New paintings and regular art updates.
I think of daffodils and crocuses at this time of year, or snowdrops and later tulips. But an often overlooked plant is the Helibore. The flowers tend to droop their faces towards the ground and they have larder five lobed leaves. There colours can be a mottled grey green, white with green splotches or a greyish pink. This is a manipulated image to show how interesting they can be. Lift up a flower and be captivated by its hidden subtle beauty.
One day I want to see
Shimmering Northern lights
Lighting up the sky
The Aurora Borealis, bright.
Green or red or white…
Different colours, different elements
Curtains of particles
Flying on Earth’s magnetic field
Falling to land at the poles
Glowing glory
Suns power manifested in air
My bucket list wish.
Seen in England last week
But hidden by clouds….
Last night my hubby went out in the garden to put some bird food out and almost tripped over a hedgehog! He said it seemed to be asleep at the base of the cherry tree. He went out again and took a bowl of cat food. This morning the bowl had been tipped over and the food was gone.
When we see hedgehogs I think of spring. It’s still pretty cold and we may get some snow, but they are coming out of hibernation.
DON’T FEED…. milk and bread, hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. They also don’t get enough calories from so called ‘hedgehog’ food. Apparently it’s just meal worms and pet food manufacturers are just trying to make money. You can feed them cat food. Ours seem to like fresh wet or dry cat food. Also nake gaps in wooden fences at their bases to allow hedgehogs through into your garden. .
We had finished tea and my hubby took the plates in to the kitchen to be washed up. He shouted through to the living room ‘are you cooking something else?’… ‘No’, ‘well you’ve left one of the gas rings on?’ I didn’t realise I had and I walked into the kitchen just as he lifted the Wok lid up off one of the gas stoves burners at the back. He’d only just turned the burner off and as he lifted the Wok lid by its plastic handle he let out an involuntary ‘ow!’ Turns out when I poured some pasta into the big pan of mixed veg and salmon I was cooking on the front hob, I must have dropped the wok lid over the back hob without switching it off. Because the gas was on low, and the lid and handle are heat resistant nothing caught fire, it just got very hot. If the pan lid had any food clinging to it, it would have caught fire, and because I can’t smell things properly we could have had a real problem. Thank goodness hubby spotted my mistake!
Six months ago these were still flowering. The bushes are outside Portmeirion pottery and always cheer me up when I see them. Now we have reached meteorological spring they should start to transform again from dry looking sticks to flowering stars.
Fushias are beautiful hanging flowers. They can be simple like these or delicate like ballerinas with swirling pink or red skirts or double flowers like flamenco dancers. You can get all sorts of varieties of them. I think they are called F1 hybrids?
For the first time ever our big cat sat on my hubby’s knees! He as an abandoned cat and we have looked after him for five years. Gradually over that time he has become more appreciative of being stroked. He used to just sit on the chair arms between us, but now he’s venturing further. He’s a sweet cat, and he’s very big, but very gentle. He will tell you when he doesn’t like something. He rarely likes being lifted up, but he’s much calmer now. He loves his food and he’s quiet around our other two cats. I love them all….
What do you do?
Stuff belongs to you
Full of metals
Thrown away
Digital devices
PC’s, Tablets, phones….
Lithium? Tantalum?
Rare earth metals
I don’t know
Dig up gold
Bury it in landfill?
Repair and recycle
Use our resources
Sensibly, sparingly
Safely….
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was fence. So I drew a digital drawing of a fence. It’s a bit abstract.
As I was finishing my charcoal drawing I saw a creature in the sky. A flying beagle type dog with a white muzzle floppy mouth and long floppy ears (alternatively it could be a loping hare). I don’t know how I managed it, but I didn’t alter it, I just chuckled! I’ll post a photo of the finished drawing later…
I went to the Orme Art Group charcoal workshop today. It was run by an artist called Jo Watson and she taught us various techniques. Here I used brushed on charcoal powder smudged with a rubber tipped tool. Then I used willow charcoal sticks which you put on in a random way, then smudge again to lighten the charcoal. Finally you add darker layers to add contrast but you can tone these back to the paper colour, either by using a putty rubber you can shape, to lift off a layer of charcoal, or you can use a mechanical eraser thar rubs off patches to make the drawing lighter.
Mallaband-Brown