Con trail excitement!

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Just had the excitement of seeing a con trail overhead. Con stands for condensation, it’s when a jet airplane flies high up and the hot and humid exhaust gases from its engine condense out as ice crystals in the very low temperature and low vapour pressure air. Its like when you breathe out in the winter and your breath turns into ice if its cold enough.

For some reason there is a conspiracy theory that the vapour is made of chemicals and that governments are spreading them from the planes.

Ask yourself, why would they do that? There were experiments in the mid twentieth century to try and ‘seed’ clouds to make them rain. But it didn’t really take off!

It is strange how these weird ideas get into the world. I prefer thinking things through. If it doesn’t make sense can it be true?

Anyway I don’t think one con trail makes for the end of the lockdown here, like the old saying ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’. And really, I for one would like there to be a lot less flights, or more ecologically sustainable ones when things do resolve themselves.

In the meantime please stay safe.

Good morning.

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Kitchen at night

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I am just putting my phone on charge and I looked up and saw the light from the back door porch shining through and reflecting off the walls and the windows. As you can see I’m growing a lot of Christmas cacti and other plants including a baby oak and a sweet pepper plant on the windowsill. There are also glass mobiles hanging up there. Why? Because I got burgled twenty years ago and as well as an alarm I decided to make it as awkward as possible for anyone to try an climb through a window without knocking stuff off.

I think this might eventually turn into a painting. Night all

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Russian vine

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I don’t have a photo, but this afternoon we removed what feels like miles of Russian vine from our hedge. I think it’s also called mile a minute. It’s also growing at the back of our garden, and bits of it have grown up the telephone wires and even into our shed!

It was hot outside, so we worked in the late afternoon as it started to cool down. The Russian vine is wraping itself round a couple of leylandii, up an old willow tree, into our walnut tree, and around the Holly tree. It’s tough stuff. We should dig out the roots, but it’s too entangled. So we are cutting through the largest vines, then you pull at it, and strands of vine twenty foot long come out of the hedge. Each vine splits into branching thinner pieces. The leaves are green and heart shaped. It looks like a nice plant when you get it. With small white bunches of flowers in the summer. The bees like it, but our privet hedge flowers and that is more pleasant than the vine.

Unless you have a massive garden don’t grow it!

Moon up

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Yet when they looked back, the gods saw the world was beautiful.

They flew on into space, leaving the blue planet, its fascinating surface, watery and dry, cold and hot.

They had seeded it with bacteria and viruses. They had given it a satellite, called Selene. So the water flowed back and forth, and would eventually encourage life to flow onto the land.

They knew billions of years would pass and agreed to return when, and if, a major species grew up and made efforts to fly beyond the world.

They called the planet Earith, home, Gaia, and waited to see if their seed bed grew.

In May 2020 they returned.

They saw the oceans polluted, the mountains denuded of snow. They saw the glaciers melting and the oceans rising. They could see all the problems.

But they were gods, they could will things to change, eradicate the major species, allow the wilderness to return.

They agreed that this was not possible. Man must learn from its mistakes. Let us return in two millenia and see what has happened they said.

They left, wondering what they would find on their return.

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Quiz name?

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I’m part of a quiz team which is meeting online for the first time, and we need to decide on a name for us.

It’s complicated because the team will be videoconferencing and texting at the same time… Technology. As they say its a steep learning curve.

Then of course there’s the questions. I think there might be a theme to them. When I went to a ‘real life’ quiz run by the same people the theme was seasonal. I don’t have a clue about the questions. As long as they are not music or sports based.

So wish us luck and hopefully by Monday we’ll have a name.

‘Underneath’ day 28 usk challenge.

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This is underneath the arch in our living room. There are various things hanging off it, like a disco glitter ball, which I sometimes shine a torch at when music is playing. Then there’s a star that lights up and changes colour, a model of a usaf plane and an old cardboard mobile of the solar system, which is so old it still includes Pluto! Also luminous stars stuck on the underside of the arch.

USK Stoke-on-Trent challenge had pushed me with lots of prompts. I thought of looking underneath the table, or at the shed roof, or even ‘Underneath the canopy of stars’, but this was easier. I haven’t added a great deal of detail as it is a sketch.

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Fish gotta swim..

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It is funny how a snatch of music can sometime just spring into your mind. I was just thinking about the fish in my hubbies pond and if they will be OK because of the frosts we are getting.

I just remembered the phrase ‘fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly’ and ‘can’t help loving that man of mine’. I know I like the song, but I can’t remember the singer although I think I know the title! And is it from the opera Porgy and Bess? I might try and learn it.

I am normally an alto when I sing, although I have hardly done any singing recently. I miss choir practice and my friends. I was saying in a previous post I’m not that keen on people, and yet when I think of my friends… Perhaps it’s just strangers I don’t like?…..

Anyway. I might go and look up this song.

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Sonnets

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Digital drawing of Partick Stewart as captain Picard from Star Trek. Drawn on the sketchfu app a few years ago. I was quite pleased with the result.

I’m currently watching Partick Stewart read Shakespeare’s sonnets on Instagram. He is reading them from lockdown, and I think he is on sonnet 54.

I love his voice, it is so impressive, I think it has ‘gravitas’ and he has a thoughtful way of putting the words across. When I’ve had a stressful day his reading calms me down.

I do not know the sonnets, I’m hearing them all with a fresh ear. I don’t have expectations of how they should sound. Listening is like a meditation.

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Saving an economy?

IMG_20200416_154522_428What is life worth? when will we see the green shoots of growth?

I’ve seen discussions on line to cancel the trident nuclear deterrent and maybe HS2, which is a high speed railway line that could take you from Leeds to London twenty minutes faster. These are huge projects in Britain that have been voted for by the government. But surely we should spend the money we have on improving the environment? Think about it. After all, people can hold on line meetings now instead of commuting.  The work day could be 9 till 5, no more early starts and late finishes because of travelling to work and kids will get to see more of their parents. And why would we want to bomb people? The virus is causing enough deaths as it is.

When you think about it, the world has had a chance to rest. So instead of going back to normal, chasing greed and growth, let’s give ourselves a chance and a rest.

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Old YouTube channel

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Ignore the photo. I was just trying to find a simple picture to post to illustrate this.

It’s been several years since I wanted to post something to YouTube. It’s clearly changed a lot, because although I could find my old videos on my mallchris channel, I could not sort out how to post videos to it. My only option was to create a new channel there. It also made me post in my full name. Not something I would have done in the past. Some of my old videos are me singing, which is why I wanted to disguise myself! I’m not bothered any more. They are harmless.

If you want to go and have a look. Be bored by my little train videos! I’ve also got a couple of short films about some of my art….

Bye for now.