New paintings and regular art updates.
The drawing of Captain Kirk I did years ago. Now William Shatner, who played him in the Star Trek sci-fi series in the 1960’s, has flown up in a rocket and reached the edge of space.
60 miles up, a ten minute flight. But he’s 90 years old and he has done it! The oldest person/ actor/ sci-fi star to hitch a ride above the Earth. Well done x
Can we survive global warming? As the world joins in a conference about it this November, reports continue about wildfires, carbon dioxide and methane emissions and damage to our natural environment.
Big business still seems to want to expand their production. Buy more stuff… Sell more cars… But using energy and resources is not going to help.
If temperatures go higher the worry is that there will be a runaway greenhouse effect. The result is a degradation of our environment. Water shortages, increased air pollution, damage to the health of not just us, but the whole planet. We are currently using more resources than the planet can provide.
I think humans can be incredibly generous, thoughtful, considerate. We can work together to stop the damage. Not in the future, but now. I do hope we realise that before it’s too late.
The world watches as forests burn. In the Amazon, around the Mediterranean. In the North where the temperatures have soared.
We have been told by scientists and young adults alike, but many turn their backs to the truth. Climate crisis deniers are like ancient Nero, fiddling while Rome burned.
We must take action now. Reduce our carbon footprints. Even in small ways we can help. One degree less on the thermostat, walking instead of driving, house insulation and double glazing. Not much in scheme of things, better than nothing. Now we are used to Zoom why not meet on line? Ask the important questions. Do we need the car today, can you replace things when they wear out with second hand, pre loved items. There are so many people on the Earth, let’s be fair, share, and waste less.
Seen a couple of nights ago, a blurry setting Moon, chasing the Sun round the sky.
You can tell what angle the Moon is to the Sun because of the angle of the curve on the sunlit side. As the Moon waxes and wanes the position of the Sun can be worked out, full Moon=the Sun is on the other side of the Earth, a sliver of Moon, the Moon is in between the Earth and the Sun. Eclipse? If the Moon Eclipses the Sun it is directly between the other two bodies. If the Moon turns bright red its the Earth getting between the Moon and Sun, its only really then that you can see the curvature of the Moons surface, whichis usually so reflective that it looks bright and flat.
I guess this is the most number of times I’ve written ‘”Moon” in a blog!
Full moon through a dirty window. It’s blueish hue reminds me of those old songs, moon spoon, June, tunes of the past.
A glowing cold ball in the sky. Full now, but no longer linked to lunatics and howling wolves. Perhaps the fluorescent glow from sodium lights has drowned out its flooding influence.
But the tides still turn under its gravity, pulled upwards, the sea rises with the moon above it, while on the opposite side of the Earth the sea is held less firmly and slacken into another bulge. That is why there are two high tides and low tides a day.
And the Moon is tidally locked with Earth, so one side always faces us now. The Moon may be the result of a cataclysmic impact when a small planet struck Earth a glancing blow and lifted matter from Earth into the sky. The matter from the collision coalesced into the Moon and its orbit around Earth began. Now it is gradually moving away, a few centimeters a year. As it orbits Earth it is gradually slowing our spin. We used to make one rotation of the planet in around Twenty three hours. Now we have slowed to twenty four.
Moon. So much to learn.
Cold allotments, hard earth, dormant plants, frozen in time. Sheds and greenhouses closed up, with spiders and butterflies waiting patiently for new warmth.
Bare branches holding new life inside. Till sun and heat restore them. Sharp angled fence may be covered in blossom one day. Overall a freezing sky, cloudless, caps the earth with the universe. Infinite and awesome, while we here are held on our bubble world. Sliding through space on our journey around the sun.
Sunlight streaming through the window Shines on Christmas cards and books, ornaments my sewing kit. As the sun rises it also travels south in the sky in winter. Then in the afternoon it appears to move downwards and West. So because of the way the earth is tipped on its axis the position on the sky moves in arcs that tip further south in the winter and further north in summer. So the sun appears overhead eventually.
If the Earth was rotating on a vertical axis at 90° to the plane of the solar system, then day length would stay the same all over the world. 12 hours day and 12 hours night. There would be no seasons. There would probably be no poles as all parts of the earth would receive the same amount of heat from the sun.
Instead the tip of the axis means that the day length changes over the years. So at the solstices the earth has turned to have its poles either closest or furthest apart from the sun. It’s also complicated by the earth travelling in an elliptical orbit round the sun. In the summer in the North of the world the sun is actually slightly further away from the earth than in the winter.
Anyway enough of celestial mechanics. Don’t get me started on the moon! Happy Boxing day. X
For daffodils
For tulips
For helibores
And hyacynths
Start with snowdrops
And irises.
Crocuses
And primrose.
Pushing up through
Bare. Cold ground
Warmth arrived
Each. Flower head
Brings. Spring
Closer.
Light at this time of year is always low. Striking across the ground rather than high above it. This is because the Earths Northern hemisphere tips away from the Sun. So much so that the North Pole dips into darkness in the winter months. Shadows are long now and when you do get into sunshine the light can be blinding from the Sun on the horizon. You can look for images of the suns track across the sky at different times of the year. It basically arcs round from East to West but tipped at an angle dipping more South as winter progresses, then from the winter solstice around the 21st of December, it starts to slowly work its way back up the sky until its almost overhead on Midsummer day at midday, then the cycle starts all over again.
Earth in a hexagon.
I guess that makes me think of bees?
What are we doing to our blue marble?
life will cling on
if we are gone,
hiding in cracks and crevices’
finding the light
maybe
if we are gone
the bees can come back
and re-colonise
earth….
