Reflecting

Posted on July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acava Studios, Art, Blogging, Eleanora street, Lfe in lockdown, Life, Memory, Spode site, Spode studios, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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This is from last year or the year before when I was taking photos at Spode and manipulating them in the layout app that I use to mirror and duplicate photos.

I haven’t been down to my studio at Spode for months with the lockdown, it just didn’t feel safe. The studios are not easy to socially isolate at, with mixed toilets and narrow corridors. I need to go back and build my confidence again. I’m still paying the rent though. I won’t give up on the idea. Just wait! I hope I will soon be creating there again

For the birds

Posted on July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Blogging, Cherries, Environment, Fledglings, Food, Fun, Garden, Nature, Seeds, Species, TreeLeave a comment

The blackbirds sing,

The thrushes too

The robins nest,

Their fledglings new.

A magpie there

And pigeons too?

They congregate

And feed on seed.

Blue tits

and house sparrows,

All had their nests.

Feeding them all

Is our happy chore.

Yes eat your fill,

Of cherries ripe.

We’ve had ours now

The rest, enjoy.

Home made lunch

Posted on July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Coleslaw, Colour, Food, Fun, Home made, Plate, portmeirion, Post modern painters, Random, Still life, TasteLeave a comment

Home made coleslaw (cabbage, carrot, red onion) with reduced calorie mayonnaise. A small piece of brown seeded bread with a bit of pate, a couple of chopped up tomatoes, half an avocado pear and some de-stoned red cherries. Also a few cheese and onion potato crisps. On a Portmeirion plate. Why? Because I liked the colours mainly. I watched a programme about still life last night and the interest that images of food created was fascinating. At one stage still life was seen as the lowest form of art, but the innovations of artists gradually made it more accessible and acceptable. Artists like Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso bought new definitions of what still life meant. Art is fascinating. It’s funny the ideas you can get by staring at a plate of food. X

More cherries…

Posted on July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Branches, Cherries, Cherry tree, Food, Fruit, Gardening, Life, Nature, Plants, Sunny, Sweet, Tasty, Tree, UmbrellaLeave a comment

Used a hoe to pull the branches down and caught all these cherries in a brolly today. It was sunny for a couple of hours and the wind had dropped so we took the chance and dodged the rain showers. Picked loads, but there are loads left on the tree.

Now I’ve got to decide what to do with them. I might add them to some gin. Or I could make cherry pancakes.

This is a glut of cherries. If we were not in lockdown I would be sharing them with friends. It’s the biggest crop we have ever had from the cherry tree. If I could freeze them I would but I think they would spoil.

Cold and grey

Posted on July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Col, Fun, Grey, Heat, Ocean, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme, Sea, Sunshine, Warmth, WeatherLeave a comment

Cold and grey, day

Not got much to say..

Yet,

Grey as it can get?

You bet.

Till tonight’s sunset?

Maybe

We will see

Unless the sun does shine

Fine.

Then happiness will be mine.

So clouds roll away please,

Give us warmth and ease

Some pleasure we can seize

Till we can visit seas

And oceans.

Give us notions

Of calm and peace

Please.

Windows

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white photo, Cat, Heart murmur, Life, Photo, Surgery, Time, Ultrasound, vets, Windows5 Comments

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Sitting in my car on a sunny day. Waiting for an appointment with the vets. They had to phone me while I was outside because I wasn’t allowed inside with my cat. The problem was that my phone signal wasn’t good. I was ten foot away from the vet and she couldn’t hear me! I stood outside the car and shouted, she still didn’t hear me. But I know the layout of the surgery. Beyond the door is a short corridor, at the end is the consulting room. If she had opened the consulting room door, she would have heard me. Meanwhile my cat was quiescent in his travelling bag. We’ll, eventually the vet came out. The cat was carried in. Then half an hour of waiting. That’s when I took this photo.

Next stop? Ultrasound scan on his heart next week as he has a heart murmur. Also antibiotic liquid, that was fun. It took ages, but I got him to take it in cat milk. Cats don’t know what’s good for them!

Fingers crossed he will be a bit better when he has the scan.

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bees, Blogging, Earth, Ecology, Flowers, Insecticide, Insects, Neonicotinoids, Plants, WorldLeave a comment

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Bees…

Apparently they are more and more at risk. Bees pollenate the vast majority of flowering plants on the Earth, and their counterparts including hoverflies are also under threat.

What with? Insecticides, that are used to control insect pests. These include Neonicotinoids that have been found to disorientated bees (as well as killing them) so they cannot find food. Without them we would not have fruit and vegetables. But unfortunately big pharmaceutical companies keep wanting to sell insecticides. There have been court cases that stopped their use. But they fight back.

If only we could use non invasive alternatives. Biological treatments that would eat pests. Like nematode worms, for instance. The problem is humans need quick solutions to save crops from things like locusts. But I think we should use these things sparingly. There are many ecological and moral questions and problems. I hope we can sort it out.

Playing with photos again.

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Duplication, Facebook, Fun, Images, Instagram, Mirroring, Photo, Photos, Playing2 Comments

Take a dramatic photo, mirror and duplicate it, and you can get some interesting effects.

These were done in the layout app I downloaded. It’s linked to Instagram and Facebook so you can post your results to the feed of both of those platforms.

Yard sale at cherished chimneys.

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cherished Chimneys, Chimneys, Delphiniums, Gardening, Lavender, Longport, Pelagonium, Plants, Reclamation yard, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Yard saleLeave a comment

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Cherished Chimneys at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent is a reclamation shop which specialises in chimney pots and tea pots. They were selling cups and teapots, chimneys and books, plants and beautiful ceramic decorations for roofs.

We bought a chimney stack and a zinc bucket for planting up. I want to plant the delphiniums we got in one of them. I also bought a lavender plant and a pelagonium. When I’ve tidied up the yard I will post photos, but I need to cut back the neighbours bramble / blackberry bushes that are growing through our side of the fence. I don’t mind the ones with flowers on as I can pick the fruit later in the year.

Light

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Colour, Drawing, Felt pens, Light, Permanent markers, Sequins, Sketching, Urban Sketchers, Usk Stoke-on-TrentLeave a comment

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Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge today, Light. I had got some new permanent markers so decided to do something colourful. I did use a fine liner pen and a 6b pencil. Also used an almost dried up pale blue felt pen to add some shading to the window frame. The standard lamp has a lampshade covered in sequins. (speckles on the drawing). There will be another challenge in a couple of days. I wonder what it will be….

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown