New paintings and regular art updates.
Looking out over a supermarket car park.
The sky had clouded over, but there was a glow from the setting sun behind the grey clouds. It just shows that a minimal landscape can be enhanced by light and colour. There is blue and grey, orange and yellow, purples and blacks all intermingling and changing by the minute.
For once it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t windy. You could stand and watch the atmosphere evolve as the sun set. It’s not a very exciting sunset, but I enjoyed it.
Esther Chilton has a weekly prompt on her blog giving an idea to post a comment to. This week’s was PHOBIA.
Here’s my response:
My phobia is flying. I just won’t. Most of my family fly occasionally but I just can’t face it. For years my hubby wanted me to go to a local airport to see jets taking off and landing, but just seeing planes coming over a major road towards the airport was scary. The urge to duck was immense. Big metal tubes with wings, no I just can’t.
I like spiders and snakes. I’ll visit aquaria and watch sharks. I’ve been on boats and trains, I can cope in a car, mainly if I’m driving. But the thought of nothing underneath me except air… Even if there were no windows, so I couldn’t see out and know I was in the air, and if there was no turbulence. I just am too afraid!
Internet fixed so thought I’d post a picture of the back yard. Thanks to my sister for collecting the baskets and hanging them for me. I have filled a few pots for the wall but the understory on the ground is overgrown with perennial geraniums and Welsh poppies. I’m trying to build up a bit of colour. I have a mad variegated hosta and some lilies that hubby planted last year. Memory is a funny thing.
Who is your favorite historical figure?
I wish I could share a picture of Queen Elizabeth 1st, but as I’ve previously explained my Internet is down.
I learnt about the Eliabethans at school, and became obsessed with their clothing. I loved trying to draw and paint the ruffs they wore round their necks and the splits the rich Eliabethans had in their clothes to show the underlying cloth.
I was interested in the history of the Queen too, not just her clothes. Her court of figures such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Frances Drake. She was monarch when King Philip of Spain tried to Invade England with the Spanish Armada but was beaten by Drake if I remember correctly.
She never married and was one of the longest reigning monarchs of Britain. She was known as the Virgin Queen. Shakespeare may have written plays for her. But I don’t know the actual facts.
My garden is in bloom
Hanging baskets hung
Plants watered
Pots filled
Took two days
Need to weed
Overgrown ivy
Need to feed
All the plants!
I’ll try and show you
When I have Internet again
Meanwhile enjoy imagining
A riot of colour
Mixed with a few weeds!
Write about your first crush.
My first crush was a boy in my Junior school. I think I was about 9?
For one year he was in my class. He was tall, I think he had dark blond hair. It was the time of the Lone Ranger on TV and he reminded me of him.
No notes were passed, no looks exchanged, but I would sit behind him in class and listen to him when he answered the questions the teacher asked us.
Time went by. I was wearing glasses by then and had to put up with being called “specky four eyes!” and nasty names because my surname wasn’t Smith or Jones. I wanted him to come to my rescue but he never did. Eventually it was the end of the year. He was put in a different class. I had to get on with life. But then I fell in love with Slade the Rock Band, or was it Starsky and Hutch? Anyway I moved on. And no I actually wasn’t crushed but it made a good title!
My garden bench looks a bit worn out. There’s a hole where the wood has rotted. Now it’s growing moss. There’s a small strawberry plant in a pot, and a few empty pots which I might fill up with flowers letter on.
I’m posting about gardening, but I haven’t been out much. The rain has been pouring down all month. Less flaming June, more flipping wet June!
I took this photo today, I might buy another bench. Perhaps a metal one? In the meantime I will continue to use this as a potting bench for now.
What countries do you want to visit?
I would like to visit Wales again one day. Particularly around Tenby. It’s a beautiful and interesting place. There is a lot of history and beautiful scenery, plus what’s better than an amazing dragon on your flag?
Scotland is my other choice, mountainous and mysterious, with a possible monster in Loch Ness! I have never been, I went to Carlisle once which is on the border. It’s always felt too far away.
I won’t fly, so unless I travel by boat or train I’m never going to go much further. I think my carbon footprint is quite small and I’d like to keep it that way! Plus I don’t really do heat, and when I hear of places already getting up to 40°C or more this year it worries me. I don’t think I could cope with it. I’ve always felt I can watch TV I’d I want to see a place. I can’t afford the reality. And there’s still plenty of England to explore too!
Plants love growing, their seeds sneak in cracks, send down roots and push up paving, this thistle is an example of one. Looking round my area the streets are less littered with litter and more by plants. I’m not calling them weeds, they are wild vegetation. I don’t really mind them, except where they grow in front of and on doorsteps. I do think that the streets used to get maintained in a better way. I don’t think I’d like a lot of weed killer to be used, but I hope things can improve soon. Hopefully owners could do a little hand weeding.
How do you want to retire?
I need a crystal ball.
To see into my future
Life could be fun
Or a daily grind
Who can tell?
Will I get a pension?
Will I have enough?
Will the planet be OK?
What will happen to the environment?
Lots of questions.
I would like to keep as fit as I can.
I hope to feel enthusiastic again,
Maybe get involved in the community.
Semi retirement is OK
But I do feel a little lost
I do try and do things
When I’m feeling OK.
That’s the main thought
A wish to be OK
To keep going.
Not to lose my way.
Mallaband-Brown