Last decade had highest ever recorded temperatures.

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Three maps, dated 1970-74, 1997-2001, 2015-19. There were others but I didn’t snap them in time. So we are getting hotter. Life will change, and possibly catastrophically if we don’t do something. I remember doing a collage about population growth in the 1970’s. I did a picture of earth with a line of people snaking away from it towards the moon. I’ve always been conscious of the environment. I was a tree warden in about 1975 and told people off for damaging trees. I think I got carried away once and really told some boys off about their behaviour. Fast forward several decades, and things are only getting worse. X

January challenge on FB

There is an artistic challenge I’m doing on Facebook. It’s called 64 million artists January challenge.

Day 15 challenge. Self portrait, left and right handed. I’m right dominant. The challenge said colourful so I tried using some coloured pencils. They did not show up very well so I put the drawings through photo editor. I’ve tried writing left handed in the past so I know I can get relatively accurate letters…. So, I used green for right and a dark pink for left. I don’t have a mirror I can use, so I used a selfie from Christmas. I didn’t realise how hard I would have to press on the paper left handed. That stopped my hand wobbling too much. Also the left was harder to do so I got less done in the five minutes allocated. Result, I might try and do some painting with both hands, good challenge.

Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails

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The other reason why I drew a slug.

I had fetched a takeaway meal from our local Chinese restaurant last night but had to go out for an hour before coming home to eat it with my hubby.

An hour turned into two (as it does), so I came home hungry and ready to eat.

I said hello, and my hubby complained he had lost a bottle of beer. He could remember drinking one but could not find the other bottle. But he proudly said he had made a loaf (he likes making bread). We went in the kitchen and he showed me the bread he has made. So where’s the takeaway I asked, looking in the fridge which was empty. Oh I put that outside to cool down, he said!? What?

He went out and bought the bag in, together with the beer bottle which he had taken out too.

Both had slugs on them!

I’m sorry to say it went in the bin. The little trays the food was in were covered with hungry slugs. The beer was empty, not because he had drunk it, but because he had put some in the bread. I was not a happy person.

Next time I’ve told him to use the fridge!

Anderton Boat Lift

_20200115_003550The Anderton Boat lift is somewhere I would like to visit. Its near the village of Anderton, in Cheshire, England. It is fifty foot high and joins the Trent and Mersey canal to the river Weaver. Boats go from the  canal or river into a lift filled with water and the boat and water is either lowered or raised to the other one. It’s called a two caisson lift lock, although I’m not sure why it’s called that.

The lift is a scheduled monument, and was built in 1875. It was closed in 1983 because of corrosion, but luckily it was restored in 2001and reopened in 2002. We intend to visit later in the year, there is a visitor centre run by the Canal and River Trust. I’ve checked and it is open at the weekend.

Slugs must have some use?

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You know how it is..

You go into the garden

When it rains

And there are slugs.

What are they for?

They munch your broccoli,

Eat the hearts of your lettuce,

Nip the buds off peonies,

And eat your ripe tomatoes.

But they also eat old and diseased vegetables.

They help clear up leaves

In the autumn,

And they are food for blackbirds and frogs.

So not all bad then…?

Mirror with lollipop sticks.

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When we went to the showing of Humanus, the film, last year, we got dressed up in fancy dress and make-up to look like zombies. I wore an air mask over my face to look more interesting. While I was putting the make-up on I decided to take a photo of my reflection in a mirror. I like the creativity of whoever made the frame around it. It was made of lollipop sticks stuck together making a star burst around the mirror. I converted it to black and white to make it more atmospheric.

By the way I’ve never been able to get the red face paint out of my hubby’s shirt!

On the windowledge.

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Got up and saw one of the cats sitting on the windowledge in the front bedroom. She likes watching the traffic passing and seeing the pigeons fly up onto the factory roof. The picture is grainy because it was very early in the morning, about the same time I took photos of the dawn. Cats are curious creatures. They love looking at things, playing with their toys and chasing each other. But sometimes they have a quiet moment and just sit and watch the world go by.

Listening to the Radio.

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I don’t do this often enough, but it is good to listen while I’m painting, ( not doing it at the moment). I’m just listening to ‘ the unbelievable truth’ a comedy programme on BBC radio four. It is about people telling a story full of lies about a subject while trying to sneak four truths past the other members of the panel. The winner is the one who spots the most truths.

It’s very very funny. You might be able to find it on the BBC Sounds app….

X

Strange challenge

I’m doing the January 64 million artists challenge on Facebook. _20200113_171621

Today’s challenge is a bit strange, write for ten minutes automatically. (when I write I think the words so that’s hard). Then either cut up or wet the paper to turn it into something else.

What I did was write in pencil on an old envelope to save paper. As I was watching an old film called the flight of the Phoenix I then decided to rip and fold the paper into a vaguely plane shape. Using rips and folds to hold it together.

I decided to change the colour to black and white because the background was a bit confusing. Plus it enhanced the writing a bit which wasn’t very clear because I was using a 4H pencil.

Annamometer / weather station

Spinning cups in the wind

Gale force blowing across the land

Pressure dropping

Rain falling horizontal

Waves whipped into crazy foam

Crashing over coastal roads

Trees bending over fences

Birds cowering in hedges

Cold is the storm

Ready to snow?

Gales are unfriendly

Viscious and fearful

Great, gusting blow…..