New paintings and regular art updates.
Walking through the middle of Stoke today, there is a small patch of land next to a car wash that was seeded with wildflowers a few years ago. Every year I walk past and I’m amazed with what springs up. I think the local bees must be happy. Just down the road from there another patch of land in front of a large billboard has become overgrown with buddlea and grass and amazing clover flowers. I hope they don’t get cut down!
How important is spirituality in your life?
I think something is looking over me. Maybe an angel? I have thought about spiritual things and I think there might be something there, but I don’t know what? I would characterise myself as agnostic rather than an atheist. The universe is too big and complex to find an answer and I think we are arrogant to assume we know the truth of things. Better to follow the guidelines and try and keep to rules that help you lead a good life.
I guess I’m one of those people that are hedging their bets. Rather than completly dismissing religion I try and keep an open mind. I think we need to love each other and care for others as we would care for ourselves. It’s not hard to do. Anyway it’s what I think….
Election news,
What is true
Lies or stories
Real or new?
The story is told
For good or ill
How will it pan out?
A newsreader’s skill
Is to tell the news
Without bias, we hope
Keeping us informed
While not exaggerating
The tallest tale.
Asplenium trichomanes, the maidenhair spleenwort, is a small fern in the spleenwort genus Asplenium. It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats. It is a variable fern with several subspecies. The specific epithet trichomanes refers to a Greek word for fern.… Wikipedia
Scientific nameAsplenium trichomanes
Have you seen the little camera sign on your phone? I’ve only just found out about it. It’s on the top right of the Google search bar. I guess there are similar tools on other search engines and I am not advocating you use any of them. It is good to use something to identify things like plants. I saw this growing out of a wall today and I wanted to know what it was as I have different ferns growing out of my yard wall. I’m glad to extend my knowledge.
How do you practice self-care?
According to Wikipedia :
Self-care has been defined as the process of establishing behaviors to ensure holistic well-being of oneself, to promote health, and actively manage illness when it occurs. Individuals engage in some form of self-care daily with food choices, exercise, sleep, and hygiene.
I have to admit that I seem to be persuing self neglect instead although not self loathing thankfully. I do try to look after myself but things have been difficult and care takes energy and effort. I often think I should do things, but I don’t always have the wish to do them. When you have problems to deal with its hard to find the enthusiasm to keep going and do more.
One good thing I have done recently is to go back to yoga class which I had missed for several weeks due to injuring my toes. That has helped a bit. I have found that it has slightly helped me to relax.
The weather is hot
Plants wilt in summer sun
Someone turned a switch
Never ending rain… Ended
Next year I shall buy
Hanging baskets earlier
They seem to have changed
The weather to sunnier!
The weather is set to be hot for the next few days, 30°C or 86°F. And the temperature will stay hot at night.
To some countries that is not bad, but here in the UK it’s unusual. We generally have humid weather, so it feels hotter than a dry atmosphere would..
We have a yellow warning covering most of England to say that elderly people or those with lots of co-morbidities should be careful. The weather is due to break down mid week and we can expect thunderstorms.
My bike…. dont have a picture of our tandem….
We were out one day, and Hubby saw an old tandem across the floor of a garage. He went over to look at it and fell into an inspection pit. Luckily, he was OK!
We bought the tandem (which was two bikes welded together) and my hubby even took the local MP round Penkhull on it!
One day we rode 100 miles in a reliability trial with the local cycling club. It was fun and we got back in seven and a half hours, despite one of my pedals falling off and having to borrow a spanner to fasten it back in place. One chain wheel was on the opposite side of the tandem, so it had unscrewed….
All this happened about thirty years ago when I was a lot fitter.
We would take the tandem or our bikes out and explore the local countryside or cycle from Stoke up to Rochdale, or down to Walsall.
We decided to cycle up through Leek one day, then up to the Roaches. We saw a signpost for Flash so decided to take it (the highest village in England apparently). We were tired but swooped up and down the hills. But I was nervous, two of us going downhill on winding roads was nerve wracking! I was a bit scared and kept houting at my hubby to SLOW DOWN!
Eventually we came down and round a corner and……
We almost ran into a five pony, pony trek that was spread across the road. Hubby turned the handlebars and dropped us into a shallow ditch at the side of the road!
I admit cursing him for being so reckless. But we gathered ourselves back together and set off again uphill, then swiftly down again. I kept telling him to go slower. But he was enjoying himself and we had averted one disaster, what else could happen?
This time we came round a corner and just managed to stop, in front of a scout Jamboree. How many scouts and cubs? Goodness only knows. HUNDREDS of them! Hubby and I had been lucky not to hit one of them, like a skittle, probably knocking others over too!
Again, we got ourselves sorted out. By then I was ready to go home. We saw a TV mast somewhere up on the hills as we headed Westwards and soon, we were looking across the beautiful Cheshire plain, looking at peaceful and hopefully flat farmland to cycle home over. We stopped off at a place selling ice-cream before pedalling downhill towards Macclesfield or Congleton, to be honest I can’t remember because I was more bothered about the danger of going downhill too fast! I think I was probably very grateful that we got home in one piece!
My painting of a green woman is coming on. I did some more today. I’m adding more metallic colours, to bring out the sheen on the leaves. Also I want to improve the background of the image. Hopefully it will feel more coherent when it is finished. Acrylic on canvas.
Looking out over a supermarket car park.
The sky had clouded over, but there was a glow from the setting sun behind the grey clouds. It just shows that a minimal landscape can be enhanced by light and colour. There is blue and grey, orange and yellow, purples and blacks all intermingling and changing by the minute.
For once it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t windy. You could stand and watch the atmosphere evolve as the sun set. It’s not a very exciting sunset, but I enjoyed it.
Mallaband-Brown