Leaves and broken pots.

Found in a pothole on my walk, someone has tried to fill in a hole with shards of broken pots. I’m not sure why, and if anyone was to fall onto them as they are partially hidden by fallen leaves. I guess whoever did it was trying to be helpful, but surely using gravel might have been more sensible idea? But it did make an interesting photo. I suppose it makes a change from bits of litter and plastic.

Old crow

Its odd what comes into my mind to paint. This again was a few years ago and a tiny painting, acrylic on a small canvas. I think this was a crow. They are such characters, intelligent and cheeky, known to use tools. They are part of the Corvid family, which includes Ravens and Rooks I think? All of them have the same clever characteristics.

This was another one of the small paintings I did to sell at craft fairs and it was sold. I think to a lady who als bought a small painting of a skull…..

Cold inside

Ignore the time on my weather station, I haven’t changed it since the clocks went back for winter. Look at the inside temperature in here, my living room. 15.6°C inside (7.8°C outside). I wondered why I was shivering. I’ve been trying to keep the central heating off most of the time to save money, but I’ve just relented and put it on. I’m still shaking while I type this. As heat rises I expect the ceiling to get warm first. My feet and legs feel the coldest……Now think of all the homeless people who don’t have shelter. I might be cold but I’m thankful to have a home.

I don’t know what the equivalent in Farenheight would be… I’d categorise it as ‘chilly’…

Silver Birch?

When I was young silver Birch trees were greyish silver. I remember seeing some in our local park. Even when I came to live in this city they were silver grey…..

But now… Each time I see one its white?! Is that right, are they the same species? I think they are…. I think it indicates how much less industrial smoke is in the air? And are trees growing faster now? They seem to shoot up. If they were cut down would their tree rings be wider, fatter, more growth in a year than before the pollution started to reduce… Memories of a changing world.

Nose out of joint….

Oops the outdoor boy is sitting in my indoor boys favourite spot on hubby’s chair. He is getting his paws under the table. Indoor boy is sitting by the halogen heater trying to ignore the situation, but I know his nose is out of joint… (it’s been three days since he sat on me, he’s more distant, especially when outdoor boy wants to have some love.) Now I need to make sure they are all happy. The outdoor cat will probably stay a while, get warm, then go back outside. They are all well fed and indoor girl is on her bed upstairs…. Cats, it’s like watching a soap opera… ‘get orf my chair kitty’ ‘why are you lettingbhim sit there, hooman?’

Tree

This is where we walked today, up the hill, across the valley of the Trent. Part of the city laid out across the view. We are a long but thin city. Countryside all around us. A lot of green spaces despite the terraces. Not huge and grey like Manchester and Birmingham. Yes we get traffic jams and pollution, our infrastructure is poor, with many bottlenecks for cars and lorries, particularly when the nearby motorway gets blocked and all its traffic hits the cities dual carriage ways. Then again we can be completely blocked up by snowfalls. Ah well, that’s life…. The tree looks out over all of that and just ignores it and carries on growing…

Cans, prompt

Today’s challenge was to draw cans for today’s #bandofsketchers challenge. Turns out a lot of things in my store cupboard was mainly coloured red. This was mostly coloured in with a watercolour pen that certainly zings. I’m not sure these are the actual colours, I was trying to take a photo in between bright sunshine and deep shade. The resulting photo was too dark so I had to adjust the exposure a bit to brighten it without making the red overwhelming, too be honest I still think it’s a bit bright.