Star

The star was surrounded by a crystalline structure. Stems branching out towards other stars…. Light rushed down one arm from its tip to a place inside the structure. A figure emerged from within the glowing light.

How are you Doctor? the man said. How have you been? I’m fine he said. Just passing through. Looking for a large blue box…. You haven’t seen it have you? It’s made of wood and has windows and a door. I lost it somewhere in Alpha Centauri.

Oh, the Tardis? Yes it’s stored here. I can release it into your hands…..The Doctor smiled, but then looked quizzically at his friend…. Yes said the man, er, its complicated, it was the reverse polarity when it came through the quantum flux. Its over there.

The Doctor stared, there in a small crystalline cupboard sat the Tardis, six centimeters tall. Real, but tiny……

Now what do I do? Said the Doctor.

Twenty minute sketch

Tried drawing Karen Gibson, the conductor, in felt pens after watching her having their portrait painted in #skyportraitartistoftheyear tonight. The hair is wrong, her left eye is too far back, but I don’t think it’s too bad. I drew with felt pens because one of the contestants had done. This took me about twenty minutes. I should have possibly taken longer.

Finger painting in ArtRage

A finger painting done with the Artrage oils digital app which I think is free through Google. I use it on my little android phone. Two tools, a brush with four varieties with a sliding size bar and a pallette to choose colours from and the ability to to change the effect from non metallic to metallic. It’s quite a challenge to draw with a tool that smears and smooths out the surface as you draw on it. I enjoy it because you get such a different effect from other sketching apps.

Dragon on pottery

I’m getting obsessed with dragons, thus is a quick sketch of one slithering down a bottle oven at a pottery. I’m imagining it’s been attracted by the heat as the oven is heated up to fire the pottery. I probably should have a plume of smoke coming out of the top of the oven. My dragon is golden like the luster on victorian pottery. I think my dragon is a friendly one.

Sweetie Gwurly

Does anyone else talk to their cat using nicknames and silly words?

I catch myself calling them foofs, and chuzzies, tussy pats, fluffiez, nus-nus.

I call the boy cats nussies, mussy cats, twuddles, puddy pats.

I call the girl cat fluffy chuff, sweetie gwurly, little fud, and hus.

There are other words I can’t remember. I’ve always done it with all my cats. I don’t know why. I think they are ‘terms of endearment?’ I think I probably do it all the time. They are similar sounding to either their names or alternative words that mean cat like puss, pussy cat, puddy tat etc. Am I strange?

1981

A drawing from 1981 of Hanley Park lake, surrounded by trees. I used to do a lot of pencil drawings and my sister has this in a frame at home.

The park was refurbished a few years ago and some of the neat lawns have been rewilded to allow the wildlife to thrive. There are also sculptures in the park and the boathouse has been restored. It’s been a while since we went there but it’s good to know its still thriving.

The Trick, a review.

I’ve just watched a TV programme about climate change called the Trick. I don’t know if you can get the BBC but it was very informative and interesting. It was about the way anti climate change supporters hacked into scientific information and twisted it to try and discredit the scientists. These were scientists who had produced the hockey stick graph which shows that global temperatures were relatively steady on Earth until the industrial revolution and then started a steep increase.

The Trick is based in 2015. A scientist and his colleagues are accused of exaggeration of global warming, based on emails that were hacked and deliberately misinterpreted to throw doubt on the reality of climate change.

The programme showed how the scientist had to defend his reputation and the serious harm it did to his mental health and to his family while investigations were ongoing.

In the end his insight was accepted. He was exonerated and he was reinstated in his job. But it did mean that public opinion was skewed and that it cost at least ten years in fighting global warming because of the actions of vested interests.

An intelligent BBC film that is very worth watching. Don’t expect car chases, do expect strong acting and thought provoking ideas.