Fire!

Posted on March 23, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged burning embers, chimnea, Fire, Fire brigade, fire men, Garden, Hedge, Hot, land-line, leyllandii, phone line4 Comments

Fire!

It was a quiet evening, we’d been for a walk and I was washing up and washing the shopping. Hubby went outside to plant a rose and put some seeds in. Suddenly he ran through the kitchen with a bucket of water?!

I shouted what’s going on and as he came back for the washing up bowl filled with water. He said the pine trees on fire! What pine tree? He shot in and out again so I filled up the bucket again and then the washing up bowl.

It turns out he had set light to some rubbish in the chimnea in the garden, and it had set light to a leylandi tree!

The neighbours car was parked by our garden, it had burning embers falling in it so we are responsible for damaging its paint finish. They called out the fire brigade who arrived about twenty minutes later. They checked the fire was out with a heat sensor. The telephone cables above the hedge the tree was in might be damaged, so the firemen said they would call the telephone company as its not just us that has a land-line. Finally we exchanged insurance details with the neighbour. Hubby is mortified! If I don’t post much more I think I’m in shock!

Pears in sunlight

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bowl, Colours, Fruit, Gardening, Kitchen, Life, Light, Pears, Photo, Spring, Sunlight, Weather2 Comments

I could crop this photo to tidy it up…but the bits of blue sky reflected off the sink and the red bowl, top left, seem to add interest. I have windows on both sides of the kitchen, dual aspect I think they call it? So I get lots of light in the kitchen on sunny days as the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Spring is coming, I can feel the warmth in the sunshine. The trees are about to come into leaf, buds of blossom will be bursting, pink and white clouds. I will have to get out and prune things like our buddliea bushes. They are thugs! And the pears? They remind me we should get our crop from our pear tree later in the year….

Goose fight

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Fun, Geese, Goose, Humour, Layout app, Mirrored, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

Goose fight at the OK canal..

Looking at each other, staring each other out, which will be quickest to peck? Ramming speed… In the canal, under the eaves of the old pottery.

By mirroring the image of the goose I hoped to create a humorous image, and the title just jumped into my mind….

Day Fifty

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Canal, day Fifty, Etruria, Exercise, Feet, Photos, Towpath, View, WalkingLeave a comment

It’s been fifty days since I started the #100daywalkingchallenge. I’m surprised I’ve done it without a break. I started doing about two miles a day but I’m slowly building up. Today I did 4.6 miles. Yes on the flat, and not very fast, but I keep going.

I’m in a group that are trying to achieve this, not to raise money, but just to try and improve our health. There is no pressure, no minimum amount. Just gentle support of one another. If I don’t feel like going far I get encouraged by a friend, and vice versa.

Sleeping mask…

Posted on March 22, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Band of sketchers, Breathing, Breathing mask, Drawing, edge, Life, Sketching, Sleep aponea, TiredLeave a comment

On the corner of my bookcase in the bedroom sits my breathing mask for sleep aponea. Tried to draw it..#bandofsketchers prompt ‘edge,’

I have something called sleep aponea. When you sleep, your throat relaxes and can close up. I didn’t know, I just knew I was very tired, to the extent I started to fall asleep at work. I found out sleep aponea can cause weight gain, diabetes, heart problems and other issues. I didn’t even know I snored as my hubby is deaf.

Wearing a mask is not always comfortable. If it comes loose it feels like a tale force wind blowing in your face.

Cracked path

Posted on March 21, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, black flies, Canal, Canal boats, Cracked, Feet, path, Thinking, Toes, tree roots, Walking, Westport lakeLeave a comment

Uneven surface as tree toots push through. Top path around Westport lake, between the lake and the canal. On the left, canal barges were lined up, sometimes occupied, others shuttered. A couple sat on deck chairs, chatting. Wearing warm coats. I think they had cups of coffee to warm themselves.

We carried on round the lakes again, sometimes surrounded by clouds of black flies, sharp ovipositors sticking out their rear ends like massive bee stings. I think they were attracted by the goose droppings on the paths. They were blown on the wind where the breeze pushed across the lake, but came back and surrounded us under the trees in the lee of the wind.

I’m glad I was wearing my glasses and a hat, and I was pleased to be wearing a mask, even though it was not really needed outside.

This week I’ve walked about twenty two miles, slightly less than the week before. But my toes and feet hurt. I’m getting quicker though….

All around this hat…

Posted on March 21, 2021March 21, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue, Layout app, Life, Photo, Poem, Poetry, Sky, Spring, Time, Trees, WalkingLeave a comment

Trees and road markings,

black asphalt,

branches reach out and hold hands,

a pylon of arching twigs.

Shimmering blue sky,

with added silver,

dreaming of spring days.

If I look closely?

I see slitted pupils,

in great round eyes,

the hat metamorphoses

into a black beak?

Gold, black and blue,

brightly hued,

your cages of twigs,

snare birds who

nest in warm romance.

Camellia

Posted on March 21, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, camellia, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hedge, Ideas, Tired, Today, WalkingLeave a comment

Walking today, did just shy of 3.5 miles. We saw this lovely Camellia in someone’s front garden. As the sun lowered the colours shone out. As we were walking we were discussing whether to add plants to our garden hedge that is getting rather thin and straggly. This is now a candidate, together with hawthorn, buckthorn and Holly. Maybe with a bit of beech hedging added… Its nice to contemplate the spring garden. Soon there will be frogspawn and cherry blossom (not together, obviously!)

She’s got a good stare!

Posted on March 20, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cat, Fun, Humour, hypnotic, in her power, Paws, Photo, Poem, Poetry, Staring, Stretching, wide eyed2 Comments

Unblinking, bright eyed.

She knows what she wants..

Love

Food

Safety.

She will stare

And stare

Hypnotically

Till she melts your heart.

What do you want?

You ask, gently..

She stands,

Stretches

Reaches out her paws

Puts her paws on your knees

And claws holes in them!

Block of flats

Posted on March 20, 2021March 20, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black ink, block of flats, Drawing, Felt pens, Ink roller, Life, post it notes, SketchingLeave a comment

What to do with bits if left over paper when you’ve taken out pages from your sketchbook? I cut out the page egdesby snipping where the paper has squares cuyt out for the ring binding. I took some orange post it notes then glued the offcuts on top so it looks like windows… Crumpled up some green post it notes for the grass and bushy bank the flats sit on. Then I used my ink roller (that is meant to blot out your address when you throw letters away) to roll over the background, leaving a vertical line for a lamppost. Finally I added an orange oblong of post it note for the street light. I added felt pen for trees and the lamppost and drew in the squares to add shadow to the windows…

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown

Fire!

Pears in sunlight

Goose fight

Day Fifty

Sleeping mask…

Cracked path

All around this hat…

Camellia

She’s got a good stare!

Block of flats