Tag: Energy

Possible power cuts

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As the Conservative party in the UK try and decide on a new prime minister there is talk of power cuts in the winter so that there will be enough energy to go around. The talk is about it being cut for three or four hours each afternoon. This is madness! If we need to save energy there should be advice on what to reduce, either by reducing the flow rate on combi boilers, or discussing the merits of part cooking food in a microwave or a slow cooker, or even advising on the energy efficiency of heaters. Of course some of this is moot because if you can’t afford to put your heating on in the first place you can’t make that choice. So, we wait and see who is the next leader, but what about the population who have not been offered the choice?

Bad news

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We got a letter off our energy company today. Our yearly bills are set to DOUBLE. I then saw a video of a comedy programme from the 1970’s on Facebook in which a man is being encouraged to save energy by using a hot water bottle, to which he responds he can’t afford to boil a kettle. Other suggestions include using a car less (he doesn’t own one), eating healthily (on his income he can’t afford to), and heating meals thoroughly (he can’t afford to have his cooker on). It was funny, but it shows things were not so different fifty years ago! Later on they showed a public information film from about the same time. This was to encourage the population to save energy by only heating one room in their home instead of heating the whole house do that the NHS and hospitals would have enough energy to stay open!

Seriously though it does make you wonder about open plan living, maybe people should rebuild internal walls?

Postponed craft fairs

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Sadly the two craft fairs I signed up for have been postponed because they fall too close to Christmas, there are other similar fairs on at the same time and the cost of living makes them less likely to be profitable because no one will have any money.

I would like to participate in ones next year but how can I be certain that things will be any better then? People are going to suffer financially and luxuries like arts and crafts may not be saleable. The whole idea of being an artist and trying to sell work seems less and less feasible.

Meanwhile, I’m seriously thinking about leaving my studio at Spode. I didn’t use it very often since Covid happened because I’m still avoiding people. I don’t know if I can afford it any more. Life isn’t terrible but sometimes you need to be sensible.

Earth moves…

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We think the Earth goes round the Sun and the Moon goes round the Earth. So at the end of a year the Earth is in the same place as a year ago. Right? Wrong! The Galaxy is spinning and the Sun moves with it through space. The Earth orbits the Sun but because the Sun is moving the Earth spirals along around it, and the Moon curves and spirals round Earth. So hard to try and draw! If we could time travel we would have to move through time and space to get back onto the Earth. But if you take into account the speed we are travelling and the distance we will have travelled around the Galaxy, I imagine it would take a great deal of energy to do it!

Keep warm

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The cost of energy in the UK is going up 54% in April this year. That means that the average household bill will be around £2000 per year. There are already people having to choose between heating and eating. All this in an age when we have been told (and rightly so) that we need to cut our carbon footprints. There are ideas and suggestions, being considered, but whether those will work no one knows. I am lucky to live in a first world country, but the poorest in the economy will be hit hardest by this price hike. They spend a higher percentage of their money on energy.

Why as an artist, am I writing about this? Partly because it means that creative people are being squeezed. If people have higher bills they can’t afford to pay for luxuries like art, music, restaurants, just anything that they have to balance their bills. It means that children are going to suffer more poverty. Life continues to get difficult.

So we face hard times, but what about the rest of the world? Life is hard, conflict increases, people have lost their homes, people starve. I have no solutions to offer, but I wish things were better.

I need a walk

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It’s over a month since I walked any distance, and only recently that I started driving any distance again.

It was because of a calf injury that happened while I was on a walk. The pain is only just resolving and I can bear weight on my leg again.

Now I think I’m getting cabin fever. I want to get out and start to walk again, as you get older you can quickly lose muscle mass.. And bones can get weaker too. So sometime soon I will be going out for a gentle wander, somewhere flat, but somewhere I can stretch my legs, see my small patch of the world again, and move on.

Energy

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I keep doing abstracts! This one is based on electricity and uses gold leaf for the sparks!

Gold leaf, gold, grey and black felt pen, bits of paper that held the gold leaf. For the prompt for today for #bandofsketchers which was ‘energy’.

I enjoyed doing this collage, but the gold leaf was fiddly. I cut out a star but it didn’t work very well.

June’s walks

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Or should I say wanders

My month of walking, the smaller circles are around 2000 steps, the medium ones 5000 and a couple of 7-10000. The big one was 15000?

Most of the walks were local, the hill we live on is steep and I’m walking more quickly so my heart points (energy used) has been good every week if not every day. I do feel a difference and I’m using the car a lot less which must be better for the environment. So I will carry on.