New paintings and regular art updates.
Keeping himself clean
Soft and shiny fur
He likes to be seen
It makes him purr
Sharpening his claws too
That’s what you have to do.
When you are a black and white cat.
Not too thin, not too fat.
Just lovely, friendly, neat
with neatly washed feet x
After twenty four hours and over 13000 votes Penkhull’s flag finally won out over Tiree in Scotland by 51.5% to 48.5%. So very very close. I couldn’t resist going on twitter every few minutes to check what was happening, through most of the night! It’s silly but I’m very proud of our little village in the city.
The flag institute who ran the poll was amazed at the number of votes that were cast. The lead swapped backwards and forwards between us and Tiree. A wonderful feeling to have actually won!
I live in Stoke-on-Trent and the village at the top of our hill is called Penkhull. It was mentioned in the Domesday book and was a Royal Manor from 1086 to the time of Edward the Second. It is a village in a city and people like it so much that they had a competition to design a flag.
The flag has a golden Cockerel symbolising the weather vane on top of the church steeple. It stands on a blue ground which is for the blue of Spode, the old pottery firm in nearby Stoke-upon-Trent that manufactured ceramic products including the willow pattern pots that became synonymous with the factory.
The yellow oval and lines radiating out are for the road around the village green and the four roads each leading downhill from the village.
The green is to show that is a green place in the middle of a city. The whole design was approved by vexillologists (no I didn’t know that word before the competition) from a charity called the flag institute.
So why am I up? Penkhull is taking part in a competition being run by @theflaginstitute on Twitter. It is in the #WorldSeriesOfFlags and is up against the golden rays of barley from #tiree in Scotland. This is the final. I have not been able to sleep since I saw that Tiree had got ahead of us in the final they are on about 51.8% and we are on 48.2%? Something like that. Its very even between the two places.
Don’t know if I can get back to sleep…. The vote on Twitter ends at 11am. I think I’m in for a long night.
Leaves leave
Leafy loss
Trees shiver
Bare branches shake.
Wind blows
Northern ice
Frost burns
Firey colours
Through your crown.
Here today
Gone tomorrow….
Gold, red and green….
Brown
Mulch.
My friend Martha Kennedy just wrote this blog post and I think it’s an awesome idea. I’m going to suggest my hubby has a go!
View of the fire escape stairs across the road. We live opposite a pottery and of course it looks industrial. The superstructure allows people to come and go at various floors. The doors are always open in hot weather and sometimes people stand on the platforms during hot weather. They have gardens and trees around the grounds. At least they are trying to green the area.
Digital drawing of a marble. Something from a few years ago. I drew it at a site called Sketchfu that has closed down. I keep finding old pictures from there so I hope you don’t mind me sharing.
I was trying to get the effect of a sphere and getting the reflections was quite difficult. I like the colours. I was trying to make it look like the swirls in an old fashioned glass marble ( sometimes called ‘murps’.) Big marbles were called ‘Allys’. Kids would make a bowl or indentation in the ground, and you fired a marble at a group of marbles in the bowl shape by flicking it with your thumb. You won the marbles that you managed to knock out of the bowl/ indentation in the ground… Mostly played by boys, I used to play on the carpet at home….
Tonights walk. Up and down hill again. Called in a shop so carried four or five kilos home in bags. A few weeks ago I wasn’t doing much at all. Today I did over 7000 steps. I don’t know how far that is in miles, probably only two or three. It suddenly doesn’t seem as difficult as it did!
Yes it’s tiring, but after visiting the doctors yesterday I know they think I’m doing well. Fingers crossed that I can keep it up!
Orme Art group collaboration on a Henri Rousseau painting done for August. We have all taken one or two squares and created this amalgamation of styles. Mine are the one with the head and the body of the guitar. It’s good to see everyones techniques and takes on the subject. How some bits don’t line up, but overall it has a wow factor. Hope you enjoy.
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This hanging basket had a solar light shining over it. With the sunshine we had today its really bright. The colours stand out well in the night against a dark sky. Perhaps we will add more over the other baskets.
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