Love of pattern
Shape and colour
Make me happy
Gives me joy.
Intricate design
Swirls and grids
Makes me excited
Somehow lightened
And restored
Patterns
Tag: Life
365 days!
Yay! Made it
365 days without a break!
First time I’ve managed it
Why? No holidays
No lack of Internet connection
Wifi not a foe!
I just keep thinking
And blogging
Crafting? I don’t know..
This is a diary and a sketchbook
Thanks for reading
And caring! X
Cross
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was cross. I decided to try and draw some sort of jewel like cross. It got a bit messy as a felt pen drawing so I edited it adding texture with photodirector AI style and then added a background to it in the same app.
The return of Halleys comet!
What are you most excited about for the future?
See Wikipedia for information https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley%27s_Comet.
I don’t know all the information about Halleys comet but I did see it in 1986 although it wasn’t as spectacular as expected. But I watched a TV programme that showed photos of it from a probe called Giotto that had been sent out to investigate the comet. The debris and ejecta from the out gassing of the comet meant that the view stopped before the comet nucleus was fully visible. The idea that a comet is a dirty snowball was suggested around then?
Halleys comet returns every 76 years. It is next due in our skies in 2061. I might just get to see it! That is because it is a short period comet as opposed to ones that have much longer orbits only entering the centre of the solar system again after hundreds or thousands of years.
The comet was named after Sir Edmond Halley who in 1705 worked out its orbit around the sun and calculated when it would return. I believe he was made astronomer royal because of it but I might be wrong!
One thing to also note is that a meteor shower happens each year, I think in March? This is caused by dust and debris blown off Halleys comet by the solar wind. The material is left behind and the Earth passes through this debris over a couple of days each year. The resulting meteor shower or shooting stars are basically tiny pieces of cometary dust and small specks of material burning up in the earth’s atmosphere as they enter it.
I’m interested in astronomy but I’m no expert, but Halleys comet has always excited me.
Rhododendrons are lovely
But they don’t last long. The huge clusters of blooms soon brown and fade. They are great at the right time of the year, but then they are just big green bushes and they need underplanting to make them look more interesting. Here there are wild buttercups and ferns which were just growing below the rhododendrons. Mostly they shade out other plants and in some places they are cut back and removed because they are not native to the UK and they can spread and can be invasive. The shade they cast stops native saplings growing.
What to give up?
What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?
If I had to give up something it might be one of my trees at the bottom of the garden. Why? Because the neighbours don’t like it, it is a huge laurel bush/tree. It shades our garden and their garden too. I won’t be cutting any others back though. I like our little nature reserve. Laurel bushes are evergreen so they give shade and shelter to birds and squirrels all year round. But they do block out the sun. The trouble is ours is about forty feet high and thirty or so wide. It’s also right next to our fence line and about six feet away from theirs.
I know there have been huge legal battles over hedges and trees, and I don’t want to fall out completely with my neighbour, but I also cannot afford to have it pollarded or pruned. We will have to see what happens in the future. I hope it doesn’t get to legal action!
Repair
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was repair. I’m currently trying to sew up jeans that are falling apart. I’m trying to do tiny stitches to hold things together. Left side, actual stitching, right, my attempt at a drawing of it!
Repairing split jeans
My old painting jeans. They are years old. When they started to split I started to sew. One patch of sewing covers another. Trying to keep up with the holes!
Mostly sewn with cotton reel thread, a few strands of embroidery silk. My stitches are no longer neat and small. My shaking arm makes it hard to hold the material while I try and stitch. The yellow is the latest cotton. I will swap to another colour soon. I just need to catch the rip below the pocket before it gets any worse. It’s really threadbare…
This is like the story of the old broom. It’s had three new stales and two new brush heads… But it’s still the old broom you always knew… X
Classical
What is your favorite genre of music?
Stravinsky, Holst, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Mozart, lots of older and more modern classical pieces. Including opera, ballet, symphonies and anthems.
I particularly like the Rites of Spring, and the Planet Suite. But almost every piece of classical music cheers me up.
But one of my difficulties is I can never remember what half of the melodies or composers are called. I will remember the music when I hear it, but ask me to name specific pieces and I struggle. Oh I know Ravel wrote the Bolero and Tchaikovsky wrote Swan Lake (I hope?), but I have a blind spot. I can remember some physics or biology, or information about art and artists, but music of any genre? I really struggle. It’s not in my head. And yet if I’m singing with the choir, I don’t remember the song until we start singing, then suddenly its there, words and tune. I must have a strange brain.
Weighed
In the washroom at Spode studios site. A series of plants and objects are clinging to life on the old brick windowsills. I like this in particular. The two ceramic pots just look right sitting on top of the weighing scales. The frosted glass sets it off. It’s OK in the summer but in the winter it’s freezing. The plants still survive though.
Mallaband-Brown 