Out to lunch

Posted on December 29, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Canal, Countrysiide, drive, enjoyable, Friend, lift, Lunch, Pub, Towpath, Trent and mersey, Visit3 Comments

My friend took me out this afternoon for lunch. We went to a pub called the Star at Stone and had a pleasant lunch. It’s on the Trent and Mersey canal and sits next to the towpath so it’s reachable from the water as well as the road. The decor is quite rustic and a nice mash up of old chairs and oak tables.

On the way home we drove home through the countryside on a road that parallels the main road but is more twisty and interesting. The sun was low and shining on the sides of buildings giving them a beautiful glow. A definite pick me up after days of grey mist.

Mural on cafe wall

Posted on August 6, 2024August 6, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, cobblestones, Hot chocolate, Illness, Life, Middleport pottery, Mural, Painting, Recovery, RestLeave a comment

I went out today to the health clinic. My friend helped me out so we went off for a hot chocolate afterwards. We were going to one cafe but the road was closed because some buildings are being knocked down. So we took a side street and ended up at Middleport pottery in Stoke-on-Trent.

The cafe there is in one of the old pottery buildings and overlooks the canal. I’m not sure who painted this mural but it is a delicate one that includes the love birds that appear on willow pattern plates and pots.

We sat near the door in a cool breeze and I enjoyed a rest after walking the short distance from the car park over the cobbled roadway to the cafe. I felt like I could start to recover.

Lock

Posted on July 29, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged algae, Canal, Lock, lower, Poem, Poetry, raise, sluice gate, Time, Travelling, Water, windlassLeave a comment

Slimy algae

On the lock wall

Only revealed

As the water flows

Out of the lock

Through large wooden gates

Made to be moved

When you use a windlass

To raise the sluice gate.

A way of travelling

Up and down hill

In a boat or a barge

Through summer fields.

Day out

Posted on July 29, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Barge, Beatrice, black lion, Canal, Churnet Valley, Consall forge, Day trip, Life, Pub, Steep2 Comments

After a long wait we finally went on our choirs boat trip. It was arranged for the singing for lung health group I am part of. It had been postponed due to a mechanical problem, but today was gorgeous, hot, sunny. Ideal for a canal trip on the boat Beatrice which is used to give people with disabilities the chance to get out on the water.

It was a slow journey, a bit nerve wracking because there were steep steps to got into the barge then uneven paths to negotiate to get to our destination a pub called the black lion at consall forge. We sat under an awning and sang a few songs that we have practiced for months. We didn’t have an audience except for a few people sitting on benches at the front of the pub.

Then I carefully picked my way back down the steep path with someone helping me as I was feeling very unsteady and a bit breathless. We meandered our way back along the river Churnet, entering a lock to get back onto the canal and back to our dropping off point. I was tired but I’m glad I went.

Odd duck

Posted on May 29, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Allotment, Art, Blue, Canal, Duck, Floating, Fun, Life, Orange, plastic cups, plastic tubs, Project, YellowLeave a comment

Seen today in Stoke on an allotment. I’m not sure if this was someone’s art project. I could imagine it in a parade or floating along on the canal! It appears to be made of plastic cups and trays, one way of recycling them x.

On the side of a barge

Posted on February 2, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Bridge, Canal, canal barge, Etruria, Heron, Life, Painting, Swans, Trent and mersey canal, Waterlilies2 Comments

Seen on the side of a canal barge today at Etruria, Stoke on Trent. Not your usual castles and roses, but very nice image. I’ve actually seen a heron on that stretch of the Trent and Mersey canal. I like the waterlilies that have been included, they are not usually found in city canals though and the water is generally not that clean as there is usually some pollution. But I would say canals, are better maintained than in the past.

Clematis and Canal roses

Posted on September 27, 2023September 27, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Bottle ovens, Canal, Canal roses, Clematis, Five years ago, Life, Painting, Pottery, Stoke-on trent4 Comments

Every so often I paint one of the iconic bottle ovens from Stoke-on-Trent. These were where pottery was originally fired with coal fires. The city would be covered by a pall of thick smoke, morning noon and night.

They sometimes had metal bands wrapped round them to strengthen them, and the old bricks can shine like gold when there is a lovely sunrise or set. Arthur Berry, famous artist of Stoke-on-Trent used to speak about the beauty of the potteries towns. He painted and drew abstracted views of the six towns. He’s known as the potteries Lowry.

This painting is of a derelict oven, I’ve painted clematis growing up it, rewinding the ancient landscape. The blue area represents the local canals, it’s shape mirrors the bottle oven. The flowers in it represent the abstract canal roses that are found adorning canal barges throughout Britain.

Looking back

Posted on September 16, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beautiful, Canal, Chimneys, Colourful, Etruria, painted, Pattern, Poem, Poetry, TowpathLeave a comment

Canal barges at Etruria

Dappled in the tree shade

Sparkling shimmers on the water

White bridge over canal

Snaking rudder stripes

Chimneys and canal roses.

Heat and sunlight.

Pattern by the towpath

Canalside spectacular view.

Heron on the bank

Posted on July 29, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bird, Canal, Environment, Fish, Grey, Heron, Life, Nature, Time, Trent and mersey canal5 Comments

Blurry photo of a heron chilling out on the canal bank today. It leant forward a few times and looked into the murky brown water but then resumed it’s original position again. I guess it must have seen a fish.

We have previously seen people magnet fishing in the canal, they said they sometimes find things, but nothing valuable. Is a shopping trolley or bike frame worth it? I guess you can weigh things in for scrap. In the meantime I hope the heron got his dinner!

Floating

Posted on June 18, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Abstract, Art, Canada geese, Canal, Drawing, Felt pens, Life, silver pen, SketchingLeave a comment

Floating was today’s #bandofsketchers prompt. I have taken this idea of Canada geese floating on the canal from an abstract painting I did in 2020. I moved the geese around in this and left out the greenery from the original. I used felt pens and a silver pen to give a liquid glint.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Canal