Minus 10°C

Posted on December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chilly, Cold, cost of living crisis, Freezing, Ice, Icy, minus 10°C, Poverty, UK, Weather, WinterLeave a comment

Ice or a plastic star? Just a Christmas decoration…. Its too cold outside to go and take photos, but the frost as sparkling on the pavement earlier this evening. I’d been out to panto rehearsal, and walked across the road to the shops and I had to hold onto a handrail because it was so slippery. There was a report on this evenings TV decrying the poor standard of housing in the UK and the cost for the poorest people to heat their homes. If you want to know its 10% in France and 18% in the UK.

So tonight it’s going to be minus 10°C in places. That’s quite cold for this country.

Crumpets for tea

Posted on December 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged bready, Butter, crumpet, Food, Honey, Hot, hot buttered, Jam, Jelly, malted, margarine, Tasty, Tea, Treat2 Comments

Hot buttered crumpets for tea! The little holes in the top of them allow the butter or margarine to trickle down into tiny tubes inside the crumpet. You heat them under a grill or in a toaster on both sides to heat them up. The base of them is solid so when you add your topping it doesn’t leak out. I only used to have butter, but recently I’ve added grated cheese and microwaved them for a few seconds so it drizzled inside them, also try honey or jam (America calls it jelly). Note these are NOT muffins, that’s a whole different bready food.

One large snowflake

Posted on December 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, fleet, fluttering, Flying, frosty, Ice, Poem, Poetry, Santa, snowflake, snowing, Weather2 Comments

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We hear snow is coming

It’s wet outside

Falling on frozen ground

One large fluffy snowflake

Fluttered past the kitchen window

A fleet footed hexagonal marvel

Precursor to a flurry?

Who knows

White Christmas?

Too soon to know

Flitting across the sky?

Santa’s sleigh gliding through

White whimseys of snow…

Cards?

Posted on December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Card design, cost of living, Fine Art, Ideas, Life, Painting, TeapotLeave a comment

I’m hoping to get some cards made from my pottery paintings. I need to start selling things, but it’s a balance between what I can afford and what I can sell. The cost of living is making life difficult for everyone. This painting is loosely based on a Burleigh ware design although it’s not an actual copy. It’s totally imagined so I had to decide on where the shadows would fall. The background is meant to look like wooden panels reflected in a desk or table. The minds eye is an interesting concept. I actually can imagine how things look, and by talking my way through things I can generally get a good idea of what I’m doing.

A Christmas Carol

Posted on December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A Christmas Carol, Acting, Alistair Simm, Christmas, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Performance, StoryLeave a comment

This poster of our performance of a Christmas Carol has just been released. The painting was done by the organiser Glenn James. He’s a very talented artist and performer. If you happen to be around Newcastle under Lyme on these dates you might like to come and see us. The figure on the poster is a portrait of the actor Alistair Simm. He appeared in a film version of the story a long time ago (1950’s or 60’s), it was such a brilliant adaptation. I really love watching it.

Sunsets missed

Posted on December 8, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Hill, Life, shadow, Sunset, Thinking, Time, ViewLeave a comment

I live on the wrong side of the hill. On the other side is where the sun sets. If I see the clouds turning pink I jump in the car to try and catch a view of the sunset! I’ve only seen a few in the last few years, I don’t know when they will be happening. I guess I could look at the times that the sun goes down on line, then I could be there and see the beautiful view. I wish I could afford to buy a house over there.

Substantial

Posted on December 8, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, burial site, dolmen, Drawing, Prompt, Sketching, standing stones, WikipediaLeave a comment

My #bandofsketchers prompt today was ‘substantial’, I can remember seeing photos of standing stones with a flat stone on top. This was done from memory. I didn’t even know what they were called so had to look it up. Felt pen drawing. Wikipedia says: dolmen (/ˈdɒlmɛn/) or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or “table”. Most date from the early Neolithic (4000–3000 BCE) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus (burial mound). Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance.^[1] In many instances, the covering has eroded away, leaving only the stone “skeleton”.

Abstracted plastic lid

Posted on December 8, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged dimpled, Filtered, Fun, phon apps, Photograph, photography apps, plastic box lid, PurpleLeave a comment

A smoothly dimpled plastic box lid that I photographed and filtered through a few apps. I won’t go into detail but I’m pleased with the result, something between an x-ray photograph of a crystal lattice or a waffle covered in a purple fruit sauce?! Then with added scratches to give it an aged feel. I do love playing with images.

Gone!

Posted on December 8, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, Flowers, Freezing, Frozen, Gardening, Jet stream, Life, North, Plants, South, WeatherLeave a comment

Minus 7.7°C in Shropshire last night, and below freezing locally. My Nasturtiums which were still in flower yesterday have collapsed in little siddy heaps. Their plant cells have all burst as the fluid inside them expanded into ice crystals. I knew it would happen, I was hoping to still have some in flower at Christmas.

The Jet Stream up in the sky has settled below England to our south and low pressure systems are pulling down cold air from the North of Britain. We are expecting freezing conditions for at least up to the weekend. By then the damage to my plants will be done. I haven’t got any garden fleece to protect the plants, I can only hope having plants close together will help some of them survive. X

Biscuit asteroid

Posted on December 7, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged asteroid, biscuit, Black and white, Bubbles, Craters, Food, Fun, Photo, SillyLeave a comment

When I turned a biscuit over it was full of bubbly holes underneath. It looked like something from outerspace! I changed it to black and white to give it a bit more of an authentic look. I could have played with it a bit more but I wasn’t sure what to do… And I wanted to eat the biscuit!

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown