Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown

I'm an artist based at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I paint, draw and create digital art. Contact me at mallabandbrown@aol.com

More wind and rain and satellites…..?

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Please stop raining? It’s wet and windy, again. Gone are days of snow, I know we still have them, but instead whirling clouds come across the Atlantic and dump rain on mostly the north west of Britain. In fact in the last twenty four days it’s apparently rained on twenty two of them.

And amidst all of this stormy weather something unusual and historical is happening in the South West. At the moment (22.45pm on 9.1.23) a Boeing 747 owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin company is flying into the bad weather off the coast of Cornwall. It has a rocket tucked underneath one wing which is due to be launched from it. The rocket contains some satellites and these will hopefully reach space in the next few hours.

It’s amazing that Britain will have launch capability for the investigation and use of space. And in such a different way, not a huge rocket from the land but a more interesting method. I hope it works.

Phone call… Grrrr

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I was upstairs in bed after a totally sleepless night when my mobile rang. I couldn’t get downstairs in time to answer it, so I checked the number, which was local, so I rang it, but there was an automated answer saying the phone line didn’t take incoming calls. It was from a firm I know, but didn’t say anything except I should contact them (no phone number to ring back on, no message left) annoying but these things happen. But as I went back upstairs the land-line rang. I couldn’t get back down in time. It was the same number. Missed it again. So I’ve stayed up for two hours incase they ring back, but I have no idea who to contact (it’s a very big firm), no information because they didn’t have the courtesy to leave a message and if they have my numbers then they must have my email address too, but no one has tried to contact me on that. I could literally swear! This is not good customer service.

Cats sleep..

Posted on Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Late at night

Cats sleep and I can’t

I almost slept

Then a cat crept

Onto the bed

Laid down on my leg

My leg went to sleep

But I didn’t

Shook off the cat

And came and sat

On my armchair

With a cup of decaff

And a cracker with cheese

I’m really not pleased

Cheesed off in fact

I might try and nap

With a cat on my lap

Or go back to bed

As the dawn breaks red

Another night of cat naps fled…

Next doors TV.

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

I wish I lived in a detached house, not one with thin walls and a neighbour who’s TV is right next to the wall. We don’t complain because he is deaf and I think he would struggle to hear if he moved it anywhere else. Also you don’t want to fall out with your neighbours if you can help it. Most of the time it’s OK, especially when we have our TV on, but sometimes we like to read in silence and then, well if there is a football match on next door the volume is so high that we can tell when someone scores a goal!

I think the volume next door has gradually increased over a few years. You get used to it. But late at night it can also be disturbing. I don’t think there is a solution unless we have noise lowering insulation put in.

Knocking on?

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Man knocking on the front door of an old, derelict house out in the countryside. Knocking is also a phrase in England that means getting older hence “the old man who was ‘knocking on’ in age, knocked on the door of the derelict house”. Perhaps knocking means that the person is either becoming elderly, or even approaching death. There are so many strange phrases in the English language. ‘Knocking on’ can be changed to ‘getting on’ or even ‘clocking on’ which can also mean getting your clock card punched by a machine at the start of a factory shift. The more you learn the more there is to find out!

Walking

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Two years ago I was walking almost every day to get fit. Then I pulled a calf muscle and my walking buddy got ill. I was stuck for a while because I wasn’t able to put much weight on my leg without it feeling like it was going to snap again. I ended up not walking very far. I tried to get back into it. But then illness and loss got to me. I ended the year with a chest infection. Now I have seen this and hubby has been walking I think I need to start again. There is no reason why I can’t if I try once I’m well again.

Green man at Rudyard

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
A green man carving on the walk

Hubby went for a walk yesterday and his friend Ivan who runs Ivans UK Tours (@ivans_uk_tours) took this photo. Ivan had arranged a walk round Rudyard Lake in North Staffordshire. It’s a canal reservoir near Leek. I pinched this photo off his Facebook page because it is so lovely and I love the Green man design. They walked all the way round the lake starting off at the Rudyard Lake Hotel around the east side of the lake along the lanes because you can’t walk along the shoreline. Then up into the woods to the north end of the lake up steep pathways and along muddy tracks. They came back along the path of the old railway line that runs from the lake up towards Rushton Spencer. However they were walking South to the dam at the south end of the lake. From there you can walk back across to the hotel car park. Approximately 7miles.

I think Rudyard Kipling was named after Rudyard Lake I think…..?

I’ve not been well enough to go and when my hubby described the route I don’t think I could have managed it even if I was well!

Arnold Bennett suite. The Leopard Hotel.

Posted on Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

This was the back room of the Leopard Hotel in Burslem (the Arnold Bennett suite). The hotel burned down last year taking my murals with it. They were painted in emulsion paint directly onto the walls so it would have been impossible to remove them before the hotel caught fire (apparently the empty hotel had someone growing cannabis in it and the fire was from an electrical fault. It had been bought for redevelopment and the local community wanted to take it over to make it work again. Now its gone. You can see the relative sizes of them to the size of the room. I painted them between 2006 and 2007. I miss them.