safe, loved, and cherished.

So I'm not so sure sexy gets the proper amount of emphasis. As in, it gets too much.
It's far more important for men to work on getting their testosterone back to healthier levels and for women to do the same with their oestrogen etc.
"Sexy" probably is the result -or the cause- of our hormones to be disrupted.

4C Grey & gloomy with rain. Late afternoon possible sleet and icy roads.

For all women who wish to have children in the future...

When I was a young mother I came across young women from the UK during holiday. We ended up talking about childbirth and they were all scared of natural childbirth. It seemed to gross them out too? Lots of "Eeww"s.
I could not understand as in The Netherland most women go for natural childbirth, often a home delivery as well.
But these women, English, preferred a C-section.
I couldn't believe it.

Drawback of C-section: during natural childbirth the baby get some vaginal bacteria in its body. This is of vital importance as these bacteria are the basis of the baby's micro-biome.
Without it the gut health of the baby won't get off to a good start.
Gut health is the foundation of your entire health. There's even a direct link from the gut to the brain via the Vagus Nerve, apart from a healthy immune system begins with a strong microbiome (gut health) and so on. Literally everything rests on that when it comes to health.
So a natural childbirth is very important for the baby's health, not just as a baby but for his/her entire life!

When a baby is born via a C-section it misses out on that. I've heard there are doctors/midwives that then swap the baby's mouth with vaginal juices from the mother directly after the C-section.
It is THAT important.

Maybe a good thing to consider if you wish to have children in the future. If there's medical reason for a C-section then you have no choice. In that case remember to have the baby's mouth swapped immediately afterwards!
You'll be doing your child a tremendous favour!

Could be okayish on a gaming site, but what you've got doesn't impress on a dating site.

Photos with another person, which one are you? Such photos aren't handy for a dating site.

Hiding your face behind a face mask, sunglasses, mobile phone?? What have you got to hide?
If you don't want to show your face with a clear photo and a smile you're not going to be very successful on a dating site.

You give out contact details so now every idiot can contact you.

So not a great profile for a dating site.
0...

2C sunny after a brief period with frost, both at night as during the day.
The worst was -7 at night, which happened once.

It's better to have some frost and sun than rain and clouds and gray, but at the same time I don't like cold, hihi.

Currently back to watching Vera
I stopped when season 10 was out as I didn't like the way they'd started doing things.
Then found out that they went back to the original format with season 11 so I'm catching up :)
Season 13 has just come out on Jan 7th.
Unfortunately Aiden left the series and is replaced by the guy that was Vera's right hand before him.

You cherish her, make clear you're serious and not just about sex sex sex.
And you don't go posting half naked photos of yourself on the net.

Well, you came up with it, which was great!!
I don't watch tv, am not in the US either, so I don't see any commercial (thank goodness!!).

But at least we are getting an idea of what's out there :)
If memory serves the one I came across does tell you the levels of oestrogen and progesterone, which is likely why it's E62,95 (USD about the same).

But... it could be a great option nonetheless!
My GP told me at the time the only thing he could have checked is FSH (which is what the Clear Blue test checks as well).

Obviously that isn't exactly correct if you can test for hormone levels with saliva and even buy a home test for that.
I'm guesstimating insurance won't cover that so you can buy it yourself, or not.

Don't know about worst advice.
Best advice:
- You need to have boundaries.
That really make me think and realise I didn't have any when it came to love.

Another great one that has helped me a lot when I first started dating after breakup:
- make a list of what you want in a relationship & partner
- go over said list and delete everything that's based on old stuff (from exes, projections, old pain etc)
- go over what's left over (likely not much) and check everything you yourself don't yet embody.

Then you know what you have to work on to become a match for the partner & relationship you want.

Hilarious, Soufie, but danged good advice nonetheless!!

Julie I looked it up.
It's this: Clear Blue Menopause Stage Indicator~

It works with urine, is a stick, pretty much like a pregnancy test stick.
It measures FSH.
It tells where you are in menopause: peri, late peri or post menopause.

One kit is around $20 and has 5 FSH test sticks. You measure over 10 days with those to get your indication of where you're likely at.

Great info, especially if you don't know where you are concerning menopause!

It doesn't tell how you're oestrogen, progesterone levels are though. But if you test to be peri or post menopausal you can know what else is going on in your body (all the stuff I posted earlier will be happening in various degrees) so you can choose to take steps.

Thank you, Julie!

And I've been there too, twice over the years! Not a clue as to why. I was totally blocked from the site, but somehow managed to contact someone who then sorted me out again.
First time it happened I was lucky enough to have another member's contact details so I could ask them to tell a mod.

In any case, glad you're back!

Thanks, Julie!

OT --- The Great Wall of China.
30x40cm Acrylics

After many hours of painting, lots of tweaking, re-doing, correcting, tons of fine detail, and glazing it's done!

Right, so I gather from your reply to me that you don't understand.
You think you have changed, are now a high value woman with the way you're behaving. I'm sorry to say, but you're not.
You do not understand how man function, they're not the same as women. I've explained a few times and you still stick to being demanding, wanting him to function like a woman instead of a man.

But alas... your choice. I guess we don't learn until we're ready for it. But don't be shocked if your dating life isn't going to get any better as there's a phrase for women who are and behave like you:
High maintenance.

In case you don't know, that's the opposite of a high value woman... The High Value woman is very attractive, the high maintenance one not so much.

In any case, good luck.

Don't think I mentioned it yet, another thing that is related to menopause:

- dental issues

I had noticed that one myself when I became peri-menopausal. Suddenly my teeth seemed to be falling apart in my mouth. Teeth breaking, root canals, tooth inflammation without any reason, and so on. All that in spite of me taking calcium & magnesium since I was 38-40ish.

The inflammation cost me my tooth, had to have it pulled.

Cost me a fortune in spite of good dental insurance. But the cost exceeded coverage of the year so I had to pay for any additional cost myself.

I told / asked my dentist that I suspected it had to do with menopause and she basically discarded it.
It seems to have stabilised the last 2 years, thank goodness!

When I heard Marie Claire Haver mention dental issues I finally had the confirmation.

Thanks Stormy, great you're adding sources for info to it!
I'll check them out too!

More work done today, and I did the 2 layers of glazing to change the values.
It did get quite dark, have to get used to that.
It will get a wee bit lighter again when I add some white indications of the stones.

Also the bright Indian yellow will go lots lighter and softer once I do the indication of stones with white on it. To see the difference look at the 2 upward sections of the wall, 1 on the left still bright yellow, the other not. The only difference is that I painted the white lines for stones on the one and not yet on the other!

I also added the 3 windows on the tower that's just to the right off the centre.

In any case, not done yet. But I am close to finishing it now.