New paintings and regular art updates.
This is the planting pocket I made at BArts pottery project a few weeks ago. It was made with rolled out terracotta clay and coloured with bright slip. I used plants to impress patterns into it’s surface. It looked OK, but the colours intensified during firing. I think they are almost too bright. I hope when it has soil and a plant in it, it will look nicer. X
Esther Chiltons weekly prompt is waiting. I remember my school holidays.
I was waiting and waiting for the summer holidays to come. I remember being about 11, we had recently moved house and I was at a new school. We had a real garden, trees to climb, a swing and seesaw that dad had put up and I wanted to explore the area. My new friends and I would find new places to visit, the local arboretum, canals and the far end of the Broadway where my uncle and aunt lived. I was getting old enough to walk a few miles, or cycle around country lanes to go to parks for picnics. Those few weeks were really worth waiting for, everything seemed more colourful, exciting adventures like jumping across the local brook, or trying to collect insects. As I tried to balance on walls or climb up into the laburnum tree I was learning about the environment. At the end of the holidays I decided to get more interested in nature and was made a tree warden at school. That holiday was worth waiting for.
A doodle for #bandofsketchers prompt “game”. I suddenly feel like I’ve broken through a barrier. Got a nice sketch book and managed not to shake too much. I’ll try and catch up with these prompts again. Ink on paper.
Writing group today, I sat and sketched a couple of the group. Most of the stories and poems are autobiographical, I want to be more fictional. The woman writer was very atmospheric, giving a feeling of ‘place’. Using unusual descriptions to evoke childhood and adult memories of being drawn back to the sea. My poem about love was well received. I’ll keep going.
You hold my heart in your hands.
Squeeze a little and my heart burns.
Squeeze a lot? Somersaults.
The thumping steadies.
I need blood pressure medication.
Once many years ago we met.
First sight love?
No, it took a while.
No dancing bliss.
I almost gave you a miss.
My first kiss? Shy.
Then you were my guy.
But once it started.
Love and happiness grew.
Blossomed in Spring.
Flowered in summer.
Was gentle in autumn.
But flew away and was lost in winter.
Now love and greif mix.
I can imagine no one else.
But you.
Ferns are growing in the wall again, catkins are appearing on the trees. My snowdrops have flowered and now the daffodils and helibores are in flower. Soon the tulips will open.
I can’t wait for warm breezes. Marigolds, wallflowers, wisteria and nasturtiums. Blue skies and then the fruit blossoms. The days will be longer and it might help me feel better. I hope the bees and ladybirds arrive soon.
For some reason I’ve joined a Facebook page where people debate whether the Earth is flat or a sphere. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read some very odd speculations about how the Sun must be close to the earth and the ocean is held on the earth by an ice wall that is attached to it’s circumference.
I was interested because the author Terry Pratchett set his comic fantasy Discworld series on a similar structure. It sits atop four elephants which ride on the shell of the world turtle, the great a’tuin. To be honest his ideas are more sensible than the flat earthers!
It’s a funny and confusing page, although people do get into arguments. The scientific facts about the globe are repeated over and over again, but they are disputed and often completely contradicted by videos that are nonsensical, with descriptions that are very odd indeed.
Why do I read it? Because it makes more sense than what’s happening in the USA at the moment!
What is your favorite type of weather?
Not all nlue
Clouds too
Drops of rain
As showers hit the plain
The smell of damp ground
Soils compound
Life giving water
Flowers start to mound
Up to the sky
Blue bells and forget me nots
Softly watered…..
What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?
I love Dr Who but there have been many actors who have played Dr Who and although I have my favourites I think I would have a picture of the Tardis whirling through space and time. It’s an iconic piece of science fiction history. I’d have a tattoo on my ankle. But it would have to be very small as I don’t like the idea of pain!
Back in 1985 several comedians got together and started raising funds for charity. A few years later it became a biannual fundraising event for people in the UK and around the world. The comedian Lenny Henry was at the forefront of the shows and helped present so many funny routines that made it such a different type of telethon for collecting money. Many comedians and musicians have lent their support to the show including Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders. Billy Connelly, Griffin Rhys Jones, Miranda Hart, Russell Caine, and many more. The show also went to places to see how they could help and recorded the results of their support of communities and individuals. Providing help for people suffering from HIV, and other chronic diseases, mental health issues, children injured during war, starvation and so many more frightening experiences.
Comic relief has collected over One Billion pounds in donations from the British public in those 40 years and are continuing to do so. We may wish that governments should support more needy children and young adults, but at least we are trying to make an effort to help.
Mallaband-Brown