Fireworks

Bang! Crash! Flash!

It’s not bonfire night and yet fireworks are going off all over the place tonight! Don’t know why but it sounds horrendous. When I opened the back door to let the cat in he didn’t want to come in though. He’s a tough outdoor cat. He prefers being outside. So I gave him extra food. I keep going to the door and calling him, that wsy if he does decide he wants to be in I can let him in….. I’ll put him some more food out later…. At least the whiz bang crashes seem to have settled down now!

Ball lightening?

I was just reading an article in the New Scientist on line about the phenomenon of ball lightening. Then I remembered that I visited an old lady as part of my job, twenty years ago. We were having a chat over a cup of tea. She told me about when she was a lot younger. She was in her living room, maybe in the 1950’s? There was a lightening storm outside and she had got her window open as it was a hot day. Suddenly a ball of light floated in through the open window, bounced off the floor and then disappeared again. She had never seen anything like it but thought it might be ball lightening? I didn’t ask her much because I didn’t know what to ask. She went on to say that from then on she always unplugged everything electrical in the house and kept her windows shut in a thunderstorm in case it happened again.

I would love to see something like that. But would it be dangerous and knock out electrical equipment if they came into contact with each other? Strange how memories you’ve never had before can suddenly come back to you.

Orchids

This is a duplicated photo of the orchids in my window. I thought they were hard to grow, but they seem to thrive on the neglect they get from me. I generally just give them a bit of water once a week. I think you are supposed to mist them with water and give them orchid food but that doesn’t happen. I did try repotting them but I killed one because I didn’t know they like clear pots so the roots get light. Some of the roots are ariel ones that need to be allowed freedom from the pot. One of my plants has sent out two flower spikes since I got it. I’m hoping it will do it again.

Can you tell?

It’s Yellow… The colour for today’s #bandofsketchers prompt.

Is is the heater we have on in the living room to boost the warmth. It’s usually a cat magnet but they were not playing today. We do have a large wooden cat but I have accentuated the colour of it and made it larger to increase the line of yellow that runs through the drawing.

This was done with felt pens and permanent marker pens. I wonder what colour we will get next.

Reflections

I do like odd images that happen as a happy accident. This is our lamp shade reflected in the side window. I think it’s a bit like a floating jellyfish or an emoji? The two dark patches are the eyes and the bright patch the nose. Rather than dismissing it as an error I started playing around with it….

Now it looks like strange eyes and a nose… Sometimes it’s a fun idea to explore and use your mistakes.

X

Rainbow

After the rain, the rainbow. The base of it was really bright. The rain came down so hard and fast, a river of water came down the hill. The forecast is for possible thunderstorms tomorrow following the arrival of ex hurricane Epsilon in the North Atlantic. There have already been strong winds and the leaves have been flying off the trees. Autumn has arrived with a bang!

Spooky

Take a photo of a crinkly motorbike cover, shade areas to make a face appear. Use the spray brush tool and a colour picker tool in a drawing app to match in shapes and colours. Add shapes using various pens like chalk or wax crayon options if you have them in your app. Then change the filter to a more black and white/ sepia effect. Finally use a filter to make some areas more fuzzy than others.

Voila you have a spooky, ghostly figure.

Asleep, dreaming

After reading the cycling magazine the cat fell into a deep sleep. As I watched him his back legs started to kick and wheel, like he was pushing pedals, hard. In his dreams he was riding a small bike, resting his forepaws on softly covered handle bars. Cycling up and down the rooves, down into guttering, splashing along, kicking leaves down to the ground. Now he’s going for a wheelie, front wheel pulled up. Leaping the gap between two houses, tail flying like a flag. Eventually, after half an hour of chasing his tail on the bike, round and round in rattling circles, he falls gently into a quiet sleep but remembering his ‘mad cat’ adventures.

horse on its side

OK, I dont know why I like this

but this horse

on its side

could be stone

waiting to be carved

hewn out of rock

pumice from a volcano

found in an ancient town

or modern art

tipped sideways to shock

graffitti painted in white

on a famous building?

or slapped onto shutters

before they open

to the next day’s sun.