I keep getting things like this.

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Caring, Fact check, Fake fact, Help, Hoax, Misinformation, Stay safe, Take care, Thinking, Use your brainsLeave a comment

It’s a Hoax…. received_527588088181683

My friend sent me this and when I questioned it, she checked and confirmed its a hoax.

I didn’t want to say that to her, but I’ve had this as a voice recording, and also purporting to be from the NHS over the last few days. People want to help. But if they are hoaxed into sending misinformation or completely wrong stuff then it’s not fair on them. They are only trying to help.

She wanted me to stay safe, and I appreciated that. But we need to be careful not to send misinformation. If people get a false sense of security it means more lives will be put at risk.

Stay safe, fact check

Sending love.

Sketch idea

Posted on March 25, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black ink marker, Cartridge paper, Colouring, Design, Drawing, Experimenting, Felt tip pens, Fun, Pencil crayons, Playing, SketchingLeave a comment

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I did the first drawing on Monday, a simple cat sketch, I coloured it with felt tip pens, but the ink bled through the paper, so I got a reversed image on the back of the page.

I decided to experiment and added some bright colours with pencil crayons . Then I got a black ink pen and outlined the gradations of colours in the drawing. Made it interesting…. Its something I’ve done before in paintings, I enjoyed doing it. X

Sketching breakfast

Posted on March 25, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Bacon, Cheese, Drawing, Food, Fun, Kitchen, Life, Oatcakes, Sketching, Urban Sketchers, Usk Stoke-on-Trent2 Comments

If you don’t eat meat, look away now….

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If you can’t see what it is, I drew bacon about to be grilled, so I could make bacon and cheese oatcakes.

Today’s USK S-O-T challenge was to draw ‘cooking’. Various pots and pans and foodstuffs have been drawn. It’s keeping me occupied and mentally active.

USK stands for Urban Sketchers, its a world wide movement of people who draw their environment. The rules are, draw from life, not a photo, include background, not just the subject on its own. There are others but I can’t remember them all…. Anyway, I wonder what tomorrows challenge will be. X

Homelessness

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Council, Desperate, Help, Home, Homeless, Homelessness, Life, Local, Money, MP, PovertyLeave a comment

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Just wrote to my MP because this happened today….

Dear………. MP

I just had a man knock on the door, he’d spoken to my husband last week, he had nothing, we gave him a bit of money and some bread and cheese. I asked him if he had spoken to the council homeless team. He said they just come out with a flask with a lukewarm drink and a few protein bars. He can’t easily eat them as he has no teeth. He used to run a business but had to sell it. He’s living in a tent by the river. (all this was discussed at a distance well over six foot).

Is there anything that can be done for him. All I know is his name is ……. and he is in his fifties by the look of it.

Yours Sincerely

……………..

What is going on. How have we come to this. I think he would have knocked on the door even without what is going on now. People should not be in this situation.

Stay safe and sheltered.

Sent from my Xperia by Sony smartphone

Leaf like a skull

Posted on March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Brown, Description, Grey, Holywell, Inspiration, Leaf, Photo, Poem, Poetry, Stone, WalesLeave a comment

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Grey stone,

old flags,

animal skull,

leaf litter.

Age old,

crushed underfoot,

crumpled and twisted,

dog or dragon.

Brown veined,

vegetable bone,

dry surface,

gone.

Quiet, like a Sunday….

Posted on March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 1960's, 1970's, Birdsong, Cars, Memories, Park, Queue, Quiet, Rush hour, Silence, Street, Sunday, TrafficLeave a comment

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I wrote a long piece about this, then I fell asleep, my finger hit the screen and I’ve lost it! I will try and remember what I was saying.

I was bought up in the 60’s and 70’s, when shops closed on a Sunday, people bought enough food to last and put it in the pantry (a small room lined with shelves which was stacked with tins and dry goods).

It was quiet, no one had cars so we would play in the back garden or go to the local park which was a few hundred yards away over the main road. But the road was easy to cross because it wasn’t that busy.

Back to today. I sat in the garden and was surprised to hear birds singing. I think I could recognise about three different songs. They were up a tree at the other end of the garden, normally they would have been drowned out by the road.

Even the rush hour failed to happen. Normally the cars queue on the street waiting to turn into the traffic. Today, one car every few minutes.

The only thing I saw which was wrong was three young men, full of energy, walking together laughing, making fun, striding out. We have been told not to be in groups of more than two. I just worry…

Still, it’s quiet, like an old fashioned Sunday.

Latest USK drawing

Posted on March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Challenge, Drawing, Keeping occupied, Sketch, Sketching, Staffordshire, Staying safe, Urban sketchers London, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent, Urban sketchingLeave a comment

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Did a sketch of two new plants in the kitchen, my hubby bought them today. Are they essential? No, but gardening helps his mental health, so to him they are.

Is it DIY? That was the challenge, well I guess it’s the closest thing to DIY that’s happening here.

The green splatter of ink was put on first to give a bit of interest and help filling in the area of greenery.

Not sure if I got the perspective right. The plants are about the right scale.

What are they? A Kumquat and a Plum tree. I’m not sure if the Kumquat is edible. Does anyone know? I think it’s just decorative.

Urban Sketchers Stoke-on-Trent is a group of local people interested in drawing and sketching. The drawings should be a general view, so if you draw something you need to include it’s surroundings. Sketches are from life, not photos, and we try and be accurate as much as we can.

The challenge is based on the one urban sketchers in London is running. It runs for thirty days, and lots of people are getting involved.

Life goes on….

Posted on March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Family, Filters, Home, Life, Lock down, Stay safe, Staying in, Thinking, Time, Virus, Wash your hands, WebLeave a comment

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Another digital pattern that I drew that cheers me up.

Life goes on, as I sit at home, with just about enough food to last a few days, the opportunity to rest seems to have left me. I’m not sleeping for long each night, I get up and start watching the news.

But I’m not in a refugee camp, or one of the homeless sleeping rough. I’m only going to have to stay in for a few weeks, I’m not imprisoned. I might even get to have a birthday party because that’s after the 12 week ‘lockdown’.

Life goes on, I get on my partners nerves and he gets on mine, but we have been together several years and know each others ways. I admit I do nag him though. We need to stay safe.

We also have a garden which we can get out into. It might even look good if we put some work into it.

Friends are important, in our social media age. I’m probably chatting more to people now than I was before. Some social media things are worrying though. There is something going round on messenger, which first came out as a voice clip, supposedly translated from doctors in Italy. Now it’s a written message, the same wording, saying its from the NHS? It says things like drinking warm water every fifteen minutes will was the virus into your stomach. It won’t! The BBC did a fact check on this. The drinking thing does not keep you safe. The best thing to do is keep home, wash your hands, stay safe. I’m just worried things like this message will make people complacent about the virus.

Anyway. Off to do some spring cleaning again….

Stay safe, keep well and wash your hands X

3am again

Posted on March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dreams, Early morning, Footsteps, freedom, Life, Noise, Poem, Poetry, Quiet, Silence, ThoughtsLeave a comment

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There’s a bright star,

high in the sky.

It’s 3am again,

and I’m driven to wake,

to write

Like an owl I stay awake,

listening to cars,

passing.

So few in these days,

often in the past,

there would be footsteps,

or shouting.

Now there is silence,

deep in this city,

only the odd murmur of traffic.

The click and whir of central heating,

the maniacal hum of the fridge,

the oil heater thermostat kicking in.

Freezing night,

3am,

too early for the dawn chorus.

The rest of the city sleeps, perhaps….

Unsettled dreams

Of corn fields,

clay fields,

beaches and trees,

freedom,

escape from imprisonment,

at 3am I shall sleep.

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown