Aberfan disaster

Posted on October 24, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged aberfan, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2099, Death, Frightened, Life, Memory, Sad, spoil heap, YoungLeave a comment

What major historical events do you remember?

The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. (Wikipedia)

I was very young and I remember coming downstairs and hearing the evening news on the television. What upset me the most was that the children that died were my age. It scared and upset me. School children were buried below the collapsed spoil heap. I was very frightening.

5 year old sketch

Posted on October 24, 2024 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, ArtRage app, Blue, Drawing, Experiment, Five years ago, Metallic, Sketching, WatercolourLeave a comment

Artrage sketch from 5 years ago. I was learning how to use Artrage which I had bought recently and was experimenting with colours, metallic backgrounds and textures. I quite like the watercolour effect that seemed almost analogue.

Seeing a glow

Posted on October 24, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged 6.40am, 60 second exposure, aurora again, camera shake, coronal Mass ejection, Green glow, Night View, solar maximumLeave a comment

Something in the sky at 6.40 am, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. 26.10.24.even with my bad eyesight I could see the sky was patchy and a bit odd. I thought it was just clouds but the colour had a hint of green. This must be boring because it’s not the streamers and ribbons people usually see. Anyway it’s through me bedroom window.

But to notice solar activity this far south. The Sun is at solar maximum, most active over a 22 year waning then waxing. And I keep noticing it!

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt “Halloween”?

Posted on October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Esther Chiltons blog prompt, Ghosts, Halloween, Life, South, southern Hemisphere, Spooky, WitchesLeave a comment

Halloween in the Southern Hemisphere?
It’s getting sunnier in the global south. Spring is in the air. Are there spooky ghosts frolicking in the daffodils or their equivalent… The shadows are lifting. Witches must be wearing smart floral dresses… Vampires? No fruit bats. Werewolves. Or Tasmanian devils. Even dragons are different, wise and peaceful. But there are places that celebrate the day of the dead. So the question is how spooky is the South?

I miss youdraw

Posted on October 23, 2024 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white drawing, population growth, simple sight, Sketching, Youdraw.comLeave a comment

Youdraw.com was a simple black and white site with small and large black pens and erasers. The space to draw in was tiny but people drew wonderful images. For a while I drew and moderated at the site. It was trying to collect 500,000 drawings to represent population growth. I had to delete rude and racist pictures, and spent hours on some days deleting the same scrawl over and over again till the person posting eventually gave up. The site then had protection put in place to block the bad posters, so things improved. Then I found I couldn’t make enough time to volunteer anymore so I had to stop. This drawing was one of mine X

Pumpkin time

Posted on October 23, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Art group, Food, food festival, Halloween, Painting, Pumpkin6 Comments

Decided to paint a pumpkin today. Acrylic on canvas. It’s for a food festival that’s coming up, our art group is doing pictures of vegetables and fruit to illustrate the theme

This took about 2 hours to paint. It’s a little bigger than A4. It’s sort of a mixture of halloween and nature.

Fabric sunflowers

Posted on October 22, 2024October 22, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cloth, Craft, fake flower, Memories, Stuff, Sunflower, Time, tranklementsLeave a comment

I forgot to ask how these were made when I saw them at the weekend. I don’t normally like fake flowers but these were cute and life size. I think they are made of cloth. I suppose you could wash them if necessary. It’s fascinating how many crafts there are, and what you can make things out of. Like plastic, wool, wood, cotton, paper, ceramics and metal. The world is full of “stuff” , often nice “stuff” but these tranklements take up a lot of space, and are they necessary to enhance your life? You choose.

Trifle

Posted on October 22, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Blancmange, Cream, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2100, Family, Food, Fruit, Jelly, Memories, recipes, TrifleLeave a comment

What food would you say is your specialty?

My trifle is based on my mother’s and her mother’s recipe.

It consists of a fruit and jelly bottom layer with a touch of sherry or port.

Middle layer? Blancmange (not custard). Either the same flavour as the jelly or something different like chocolate.

Top layer, a decent amount of whipped double cream, with possibly cherries, strawberries or raspberries on top or grated chocolate.

You can’t really go wrong with that X. Usually I make it at Christmas or for birthdays.

Copper sky

Posted on October 22, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged beautiful colour, Camera, Colours, Comet, Copper, Driving, golden, Red, spectacular, SunsetLeave a comment

The clouds shone like copper tonight, not red or gold. This is the closest I can get to the colour like in this photo. I’m still looking out for a view of the comet that’s in the evening sky after sunset when it’s clear, but I haven’t spotted it yet.

I wish I could have taken a photo of the actual sunset but I was driving and my camera was in the handbag on the back seat and I couldn’t find anywhere to stop. I will try and look again tomorrow

Clocks going back

Posted on October 22, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged changing the time, Clock, Darkness, extra hour in bed, falls back, Night, Poem, Poetry, TimeLeave a comment

Time flies forward

Slides past

But falls back

Next weekend.

An extra hour

But darker earlier

The light fades

Time seems to slow

Nights distances lengthen

I hate it.

Bring back the sun

Or leave the clock alone!

Mallaband-Brown

Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown