Weather

Posted on October 23, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, Spode, Temperature, WeatherLeave a comment

OK, I just took this picture of our weather station. The date and time are wrong because I can’t work out how to set it and lost the instructions years ago. We have high pressure of 1017 milli bars?? Temperature outside is 10.2 Celsius and inside its a warm 20.8 Celsius.

Humidity, bearing in mind its hardly rained for weeks again is 66% inside and 71% outside. Its showing rain expected In fact the North of Scotland might be getting some snow. It was over 10 degrees warmer last week ! So why do I think this is interesting? Because it means it will be getting very cold at Spode. I should be there painting and I’m finding more excuses not to go there.

Time to get organised and get painting again.

Remembering Devon

Posted on October 23, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Devon, Flowers, Green, Hedgerow, Photo, PinkLeave a comment

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It’s been a few years since we visited Devon and I want to go again soon. When the Sun shines its glorious, the air feels clean and the Sun gleaming off the sea makes you feel alive.

These flowers were in the tangled hedge along the pathway to the shore. I only used my old digital camera to take the shot and I was pleased at how clearly it came out. The stamen were curved into loops, the pink petals had deep cuts in them making it look like they were two petals, not one. The sunlight just catching areas of the photo lifted the dark areas and gave it interest. I was also pleased with the slight blurring in the background.

The whole photo brings back memories of the sandy path and steps down to a small bay, the blue sky and sea. Sitting on a rock as the sea came in to the low cliffs surrounding the bay. And the view out over Plymouth sound. We must go back.

Pears

Posted on October 23, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, Blogging, Drawing, Garden, Gardening, Pear, Sketch, TreeLeave a comment

A couple of weeks after our small crop of apples the pears have almost all fallen off the tree following a strong breeze. There are two left up on the tree.

As with all windfalls they are a bit battered and bruised. We had a few earlier and I think birds have been trying to eat them too, but pears stay hard for ages then suddenly ripen so they are not soft enough for the blackbirds and robins in the garden.

What to do with them? I’m going to chop off the bad bits then poach them in white wine when they are a bit riper . I dont think they will be beautiful pears standing up right in their bowls, but a bit more of a chopped up chunky pudding, with added custard. I might take photos!

Why is the tree at an angle? I don’t know, we put it in and it grew this way. This year we put an old shelf upright underneath it to support it as it was tipping further. As it grows large fruit, they seem to pull on the top half. Hopefully it won’t snap. It was bought as a sapling from an old Woolworth store. It must have been planted 20 years ago and since its matured it’s always borne fruit.

Hooray for the old pear tree. Faithfull fruiter!

Old age creeps up on you

Posted on October 23, 2018October 23, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Apnea, Books, Night, Reading, Sleep, TiredLeave a comment

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The pile of books on the bookcase in our bedroom is growing larger. Books to read before I go to sleep at night. Real books not on an ereader.

Pratchett, Herriot, Cornwell, Stewart, all books I have read and need to move so I can read something new. I recently found my thesis on pre Christian celtic art. I wanted to take it downstairs but I forgot so it’s on the pile. Plus photos from years ago, on the top of the bookcase and on the wall. Real photos printed on paper. I have lots of albums of them on top of a wardrobe, which is like a closet but is made of wood with doors.

The elephant in the room is my cpap machine. It’s an air pump that pumps air through a face mask at slightly higher pressure than normal. I wear it at night to keep my airway open. It forces air through my mouth and nose so my airway doesn’t collapse and stop me from breathing. When you are asleep you don’t have control of your muscles and they can become slack and collapse at the back of your throat. Hence the machine.

OK so I’m not that old. It’s just this paraphenalia that makes me Feel old. But I guess I’m lucky. I was diagnosed Now all I do is read a book till I’m sleepy to take my mind off the mask.

Richards painting

Posted on October 23, 2018 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Cheerful, Life, Love, Painting, Reflections, Thought2 Comments

This is my partners painting of our old cat from about 30 years ago.

It’s oil paint on hardboard. He doesn’t paint but when we had this cat he decided to have a go. He also did a large painting of sunflowers at the same time. I love this , it’s up in our bedroom. When I wake up in the morning I remember her.

To anyone who thinks they can’t paint or draw I would say it doesn’t matter. This is a loving attempt at capturing a sweet cat. It’s the feeling behind this that matters and I love Richard for painting it.

He’s a good cat.

Posted on October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cat, Cold, Drawing, Feet, Photo, Sketch, SleepLeave a comment

It’s getting cold and I need to put the heating on, but my cat has decided to curl up on top of my feet. I’m sitting infront of a chair that I’m using as an easle and he is tucked under the chair on top of my feet and next to a box containing my paints. In the meantime my feet are warm as toasty, but my legs are cold . . But I don’t want to move him.

Hunched over my phone 📱

Posted on October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apps, Computer, Humour, Internet, Life, Mobile, Poem, Poetry2 Comments

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Oh the bells and whistles

Oh the joy of text.

Tied to my computer

Can’t give it a rest .

Colours lights and art groups

Follow this and that

Games and news and videos

Just another app.

Fake and real and horrible,

Words all torn and turned

Life is just an algorithm

Reality unheard.

Sent from my mobile

Into your old brain

Never been so engaged

With nothing, no real gain.

So put that ruddy phone down

Turn off your all your apps

A call back to reality

Before your life is …

Hacked!

Digital juice

Posted on October 21, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Digital drawing, Life blogLeave a comment

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Every so often I come across drawings I have done on the computer, this was part of a drawing challenge a few years ago. You would work from a reference photo someone posted on line (in this case a site called Sketchfu that has since closed). Then a group of artists would draw the image using the tools on the site, which were a palette of about 100 colours, a colour picker, about 5 different sized pens, a control of opacity, and I think there was also an eraser.

The tools were minimal but enough to be able to create quite good images. I wish the site was still working. I spent a lot of time there. The shock when the owners decided to close it. I know several thousand users were distraught, they had invested so much time in it. I had downloaded a lot of my work but I know a lot if people lost everything.

Cold

Posted on October 21, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Artrage oils, Chill, Cold, Digital drawing, Frost, Poem, Poetry, Wind, WinterLeave a comment

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Blue and cold, chill my bones,

Snow falls sifted like icing sugar.

Whorls of wind taking heat away.

to where? Icy fingertips frosted nose,

Ankles and feet lumped with shivers,

Cooled heels , cold arms, breath softly turned to cold fog.

Heating is on but not making a dent in the chilly room.

Yesterday was glorious, brilliant, sunny.

Now I need thermal clothes to encapsulate me.

It may not warm till spring, when suns return heralds warmth.

Till then, head down, under duvet, I try and stay warm.

Winter begins in Autumns arms.

Acers

Posted on October 21, 2018October 21, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acer, Autumn, Autumn colours, Beauty, Bronze, Copper, Crimson, Gardening, Gold, October, TreesLeave a comment

I took lots of photos of these trees at a garden centre in Wales. Small and perfectly formed, their colours seem to glow against the dull grey sky. A shaft of sunlight makes the colours explode. Glorious and wonderful.

A lot of the leaves are palmate, meaning hand shaped. The leaves are strongly divided into thinner and thinner strips of crimson red or deep yellow at this time of year. We have an acer in our garden but it always seems to have a white sheen to it. I think it is in the wrong place next to a bigger tree which is robbing it of moisture. I sometimes water it to try and help. It changes to a very dark deep red in autumn and its leaves are less indented, more maple like. With the sun shining through them this morning they look bronze or copper coloured.

Mallaband-Brown

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