New paintings and regular art updates.
Yummy chocolate cherry treats don’t last long and if I keep buying them, then they are no longer treats!
Only eight in the box, everyone tasty and sweet. With that sharp cherry tang.
I’d buy them every week, but they are not good for me. I swore not to eat as much sugar, but I think I’m addicted to it!
Only savoury treats now? I don’t know, the temptation is too great. Definitely wrapped in red for danger.
If you get to have a treat, enjoy.
A couple of days ago I was driving home and came round a bend to see a bright red sun on the horizon. For a second I stared at it then realised it was dangerous and looked away. But it was slightly too late. Now when I look I can see a slight bright patch where my eyes had wandered across the view. It’s faded a bit so I guess I haven’t done permanent damage but I will try not to do that again!
Going downstairs?
Mind the cat!
Black on dark grey
Only a band of white
Saves me from standing on him
He sleeps on one side
Of a step
Leaving the other half
For my feet.
He doesn’t want to move
Only shifting
Reluctantly.
Each morning I get
safely downstairs
I feel relieved
I was just walking to the post box when I noticed someone in a dark hoodie and trousers walking behind me. I’d decided to post a letter and I’d left my bag at home as I’d decided not to take any money. But I did have my phone in one pocket and was carrying an umbrella in the other hand.
As I walked I noticed he was keeping up with me because I walk slowly so I expected him to walk past. But no he was close to my left shoulder, I put my hand in my pocket because the phone was protruding slightly. I stopped to look in a shop window across the road so I turned to look at him. He dawdled past me but I noticed he turned and looked back. I started to walk slowly again and watched him. Every few yards he looked back. So I kept stopping and looking in windows. Finally I got to the post box. He was about fifty yards ahead of me and once again looking back. I waited until he ambled off again. Then I turned around and headed home. As I got to side streets I walked up them and then back down. I only noticed him looking back again once.
I felt anxious about this and it made me quite nervous. The man’s appearance and his activity was strange. Was I right to avoid him?
There is due to be an eclipse in North America tomorrow and some strange things are being written by people about it. Anyone would think it had never happened before, when it’s a regular astronomical phenomenon.
We’ve had a couple in the UK over the last few decades and nothing bad happened, no ending of the world, no real catastrophes (except maybe Brexit!).
But humans are good at seeing portents. They tie religion to events and make up stories to fit the events. Centuries ago we could not predict the occurrence of eclipses and thought that things like dragons were swallowing the sun.
Some tips for viewing eclipses:
I viewed an eclipse in the UK in the 1990s by looking at its reflection in my car window as I had no viewing goggles. You can also see its reflection in water. And if you make a small hole in card or paper you can see multiple crescent moon shaped patterns on the surface it’s projected onto. (explanations of how to do this can be found on the net,) Remember DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN! Even approaching totality when the moon is covering the majority of the sun you can damage your sight. You can be blinded by the light from the sun including ultraviolet light that can burn your retina without you feeling it.
Bricks or sets? A good surface to walk on, but not for the environment. As the song by Joni Mitchell goes ‘they paved paradise and put up a parking lot’.
Everywhere everyone is having driveways installed, block paviours or tarmac. Repelling water so it runs away quickly instead of being absorbed into the soil. Then the drains flood and storm drains are overwhelmed. Raw sewerage gets released into rivers, which keeps happening. People have been wild swimming in rivers and around the coast for years, but the amount of waste effluent getting into our natural waterways is causing extreme concern for health.
There are new rules to make paving permiable to rain water. But who checks on it. So instead of putting in a driveway think about a more environmental and possibly cheaper option?
Despite all the things that are happening in Europe (drought, fires, evaporating rivers) and the rest of the World, more fire and drought. There is still a war in the East of Europe in Ukraine. The danger from their action is real. The Russians have recently been sending shells near zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. They hold the plant and the technicians there are being held by Russian troops. There is a serious risk of damage to the plant which could lead to a release of nuclear material or worse. Imagine Chernobyl only worse. The war has to end. The danger is real. Meanwhile Russia still calls this a special operation and denies it is waging an unfounded war on its neighbour…
Ukraines South-eastern area is now being bombarded by Russian heavy artillery. This includes thermobaric weapons that when they explode create a vacuum to suck all the oxygen out of the air and then burn it in an intense fire. If the Ukrainians are not burnt or blown up they can be asphixiated by them. They are also using something called Thermite. This is a chemical mixture that is sometimes used to weld steel. It burns at high temperatures and destroys what it hits. The images look like massive rains of fireworks but they are deadly. If you pour water on it the stuff burns even more.
Russia, the Russian army, I mean. Is continuing its cruelty to the civilians of Ukraine. The country of Russia is not under threat. They are not being bombed back to the stone age. Russian troops are now facing war crime trials. One soldier has already been found guilty of killing a 62 year old man by shooting him in the back of the head. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment. But it is their leader President Putin who is leading this evil. He should be bought to justice. We will not forget we cannot forgive!
So colours represent specific emotions? Maybe? But who sets them. Is it a historical thing? Some countries have black as their colour of mourning. But others use white, and who knows what else might be favoured elsewhere. Red is hot, fast, speed, fast cars are often red. But what about red for danger. Traffic lights, live wires and of course blood? But red can be sweet like fruit too.
Green has been found to be calming, and maybe blue too. Linked with the colours of growing plants. Green indoor plants can calm workers. Now green walls of plants are fashionable.
Pink for girls, blue for boys. But a couple of hundred years ago it was the other way round. Perhaps our use of colours to represent emotions is just fashion and fad!
I was looking out of our window and I saw two grey horses, unaccompanied walk past. They were walking in traffic and towards the main road. I pointed it out to hubby who went out to try and direct them while I watched and rang the police. He managed to get them across the road to the local vets, where some of the nurses came out to help. In the meantime I was explaining where it was happening to the police when the owner of the horses arrived. She explained that the farrier who had been shoeing the horses had left the gate open and they had got out. I went to get my phone to take a picture but they were halfway up the hill when I got back out. It was great that neither of them was injured.
Mallaband-Brown