Old self portrait

Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.

The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.

Cherry cheescake

And a chocolate dot

When I promised to cut down

On sugary foods

I didn’t notice this cheese cake

Lingering just

Out of sight

The chocolate dot

Sat on the counter

Looking for a companion

To contrast with the cherry swirls

Give me strength

Never to return

To this cafe

On pain

Of chilli sauce

Poured on my dessert!

Apollo missions

I have been reading a lot about the Apollo space missions recently on Facebook, but so many people laugh and post that the photos are faked. I really hate this attitude and posted this comment to respond to the ridicule :

On all these posts there are idiots laughing at the achievement of the Apollo missions and Astronauts. They were ground breaking and reliant on the brilliance of thousands of people across the globe. By calling this fake you are denigrating their bravery, knowledge and hard work.
By laughing you are telling people that you don’t believe in science and intelligence. By laughing you are pushing the narrative that stupidity and dumbing down are good for humans, when the opposite is true. People need education to keep solving insurmountable problems. Give credit is where it is due instead of disrespect.

Painting a model.

A snowy cottage (with led lights) and a flowerbed for cut flowers. Made by a craft group I’m  in. The wooden  model was  mostly painted with white acrylic to replicate snow. I added dark outlines to indicate bricks, stone and tiles.

This is not a good photo, but it gives you an idea of it’s size. At least it feels like I did something artistic last week.

Rain

It rained very heavily a few days ago.

I wrote this poem in response :

Rain flowed down the hill
Flooded the gutters
A wall of water
In the midst of it
A man on a mobility scooter
Drove it through two feet of water
Flash flood wheel chair hero!

The man on the scooter was videoed, it made the local TV news! Legend! I think it’s on tiktok in Stoke on Trent.

Autumn dawn

Reddish sky in the morning

Shepherds take warning….

And they should! A few days ago we had a red dawn, this photo was taken as it faded.

The sky soon clouded over and later we had a deluge! Water flowed down the hill so fast and deep that it overwhelmed the drains and poured out of gutters onto the pavements. At the back of my house it came down the window in a sheet of rain and the water snuck into the wall and plaster around the window frame. I’ve never seen anything like it.

There was a flash flood in the centre of town with rain water up to people’s car headlights. Shops that were safe at the front had brown water knee high in their store rooms….

It might have been a microburst but it was very stormy. The winds were blowing trees about. It was more than the usual thunderstorm. Thankfully it blew over after about twenty minutes.

Climate change is here. I don’t know how places like Jamaica and Cuba and Haiti coped with last week’s hurricane. I feel so worried for them.