Red and yellow
grey concrete
water washed
and slippery.
Leaf
warning tells me
beware wet leaves..
I just see beauty.
Category: Uncategorized
Busy typing gibberish
I’m trying to type up my weekly journal for a college course I’ve started. I need critical thinking, but I don’t think I have the gene for it! My head hurts and I can’t get my head round the concept of signs and signifiers? So many different ideas, thoughts and things to consider.
So I’m taking it slowly, trying to dip my toe in after thirty or forty years doing other things. So if I’m missing from here please understand its because I have my head stuck in the vice of education and I’m hoping to love it!
I saw a face
I saw a face,
I blocked out some of the photo, and added some lines to the result in a sympathetic green colour. The blue mecanopsis flowers form stunning eyes, the concave petals give it depth. The dark purple makes the mouth and upper lips. It’s a almost insect like, perhaps like the head of a dragonfly? I can see antennae on it. It’s something I enjoy doing, playing with images.
X
Tribute to Monet
I’m one of twelve artists from the Orme Art group who did this picture of Monets Poppies at Argenteuil. Mines the middle one on the left. I used permanent markers and coloured pencil. Others used paints including acrylic and watercolours. It’s good to collaborate.
What I like about this is the different styles and colours. It sort of brings a modern feel to a classic painting.
We have a large field nearby that has a similar aspect, on a slope and edged with trees and hedges. The area is under threat of development although it is quite an ancient piece of farmland. I hope it can be saved. Its called the Croft and its beautiful.
X
Poor minnows…
Oh dear! My hubbies minnows have been disappearing from the pond. He only put them on a couple of weeks ago. And there only seem to be three left.. There were six. The other thing he saw tonight was a large frog..
So I decided to Google ‘Do frogs eat minnows?’, the answer came back..
. Frogs living in captive setting will eat guppies, minnows and goldfish, provided the prey can be caught and is smaller than the predator. Frogs prefer live fish. Many frogs catch the fish they eat by quickly rolling their sticky tongues to capture the prey and then swallow the fish whole.
Er, we didn’t know that. I’m worried now that the rest will go. Hubbies going to try and rescue them, but I dug the pond four feet deep! How we deal with it I don’t know… We want a wildlife garden…
My odd collections
Recently I’ve acquired a lot of hats, which is odd really because I’m not a ‘hat’ person. I get them if it’s a sunny day and I need shade. Then I forget about them. I now have one on the back seat of my car.
There are so many hats for so many uses. We have a climbing or caving hat. My hubby has two flat cats, a trilby and I bought him a deerstalker for winter (keeps his ears warm). I have a couple of trilby’s someone was getting rid of. I decided to take them. Then two straw hats, and a blue crotched one with a wire to stiffen the brim. The trouble with the ones with wire in is that it can get bent. In one case the wire snapped and the brim of it became very floppy. I ended up throwing it away. I’ve never had a baseball cap and never want to.
X
Morning glory seeds
Apologies to the seed company for using the photo. I hope they don’t mind.
Tomorrow, as the weather warms up, I’m going to plant some seeds for these plants. They are trumpet shaped and climb up a long stem. They open in the morning and fade by the evening. I did a painting of one of the plants a few years ago. I only had blue striped ones last time. The coloured ones look like they will be fab. Wish me lunch with them
X
Sing time
Tonight was the first time our choir sang (sort of) together…
But of course its not that easy. When you sing with someone else there is a time delay. It’s not possible to sing in time. It’s fine when you are talking but even a slight delay in sound makes everything very strange. Tonight our hosts were a couple who teach us up at the village hall on a Monday.
So we were muted whilst singing, listening along to the hosts and singing our parts. Then unmuted to chat afterwards. And yes we used the now ubiquitous Zoom, but that’s OK.
Then of us got to see each other fit the first time in months, even though it was only cyberspace. Now for a brew.
X
Sketch in courtyard
This was a quick sketch I did in September 2017. We often visit places and instead of taking photos I sometimes just sit and sketch, it’s relaxing.
This was at Rode Hall in a courtyard by the barns. The main barn has been converted into a cafe and coffee shop, with lovely hot food too. I hope that once the lockdown is over we will be able to visit again. The gardens that surround the hall are beautifully set out. There is a snowdrop walk down to the lake and pathways through wooded areas as well as more classically arranged bedding areas. There is also a walled garden that is full of colourful beds of perrenials.
They also run a farmers market on the first Saturday of the month (not sure when that will be on again).
So, when you finally get to go out why not think about visiting. On the A34 North of Stoke-on-Trent. You turn left in Rode Heath at the sign.
Note limited opening. Check first. There are details on the Internet. Also note that there is a one way system in the grounds so you come out on the same road but further along it when you exit.
X
2000 year old yew tree
From a friend’s photo,
At Astbury just off the A34 near Stoke on Trent and Congelton. I can’t remember the church grounds it is in. The trunk is hollow. It goes to show that it is only the outer layers of plants that are really alive. Water and nutrients are drawn up the trunk by transpiration. The trunk is propped up with timbers.
I once saw an experiment on the TV when scientists cut through a mature tree, they placed the trunk into a container full of water. The tree continued to suck up the water despite being cut, this was because of capillary action. There are tiny tubes in plants called phloem and xylem which are there to take up water and also transport sugars and starches from the leaves into the body of the plant. These are the building blocks of the grass, shrub, flowering plant or tree. I don’t know much more about plant biology though. I’m searching round in my mind for facts from biology classes over forty years ago!
