A simple digital drawing using flood fill to fill in a sketch, then a line drawn over it to delineate the face and duplicated and flipped to create a collaged image. I like the freedom of digital abstraction.
In two minds
Digital chrysanthemum
Dots can make a picture
Layered on top of pink
Each and every one
Is a little link
To make a whole new flower
Digitally drawn
Made of dots and splodges
A digital flower is born
Global warming
What bothers you and why?
I have lots of problems but the one that worries me the most is global warming. This is essentially the biggest threat to humanity I can think of. We should respect the world and it’s environment.
Carbon dioxide levels are higher now than in the past. It means that global heat is held in by a greenhouse effect. Europe, America and China are suffering extremes of heat and wildfires that can be seen from space continue in Canada and in Sardinia. Children at a holiday camp near Athens in Greece were evacuated because of wild fires nearing their camp.
Friends and relatives are my concern to some extent. I have no way of protecting them or their children. But it’s the rest of the population that are at risk. Water shortages, food shortages, lack of health care, damage to crops, drought, all have an impact. And it’s not just humans. Animals are increasingly endangered as we take over their land to grow crops or fell the trees they live in. We grab land like it’s infinite. We have to work together as societies to reduce emissions.
But even as some governments try to persuade us to be more careful with the planet, others are are being lobbied by Industrial bosses to just carry on with old technology and fuels, they are more interested in profit than saving the planet.
I can remember fears about population explosions and pollution back in the 1970’s. This has been happening insidiously for decades. We have to realise that our responsibility is not just for ourselves but for generations to come if we want them to have a decent future. Perhaps the idea of constant growth needs to end and we should work towards sustainable development goals.
Hot
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was hot…I’ve tried to draw a hot landscape, perhaps it could be death valley. The hot colours in the sky at dawn. What will the temperature soar to? The colours were done with glitter pens and a black italic nib pen.
Wild flowers in town
Wild flowers sewn at a local car wash a few years ago are a riot of colours and shapes now. They haven’t been cut back and each year the crop gets more varied and colourful. I hadn’t seen the yellow spikes of flowers until this year. Unusually we have had a lot of rain recently and I think that has encouraged a spurt of growth.
Masquerade – reviewed by Susan Clarke
Susan Clarke, Artistic and Executive Director of B-Arts has very kindly reviewed my story Masquerade. Masquerade A review by Susan Clarke Masquerade by Tim Diggles brings to life the world of the North Staffordshire Potteries over the last 90 years, through the lives of the Bloor family. It’s a pacy narrative set in the years […]
Masquerade – reviewed by Susan Clarke
Ten certainties?
List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
Is this an exam?
1. The Earth is an oblate spheroid. That is it’s almost a sphere but it is fatter around the equator because of its spin.
2. Crisps are crunchy and made of potatoes that have been thinly sliced and fried (who said these had to be serious? ).
3. The Sun is approximately 93 million miles away from the Earth. But because the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse it has times when it is slightly nearer, and times when it is slightly further away.
4. Water freezes at 0°Celsius. I don’t know if it’s the same in Fahrenheit.
5. Too much sugar and salt is bad for you. But you need some to maintain your electrolyte balance.
6. Halleys comet comes back into the inner solar system every 76 years, it’s next due in the 2060’s (I’ve forgotten the exact year)
7. Cats don’t have 9 lives, they just pretend!
8. I know for a fact that I don’t get enough sleep!
9. Green plants absorb all the other colours and reflect green? I think.. I’ve forgotten the physics behind it though.
10. Singing really can help your mental health. It’s good for breathing too.
Well those were a few random (and probably useless) facts. I tend to pick up a lot of ideas, and as I have a retentive memory I hold onto facts that are not much use to anyone.
Simple rose.
Some flowers are very complex and can also be bred with double the petals, they look very pretty. But bees and pollenating insects can’t get at their nectar and pollen. A massive bloom could make it difficult for bees to feed and collect food for their grubs.
So try and choose bee friendly plants, they often are labelled to help you chose them. And look for simple flowers like this where the central flower parts, anthers, stamens etc are easily accessible by the insects you want to attract.
You can also build bee hotels for solitary bees from grasses and sticks and small lengths of hollow bamboo. If you look you can find designs on line to work to. Have fun and support your local bees! I was speaking to a beekeeper today. He said one honeybee only makes about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime!
Tangled
A drawing from a while ago. It was called molecules. I was trying to find an image that describes my tangled brain. I think I’m OK, then I don’t know. I’m trying to do things, but I’m tied up inside a cotton sack, trying to find the way out.
Am I being dramatic? Perhaps, I have lots of thoughts about what I want to do, but the procrastination gets me all the time. The older I get, the less enthusiasm I have. Sorry, its just one of those nights. I’m watching a sad film and it’s getting to me. I sometimes feel time is running out. Grief is a tight knot. Like a molecule, twisting and turning. Time for some rest perhaps…… I’ll be OK….
Tired
After the choir singing and procession I realised just how tired I was. We went into the robuck centre in Newcastle under Lyme and stopped at the cafe in the atrium. I wanted something to drink and somewhere comfortable to sit down and rest my ankles and knees!
The cafe was called Family Bakery Cafe. It was friendly and had cakes and pastries on offer this afternoon so I treated myself to a hot chocolate drink and a poppyseed pastry swirl to go with it.
The robuck centre has many closed shops but it sounds like more stores will be opening up. I hope so, the cafe is a good thing to have because it’s hand made cakes are delicious. But the way things have been no one has any money at the moment. I wish this small business all the best. X
Mallaband-Brown 