Flowers

Posted on May 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colours, Environment, Flowers, Gardening, Geology, Life, Photos, Plants, Random, Spring, WaterLeave a comment

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A few flowers from the garden today. The flowers are starting to develop, the big summer plants are a bit swamped with ivy and scrubby bushes and so we have cut back branches and peeled ivy off trees a bit today. Only what you can do with a pair of secateurs and a small pruning saw.

We need to lay some pathways, and where a spring has erupted in the garden we are going to put a few pebbles to simulate a stream flowing down under the hedge. We live on a hill which is a very old Volcanic plug. The water percolates out further up the hill and we think because that was built on a few years ago it might have got diverted down towards our house. I don’t know….

Remembering paintings

Posted on July 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Design, Devon, Friends, Geology, Life, Moorland, Painting, Rock, Stone, YorkshireLeave a comment

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I can’t remember where this is! It may be on a tor on dartmoor or it could be somewhere up high in the Yorkshire dales. I know the figure is a friend of mine, but he’s lived in Devon and Yorkshire so that does not help. Looking at it I’m not even sure of what the stone is. I know it’s been weathered by the wind to created the distinct layers in the stone. I’m not sure the colours are accurate. But I like the photo, there is a feeling of distance and atmosphere. Perhaps I will see it again sometime.

RIFT

Posted on March 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #writephoto, Fault, Geology, Poem, Poetry, Prompt, Sue Vincent, Volcanic9 Comments

For Sue Vincent’s #writephoto see here cracked

Rift

Split

Crack

Stretch

Faulted

Expand

Cracking

Growing

Volcanic

Faultline

Tectonic

Widening

Stretching

Expansions

Plate tectonics

Growing wider

Fractured rocks

Land expanding

Never ending fire

The world splits in half…..

International Women’s Day 2018

Posted on March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, Burslem School of Art, Clay, Coal, Faults, Geology, Mining, Pottery, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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I just found this sketch of International Women’s Day from about a year ago. I had a stall with art for sale at Burslem school of Art. I think this was the first time I ever drew the main gallery and I also tried to draw the banner that was on display there.

The school of art is very crooked. Burslem is old and suffers from subsidence or is undermined by coal mines. The whole of the city is built on clay and coal and the coal field under the city has caused a lot of damage over the years. Parts of the city also have geologic faults running underneath them so it’s not surprising that the buildings are affected.

There is also a volcanic plug where I live, the very base of an ancient volcano that was worn away by erosion over thousands or millions of years. The hill that is left dominates the valley of the river Trent, but the ground rises in other places too. There are coal tips (slag heaps) where the spoil from the collieries was dumped as the coal was hewn from the ground.

The wonder of Pottery and artistic design was the result of the geology in Staffordshire.

The winking man

Posted on February 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Buxton, Climbing, Geology, Hen cloud, Leek, Luds Church, Staffordshire moorlands, The roaches, The winking man, Travel, WalkingLeave a comment

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If you drive over the road between Leek and Buxton you drive past a hilly ridge of rocks on the right hand side called the Roaches. There is also a hill called Hen cloud. You can turn off on the left and either take a road that runs along or behind the ridge. There are rocks to climb or scramble over and footpaths to follow up high to a pool on the top and then down again to the road which loops round the end of the Roaches Follow the path onwards over the road and eventually you get to a wooded valley and a cut through the rocks covered in lichen and moss called Luds Church. I’m not sure of the map references but it’s an interesting place to visit….

But the winking man is further up the main road past the first turn off to the Roaches. Its on the left side as you drive up the hill. It looks like a profile of a face with a hole for the eye but as you drive up to it the rock beyond can be seen through the eye and it appears to wink or blink.

The rock of the Roaches is hard wearing and the face has been visible for years. It is a well known landmark but be careful when you are driving I’d rather miss the wink of an eye than the view of the road.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Geology