News

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged BBC, Covid19, Death rate, Fears, Life, Misinformation, News, Trump, Virus2 Comments

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I just had a gentle argument with a friend on Facebook. I’ve been watching the BBC news in the UK, and a lot of it is about the covid19 virus. There is a small amount of criticism about how our government is dealing with it.

Then there are clips of President Trump, seemingly saying that people should have the right of freedom of speech and they should not have to be in lockdown? He’s going to be speaking to the governor of New York about it? The scary thing is people need to keep away from each other so the virus can’t spread easily. Someone said they would rather be six feet apart than six feet under.

The news also said deaths in America are spiking, and that many thousands have died already.

But my friend, who I really like, supports Trump who is blaming the World Health organisation.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter who is to blame. It matters what Trump or any other politician is going to do about it.

In the end its not where you start, it’s where you end up that is the important thing. Life is difficult, but ignoring experts, and making things up as you go along is not sensible.

Arching branches

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Caged, Micro poem, Photos, Poem, Poetry, Tangled, Trapped, Trees, WaterLeave a comment

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Arching branches across the water

Filtering sunlight

Reflecting green and brown and grey.

Sunlight shimmers off the surface,

Cutting through you view,

Scattering rays

Branches fathomed in deep waters.

Silenced birds

Hidden tangles.

Trees trapped and caged,

Then all at once.

Release.

Green grows

Posted on April 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colour, Duplicated, Exposure, Foliage, Garden, Green, Manual exposure, Mirrored, Photo, Plants1 Comment

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Playing with pattern again, took a photo of the garden on manual exposure and the sky and blossom on the trees was very over exposed, but the darker areas were more defined.

I then did my usual thing of multiplying the image onto four, then turning each square so it lined up into a pattern.

I get a great enjoyment out of creating these semi abstract images. The final result is interesting because of how soe of the foliage seems to float in the centre of the picture.

New USK Stoke challenge day three.

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white cat, Black and white sketch, Cat, Challenge, Day three, Drawing, Sketch, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Try drawing a speedy cat, and include the background. Our challenge today was to draw something we love. In my case its one of our cats. She likes balancing with her front paws on the airer I use for washing, and her back paws on the cat tree. The result is a bit wibbly-wobbly.

I haven’t done an exact portrait, but that’s because she keeps moving, unless she’s curled up in a tight ball. Her brother is a bit quiet at the moment. He’s been enjoying sleeping on the windowledge upstairs in the sun.

Finished fairy in the garden..

Posted on April 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Fairy, Fun, Garden, Laurel bush, Photo, Plant, Sculpture, Sketch, Wire fairy2 Comments

I finished the wire fairy about three am, fighting to get the wings attached and in the right place. I gave her a long ponytail that looks like it’s blowing in a gale.

This afternoon she was attached to our laurel bush outside. She is hung on a nail, not very graceful but it works. I tried drawing her. All those curls of wire are difficult to draw. I didn’t want to be too precise. I think the drawing is quite spooky.

Wire fairy kit

Posted on April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barlaston, Busy, Craft kit, Enjoyment, Fairy kit, Monthly craft Market, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Tired, Wedgewood, Wire fairy2 Comments

Trying to make a wire fairy I got before Christmas. It was from a stall at the monthly Saturday craft Market at Wedgewood pottery, Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

My arms are aching from twisting wire. I’m currently trying to get the hair done and then later I’ve got it try and make wings. I lost track of time and missed joining in choir practice. After an afternoon of pulling up weeds and brambles, and trying to tackle two lots of russian vine that has taken over a corner of the garde, I am whacked. Now I’m off to cook some food. Might try and finish this later tonight…..

Blossom time

Posted on April 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Cherries, Cherry blossom, Flowers, Garden, Petals, Plants, Poem, Poetry, Spring, TreesLeave a comment

The sky, bright blue.

Clouds of cherry blossom

float above the ground,

tied down to branches,

so they don’t soar up,

creating pink and white billows,

high up in the cerulean sky.

Blossoming petals,

snowing down in the breeze,

landing on soil and paths,

scattered by the breeze.

Cotton candy flowers,

nourishing the bees.

New USK Stoke challenge, day 2.

Posted on April 20, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Drawing, Hubby, Ink, Kitchen, Life, Pencil, Portrait, Sketch, View, Window1 Comment

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Portrait, today’s #uskstoke challenge. Hubby in the kitchen, looking out the window. That’s some oo gauge track on the cupboard, soon after he went out to work on his train set. That’s why it’s a quick drawing. Looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge….

I want to go to Wales!

Posted on April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Aberystwyth, Authors, Betwsy Coed, Dylan Thomas, Language, Mountains, Snowdonia, Travel, Wales, Welsh10 Comments

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The foreign country on our doorstep. With wonderful singing, beautiful landscapes, sandy beaches, castles, neolithic artifacts, mountains, pleasant green hills, and narrow guage railways.

Home of authors like Dylan Thomas, R.S Thomas, O.M Edwards, Vernon Watkins from Swansea or Eric Madden who has written stories based on Snowdonia folk tales.

I would love to go back and have Bara Brith, a type of friuty bread, or Welsh cakes full of butter, and a nice cup of tea. Other delicacies include lava bread made with seaweed.

Driving through the country is sometimes slow. A lot of the roads are ‘scenic’, narrow and twisting. But they are beautiful. Driving over a pass and into a new valley with different field patterns, or plantations of trees is a pleasure.

There are waterfalls like swallow falls near Betwys Coed, the wooded hillsides which gradually become moorland, covered in slate as you drive into Snowdonia.

Snowdon is the tallest mountain in Wales. There is a footpath to the top, or you can take the mountain railway. Great for views, except on the day we went up when everything was enveloped in fog.

North Wales is closest to where I live, but there is a lot to see in Mid and South Wales too. In Mid Wales there are places like the national centre for alternative technology at Machynlleth and towns like Aberystwyth where there is a funicular railway and a narrow gauge line up to the Devils bridge waterfall. In the south you can visit Tenby which is a tourist attraction, Laugharne where Dylan Thomas wrote, and the capital of the principality which is Cardiff.

I’ve only included places we have visited. There is so much more to see.

The strangest thing, as you drive into Wales the signs on the roads are in Welsh and English. I find myself trying to pronounce them!

Digital drawing, Picard.

Posted on April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Borg, Digital drawing, Digital sketch, Fun, Picard, Portrait, Sci fi, Star Trek2 Comments

I’m a big fan of Star Trek, and one of my favourite characters was Jean Luc Picard from the Next Generation series. I think the actor Patrick Stewart gives the part a great gravitas, although sometimes it can get a little weird.

I don’t have a favourite episode, but I do like the film where the Borg go back in time to an Earth where Zephram Cocheran is about to use warp drive for the first time. I can’t remember what it was called. Something like First Contact. But that’s the title of a Science Fiction film with Jodie Foster, about aliens contacting the Earth. Written by Carl Sagan, so I’m not sure.

This portrait was drawn on the sketchfu website that I used to work on. I think this is about seven years old. I will probably find more of them popping up on my Facebook memories.

Mallaband-Brown

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