
Two lone geese
Sitting in a lake
Cold wet feet
But they look sweet.
Ripples in the water
Dancing on the lake
Geese are very calm
Not leaving a wake.
Twigs and branches fall
Whipped by the wind.
Soon the geese may fly
Then see them on the wing.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Two lone geese
Sitting in a lake
Cold wet feet
But they look sweet.
Ripples in the water
Dancing on the lake
Geese are very calm
Not leaving a wake.
Twigs and branches fall
Whipped by the wind.
Soon the geese may fly
Then see them on the wing.

The derelict Goss Falcon Works at the back of Portmeirion pottery. (I hope I’ve got this right). You can’t see from here but part of the roof has collapsed at the other end of the building. You can see it from Penkhull New Road but I couldn’t get a close enough view to get a good photo. The city of Stoke-on-Trent that I live in is becoming more derelict. History is being forgotten or neglected. So sad.

A strange looking dusk with red on its head. We only saw one of them. I don’t know what kind it is but I think it must be a male one. If there ever was an ugly duckling could this be it? No I’d say an interesting one! Medium sized, pink footed, friendly!

#bandofsketchers prompt yesterday was hero’s and heroines. This is Heroine in PPE. From an image on the Internet. They are real hero’s of the awful pandemic. Hopefully no one will need their help now. X
Why π·πΊ Russia?
WHY BOMB A MATERNITY WARD?
Women and children were injured in a Maternity hospital in Mariapol. πΊπ¦ Ukraine does not deserve that. Estimates that 16 or more hospitals have been attacked in the country. I want to swear. People are being promised humanitarian corridors to safety, but some of them have been shelled too. It is slaughter, it is murder. Russians? Are you being attacked? No! Leave your neighbours alone. More than 2 million refugees have fled from their country. I’m disgusted.
This is evil. This is inhumane. Initial reports said women and children died was changed to injured. Even so hospitals should not be bombed!

You know the feeling, an egg timer or a circle twirling. The second hand of a clock ticks..too..slowly…
Life nowadays is frenetic. Be There Now! See this Ad! Watch this Vid! Even our phrases are shortened to cram more information in. Life begins to make your head spin. And if you don’t keep up? You get left behind. There is a current advert on the TV (television) with someone attacking and smashing their router because their broadband is too slow. Do you remember Dial Up Modems? Whir whir diddle diddle, a strange tune to listen to as the modem selected the digits of the Internet service provider?At least thats what I imagined it was doing. When if you got ten emails in a day you were overwhelmed. Now? thats nothing. We are superglued to our screens.. (not really).
Before that. Dial up phones with a circular dial that you had to turn to get the numbers dialled. 0 took ages as your finger was placed in the 0 hole and then you pushed the dial round till it reached the bit that actuated the number…hard to explain to you youngsters out there.
Seriously.
LET GO OF YOUR MOUSE OR EQUIVALENT.
GO OUTSIDE
LOOK AT THE SKY, OR A TREE…
SEE?
You can survive without it!

A large tree has fallen on the far bank of the Trent and Mersey canal opposite Westport Lake. Luckily it seems to have fallen sideways instead of across the canal. It doesn’t appear to have damaged any canal barges or cars on the access road behind it, although some of its branches are trailing in the canal. Seen on a walk today.

There was a cat called Ginger
He was really fat
He went upstairs quite slowly
And at the top he sat
I called him for his breakfast
I called him for his tea.
But there he lay upon his mat
Until he rolled and jumped back down
Much slimmer now, not fat!

How can this continue? Millions fleeing a European country, desperate but defiant. Ukraine is still being bombarded by a bully. Women and children and the elderly are trying to escape. They have suffered dehydration and lack of food and power to get out if the country. In Ukraine the temperatures with windchill are due to be between minus 13 and minus 20 degrees Celcius. How can anyone survive in a basement with shells falling around them with nothing to give heat, no way of heating food, no fresh water. The corridors that Russia are setting up lead citizens into Russia or Belarus. Why would you want to move to your aggressors country? This is so difficult, we sit and wait for the next move and the next. This needs to calm down, not be further inflamed. Stop the Madness Russia, Stop the WAR! π·πΊ πΊπ¦

Cygnet under the weeping willows at Westport Lake this weekend.
A Cygnet is the name of a young Swan, this will be one from last spring. It’s white feathers are starting to come through. As it moults after winter it should lose the brown feathers and become fully white. Like in the story the Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson, where the duckling is in reality a young Swan.
I wanted to feed the wild birds while I was there but the Wildlife Trust are not selling bird food. There is bird flu in the country and when they come together to feed it can spread between the geese and ducks and swans, moorhens and coots. So sad to see. Hopefully they will be OK and the population will recover soon.