Pink dawn

Posted on February 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Clouds, Dawn, Environment, Life, Pink, Rain, Red, Sunlight, Sunshine, WeatherLeave a comment

Sky to the East of us about 7. 10 am. Barometer showing fair but the old saw that red sky in the morning is a shepherd’s warning seems appropriate after all the bad weather we’ve been having. Apparently if the sky is red its because the dawn is reflecting off the underside of clouds (yes I can see that), and that means the bad weather is more likely to be overhead now or later. Red sky at night shepherd’s delight? The weather will have passed over and be moving away. I guess the point is also that it depends what direction the wind is blowing in?!

Waiting for the next storm…. It will probably start with the letter E…. How many more?

Old glass lampshade

Posted on February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Antique, Blogging, Etruria, Glass, History, Holy Inadequate pub, Lampshade, Light, Pub, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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Saw this in the pub a few days ago. I’m not sure if it’s antique or a reproduction but it has a feeling of something from the start of the last century. I liked the main shade surrounded by three smaller shades all held together by solid but delicately shaped metal. I wonder if it’s converted from a gas mantle?

I imaging its a considerable weight, so I guess it’s screwed into a ceiling joist. I didn’t think to look at the lights in the rest of the pub so I don’t know if it’s the only one there. Perhaps it’s from a reclamation yard? There are a few round here. Anyway it’s good to see old things about.

Sunlight finds a way

Posted on February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Letting light in, Light, Photo, Poem, Poetry, Short poem, Sun, Sunlight, WordsLeave a comment

The sunlight sneaks in

Through the cracks in the door

Through the chinks in the fence

Under the trees

Through the blinds

Past the steel reinforced concrete

Over the brick wall

Tumbling down the chimney

Through the grid over the window

When it’s sunny

Sunlight finds a way.

Citizenship test!

Posted on February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, British national, citizenship test, Eton, Fail, Quiz, Test, Unfair, University, Why?2 Comments

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I’ve just done the British Citizenship test practice questions. Something people who are coming to live here have to take.

My family is British and the family history is British. So I should have got 100%…24 out of 24? NO ! I got 16 out of 24…or 62%…a FAIL.

Well if I can’t score a pass why should someone coming here from abroad be able to score better? In fact native Britons who did it are posting their results, and most FAILED!

So why? A lot of the questions are based on dates. The date of when the battle of Agincourt happened for instance, or where places are, for instance Maiden Castle. Some I knew, others, no idea.

I had an education at a comprehensive school. Unlike Gammar schools or places like Eton, we didn’t learn dates by rote. My education was not cramming facts in my head. We had to think.

Anyway, if there is anywhere in the world that would like me, perhaps you could let me know? I feel really sorry for people taking the test. It is biased towards native British who have had a grammar school, or posh university, education!

Birdie

Posted on February 16, 2020February 16, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Bird, Blogging, Colour, Design, Digital drawing, Humour, Pattern, Primary colour, Secondary colour, Sketch, Swirl, TwirlLeave a comment

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Colour and shape and hopefully humour. Digital drawing, playing, having fun…. Little fat birdie. Feathers flying, bird, not quite, of paradise? Little heart shape in its eye, only just noticed it, a gleam there. Primary and secondary colours. Swirls and twirls…. I think I need to sleep, I’m dreaming of baby canaries!

It must be spring soon?

Posted on February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Crocuses, Environment, Flooding, Heat, Life, Rode hall, Snow drop walk, Snowdrops, Spring, Staffordshire, Summer, Time, Warmth, Water, WeatherLeave a comment

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Buds are bursting on the bushes, leaves are slowly unfurling. Each tiny leaflet a herald of coming spring. A few crocuses and snowdrops are out. Rode Halls snowdrop walk, which is an annual event round here, is advertised on Facebook. Life moves on. The water from the storms is soaking the ground, and where there are trees and gardens the water is sucked up to swell the buds. Where there is concrete and bricks it washes down and floods out from the rivers.

The weather is on a knife edge, will it get to hot again this summer? Will we have floods or drought? Will warmth spread through the land gently or will we have fires on heaths and moors and in woods and forests. Our climate is in balance no more. It is up to us to do something to help it fall back into that balance of nature that is gentlest for the world. If we try hard I hope we can.?

Storm “Dennis”

Posted on February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Britain, Environment, Finding space, Life, Rain, Storm Ciara, Storm Dennis, UK, Weather, Wind, WinterLeave a comment

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Storm Dennis has been tipped as possibly more damaging than storm Ciara last weekend. We have had some strong gusts of wind, bending the Eucalyptus sapling we have growing in the garden, it’s leaves acting like sails, catching the wind, and bending it almost in half. The Leylandii in the neighbours garden has been whipping about and it’s branches seperating as the winds buffet it. Sometimes great gusts of air force themselves between the tree and the privet hedge at the bottom of our garden.

We are waiting for the heavy rain that is forecast, an Amber and Yellow warning has been set for the whole country. Even planes have been cancelled fir the passengers safety.

Britain is not a large island (or islands) but its shocking to think that storms can encompass the whole of it. Whether the heating of the atmosphere could be causing it? I don’t know, but you do have to wonder?…

Be my Valentine?

Posted on February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Digital drawing, Life, Love, Memory, Mystery, Relationships, Remembered, Rose, Time, unrequited, Valentines, Years gone by2 Comments

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I was talking to a friend earlier about her valentine experiences and remembered an incident from about thirty years ago…

It was a cold, clear Valentines day morning. I’d got up to go to work, and as I stepped outside I found a red rose on my doorstep. It wasn’t wrapped in cellophane or paper. It was a long stemmed rose. Deep scarlet. Beautiful, slightly starting to wilt. I looked up and down the street, no one around. We were in a terraced house, so the door opened down a step straight onto the pavement. Anyone could have left it there.

I went inside and asked my then boyfriend, later to be hubby, if he had put it on the step. But he said no. I quizzed him, but no it was not him. To be honest it wasn’t his style, he rarely knows when it’s valentines day and usually only gets me a card if I get him one. He was as surprised as I was but said I should take it as a compliment!

So I had this beautiful rose. I cut the stem at an angle and it in a pint glass while I went out to do my shift at work.

But I couldn’t concentrate. All morning I thought about who could have left it? It might have been a neighbour. It might have been a friend, but I had no idea that anyone had romantic thoughts about me. My inner Miss Marple told me that it couldn’t have been there long and that it must have been bought from the nearby florists as no roses were in flower at that time of year. There are roses growing on the factory opposite our house, but they were bare stems.

Who? That was my thought. Whoever it was must have known I was in a long term relationship? Why? Did they think I was looking for someone new? The answer to that was no….

Eventually I decided that the rose must have been for someone else. Perhaps the anonymous person had mistaken my doorstep for someone else’s?

I will never know. It never happened again. The next year I felt disappointed. Since then I have rarely remembered it. Only today’s chat reawakened the memory for me.

Game of Rock, Washer, Mangle

Posted on February 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Flattened man, Fun, Painting, Pantomime, Rock, Scenery, WasherLeave a comment

Panto rehearsal again tonight… Oops, the body DIDN’T line up on the back of the flattened policeman. But I can sort it out. The rock for the cave scene works fine… The washing mashing machine looks OK too I think…. Anyway its all kicking off next week… Four performances over three days.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week are going to be very busy.

I’ll try not to break a leg!

Child’s mural

Posted on February 13, 2020February 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on walls, Acrylics, Art, Blogging, Cartoon characters, Fun, Life, Murals, VarnishLeave a comment

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I did this mural of Mr Incredible about nine or ten years ago for someone’s son. The paint is acrylic because it’s easy to apply and dries within hours. I think it’s also quite stable. I used clear matt varnish over it and left about a centimeter margin of varnish all around the figure so the paint would not lift off. I’ve recently done a new mural for the family in their new house. I found out recently that my original murals (there were three others, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman) were painted over. Sad I know, but at least I gave some fun to the family while they were there.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Blogging