Little Earth painting

A couple of years ago I painted this picture of Earth. I was trying to get the shading right so the clouds sit above the surface was difficult. This is North America, Canada and part of Mexico and the Caribbean.

I hope the cloud shapes work and you can see the weather patterns. I wonder if anyone would be interested in paintings of worlds. It’s something I’m interested in. I’ve painted pictures of Jupiter and other astronomical images. I don’t use an airbrush for painting so it’s quite hard to get the granularity and softness of space and planets.

Westport mist

Sunset over Westport Lake. We drove there through a cold fog and emerged into a thin mist hanging over the lake. The wildfowl came towards us wanting food but we had gone there on the spur of the moment so had no food. The visitor centre had just closed so we couldn’t get a warm drink. Westport Lake now has parking machines so we had to pay for the privilege of going for a walk. We took a short flat walk around the lake its not far, but far enough for me at the moment. I got left behind a few times but I managed to get round. It’s a start to the new year.

Dragon 🐲 head

Drawn from my imagination. Half a dragons head drawn in tippex correction fluid on black cartridge paper. Mirrored in a photo edit, then stitched together as a whole head. My first Dragon of 2022. I’m just wondering when the Chinese year of the dragon is. Their images are amazing. I need to find out about their history x

Sweet apples, Wassail style.

I decided to stew four apples that were starting to soften. I wanted to use them up and also half a tub of clotted cream.

Ingredients :

Four medium sized eating apples

A couple of teaspoons of sucralose based sweetener (or sugar to taste).

A level teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

A single measure of whisky, or you could substitute a small amount of lemon or orange juice.

About three or four tablespoons of water to stop the apples burning onto the pan.

A tablespoonful of clotted cream or whipped cream.

I roughly cored and chopped the apples and left the skin on. I put them in a pan with a little boiling water to stop the apple flesh burning. I cooked the apples for about 15 to 20 minutes till they softened. Stirring and mashing them until they were a chunky pulp.

I added a couple of teaspoons of sucralose based sweetener to make the apples less sharp. Then I added a single measure of whisky and a level teaspoonful of cinnamon and cooked the mix for a couple minutes more. You could substitute fruit juice for the whisky and leave out the cinnamon if you don’t like it.

Serve hot in a bowl with the clotted cream or whipped cream dolloped on top.

This reminds me of the Wassails we usually go on in January. They are to celebrate the local apple trees and wish for a good crop of apples the following autumn.

Tree art

Capturing tree abstract ideas today. I saw a wonderful silhouetted tree on my slow, short walk this afternoon. Looking at the world is important. You have a chance to see things that you wouldn’t if you just stay home. But getting out is not always simple.

Life can get in the way. My knees ache now. But I’m glad we went. The air was clear and cold. I enjoyed walking and Ben managed a short bit of uphill walking.

Cat, black and white.

Two photos of one of the cats. There are lots of clashing colours on our setee so I chose a black and white filter to unify them. It also creates a more obvious wave pattern in the crocheted background. The pictures are slightly blurred bacause he was moving as I took them. He’s got beautiful gold coloured eyes. As I write this he is lying down and snoring!

Grey Dawn

Tree branches and twigs, grey sky, a street lamp partly hidden. Got up for a decaff coffee. Still having trouble sleeping. I half think it’s my toes. I’ve got achy feet and have problems with the weight of the duvet. So I throw the bedding off my feet, then they are too cold. Perhaps I should wear bedsocks, but then won’t they put pressure on my toes? So instead I’m up and about, watching the slow change in light iin the sky, listening to the radio, trying to sit comfortably on an armchair. Playing with my phone. Oh for a decent night’s sleep.

Face

Self portrait, abstract face, imagined radio telescope, contrast, thinking, list, try to write tags as a blog, imagination staccato, broken, poem lacking poetry, no rhyme, anxious, calm? Satellite, image, lost memory, solarize, a brief history of what? Experience and experiment, conscious, concentrate. Observe words, expected explanation. Nonsense. Uttered. Rambling, waffle…