Soon it will be autumn

Posted on August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Blogging, Christmas, Colours, Fun, Leaves, seasons, Veins4 Comments

The leaves will turn soon, green turning to golds and oranges, the wind blowing through the branches, stripping them until they are bare. Cold and frosty mornings crisping the leaf litter. So that eventually the skeletons of their veins are exposed. Children making prints from the leaves, painting them and pressing them down onto paper. Making them into patterns. Making them into wreaths and table decorations. Using gold and bronze spray paint to cover them. Adding a bit of Holly or Ivy and a red candle for Christmas cheer.

After autumn, Winter chills, usually wet now instead of snow. The branches bare until Spring arrives. Then buds, expanding into leaves again. Back to Summer, heat, flowers, scents, shimmering haze. Life.

Morning glory not flowering yet

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Blogging, Ceramic head, Flowers?, Gardening, Morning glory plants, PlanterLeave a comment

Green man ceramic head

I grew lots of seedlings, in the warm weather they did really well and the plants are getting big. But now the weather is cold and wet. They seem to have come to a full stop! I’m hoping if we get some more sunshine it will bring them on again… Photos to follow if they ever flower.

Homeless…

Posted on August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Depression, Homeless, Sad, Thoughtless, Walk2 Comments

My hubby just saw lots of people under canal bridges tonight bedding down for the night… Even someone with a mattress on crates. Crazy how people were helped during lockdown are now forgotten. I suppose the hotel owners who were putting them up want their rooms back. But surely the government should have come up with solutions while they were in lockdown? Or am I wrong to think that people are important and should be cared for? Added to that a lot of people whose furlough is ending are soon going to be eligible to have rent arrears action taken against them. Case of apocalypse postponed not averted.

Lizard

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blocks?, Blogging, Confused, Digital drawing, Fun, Green, Lizard, Orange, Orange and green, Sketchfu2 Comments

Hitting the wrong buttons again… So for some reason I’ve got this list of categories above. I have no idea how to delete it!

I was going to talk about my digital drawing of a lizard. I’d originally just drawn the background but decided to add this because I liked the idea of camouflage. It was drawn at a now defunct website called sketchfu which closed a long time ago. It had simple tools, but I could draw what I wanted to. Freedom in art is wonderful!

So you want to read the paper hooman?

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Claws, Fun, Humour, Life, Newspaper, Photo, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

Don’t dare think you can read this

Tis mine not yours I say!

Tis my bed and I’ll lie on it

So just you go away!

I’ll not let hooman near it,

My claws are sharp and curved.

My comfort is important.

No I’ll not be moved today!

(she got off and walked away!)

Open and Closed

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Colours, Drawing, Fish bottle, Flower, Gardening, Gladiolus, Houseplants, Life, Plant, Snapped by wind2 Comments

Poor Galdiolus stalk got snapped off in the wind. So I rescued it and put it in an empty fish shaped bottle in some water. Today’s challenge was open and closed so I think the open and closed flowers fit with the prompt. I’ve added the fence and flowers in the background. Using pencil for the sky and trellis. A few hanging baskets and houseplants finish the drawing.

Just out the oven

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Bran, Bread, Bread and cheese, Cooking, Eating, Home made bread, Loaf, Oats, Oil, Water, YeastLeave a comment

It’s looking OK. Bread made from a kit, added a few rolled oats and a bit of bran.

I used oats on the outside once it had proved and been knocked back. When I took it out of the bowl to put into a Pyrex flan dish it had trebled in size. It only shrank slightly when I put it in the dish. The kit I had used contained yeast and had mixed seed in it. It was cooked on gas mark eight (high heat) for twenty five minutes. Now it needs to cool. The loaf needs turning ouf of the flan dish but it’s too hot at the moment. I don’t have any oven gloves so will use a tea towel. Will have a bit later on with bread and cheese if it’s OK?

Making bread

Posted on August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Bran, Bread, Cooking, Flour, Oats, Poem, RisingLeave a comment

Bread rising

Expanding,

Uplifted with yeast

Oats and wheat

Water and oil

Flour and salt

Warm and gassy

Bubbles rising in dough.

From a packet

But added bran,

Round in a bowl,

Dumpy little round

Expanding

Growing

Ready to bake.

Calligraphy

Posted on August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Alphabet, Arabic letters, Calligraphy, Fun, Ink, Pen, Practice, stick, WritingLeave a comment

This was something I did in a workshop a couple of years ago. We were taught by a lovely man from Egypt who showed us how to do some Arabic letters, we each uses a stick with a knib carved in the end. As when you write the alphabet as a child we practiced writing letters over and over again. Then we could do what we wanted so I wrote my name but decided to decorate it with flowers and cats. I used it for ages on a Web page. It’s good to find old things that gave you pleasure in the past. X

Spiders

Posted on August 23, 2020August 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cat, Chase, Environment, Life, Nature, Scuttle, Spider, Webs10 Comments

Spiders, you love them or hate them… Or like me you accept them but don’t like them scuttling across the floor!

Our spiders have disappeared to be replaced by long legged ones that seem to make cobwebs not proper webs. I should not be arachnophobic but I don’t like these new ones…. However one of my cats loves them, chases them, and eats them. Yuk!

So keep yourself safe. Give spiders room, try and find a balance with nature x

Mallaband-Brown

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