New paintings and regular art updates.
A line of gulls on posts, all pointing south. They say birds have a way of using the Earth’s magnetism as a way to navigate. But these were acting like a compass needle! Next time I’m trying to find my way I might watch which way the gulls are facing!
After struggling for a couple of weeks to get this toy speedboat working the boat was transformed into a combination DIY SOS and Waterworld/MadMax theme. (He’s used up most of my cotton to hold the sails up). He thinks he might put it on the lake in the park or on the canal. I’ve suggested it needs a string adding to the front so if it gets caught in weed he can get it out….. I like the way he’s added sails that rake backwards, but I wouldn’t want to sail in it, especially in a choppy sea!
This cygnet came over to see us while we were by the canal today. Sadly I had nothing to feed it. If I had thought I would have taken some brown bread. You are really supposed to feed them grain, but signs went up a few years ago saying don’t feed birds bread and some birds starved in the winter. I think the important thing is to give birds small bits of bread, if it’s big lums it can swell up in their crops and clog them up, also I guess it might be better if it’s a bit wet? Not sure, but as long as its not mouldy….Next time we visit I will take some bread x
Painting, acrylic on canvas, from about three years ago. This is loosly based on the yin yang symbol. The blue is for water, the canal runs next to a lot of potbank, it was used to transport pottery around the country. The flowers are meant to represent canal Roses. They were a design that was used on metal objects on canal barges, like pots and tin watering cans and jugs. They are also painted directly onto the barges as decoration. The potbank shape curves round and is sometimes held in place by metal bands.
Soft little clouds
Fluttering like bird feathers
Swirling down the air currents
Darkness falling
Now the moon rises
Shadows lengthen.
Time to stretch our legs,
Head home,
A long, flat walk
Into the dusk.
Bat’s flitter overhead,
Moths race to our torches.
Mistaking them for the rising moon.
Home in time for supper.
Blue sky lost in the dark….
Are they? I think they are. Seen by my friend during a walk. They were in a garden along the canal. These were such a bright colour she took a photo of them.
Flowers are wonderful thing, such amazing structures, with colours outside of the visible spectrum that attract insects to pollinate them. They sometimes use the ultraviolet end of the spectrum to show insects where their nectar is. The trouble with flowers like these is that there are so many petals that the insects can’t get at the nectar. The human intervention of breeding flowers could have a detrimental effect on insect life. There are plants that are advertised as bee friendly, but sometimes that’s all it is, an advert. Single flowered plants are probably best.
From ssummer two years ago. A reflection and mirrored image of the canal surface at Middleport. Taken when we went to see the ceramic poppies that were used to decorate the bottle kiln at Middleport pottery. The art work of thousands of ceramic poppies travelled round Britain in 2018, to celebrate the centenary of the end of the First World War in 1918. If I find a photo of the poppies I will share it.
My hubby just saw lots of people under canal bridges tonight bedding down for the night… Even someone with a mattress on crates. Crazy how people were helped during lockdown are now forgotten. I suppose the hotel owners who were putting them up want their rooms back. But surely the government should have come up with solutions while they were in lockdown? Or am I wrong to think that people are important and should be cared for? Added to that a lot of people whose furlough is ending are soon going to be eligible to have rent arrears action taken against them. Case of apocalypse postponed not averted.
The sun beating down on Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent today. Terraced houses lined up near the canal. This is the Cauldon canal that heads towards Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands where it eventually joins with the river Churnet. The houses are lower down than the canal so there is a big retaining wall made of stone that prevents the water escaping from it. You can see the wall as it lifts up into a bridge over the canal on the left hand side. The street slopes away down towards the Trent and Mersey canal which is joined to the Cauldon canal by a series of locks. The Trent and Mersey is in the valley and runs close to the Trent River (which is really only a small river running through the city). The Trent eventually runs to the sea at Hull after passing east through Nottingham I think.
So these terraces are connected by water to many places. You might see them if you ever travel the canals.
Photo taken by my friend who went for a walk with my hubby yesterday. The Trent and Mersey canal. Near Middleport pottery heading south west along the canal. He saw a group of swans swimming along the canal. There are apparently Carp, Roach and Pike in that section of the canal.
He actually walked thirteen miles! A half marathon. He’s feeling it today. I’m impressed and amazed. I’m afraid a mile is enough for me. I think I need to do more exercise and seeing the photos I’m jealous of the walk he did.
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Mallaband-Brown