New paintings and regular art updates.
We had a starter each of Thai fishcakes then I had Thai Noodles with squid, prawns, fish balls, spare ribs and chicken. This was mixed with spices and vegetables. As usual the portion size was a bit too big for me. But I really enjoyed it. Not to spicy not to mild.
We were at Sawadee Thai Taste in Stoke. We go there about once a month because its nice to try new flavours every so often. But I’m also not going out very often because of Covid. I have to feel safe to go out!
Just had an enjoyable morning at the Waiting Room gallery in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. We looked at paintings based on Spanish ideas, tiles and their moorish influenced patterns. Our friend Eve gave a talk about her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. There was also some Spanish food to taste. It was very pleasant.
Tonight the clocks go forward. It means that sunrise is an hour later and sunset also an hour later than in the winter. This is BST or British Summer Time. We revert back to GMT or Greenwich Mean Time in autumn. The idea was adopted in the second World War to give farmers extra time to get crops in? The zero meridian runs through Greenwich, England, and is where the world’s time is set. As you go round the globe there are time zones set covering sections of the globe going forward or back in hourly segments.
At one stage in the UK they kept British Summer time in the winter. This was for two or three years in the 60’s or 70’s. It was darker in the mornings but lighter in the evenings. They found less traffic accidents involving children because although they were tired at the end of the school day they were able to see cars better. There were less deaths. But the government decided against keeping it because people in the far north weren’t having sunrise until 10 or 11am if I remember correctly.
There have been more recent suggestions of creating double summer time, where the clocks would permanently go forward an hour all year round, but then in the summer the clocks would go forward another hour. The idea is that this would save energy. However it has not been approved by Parliament.
We went to a coffee morning today and a new friend from the group had a smartly dressed bear with her. I had taken my sketchpad so I decided to draw it.
Took about fifteen minutes to draw. Black ink fine line pen. Tomorrow I might try and do some actual painting!
I know it’s almost spring because the grape hyacinths come out in the pots at the front of the house. We are the only house with plants growing on the pavement. When I come home it cheers me up. They really do look like little bunches of grapes, don’t they? The blue colour reminds me of bluebells but they don’t emerge until April or May. X
This morning I saw the sun shining through the petals of my orchid flowers. I have four plants and they flower for ages, but this is the only one in flower at the moment. I decided to mirror it to create a more abstract, alien image, perhaps a real alien! I adjusted the colour to a more blue grey tone. It was very yellow because of the morning sunlight.
The Manifold Way is a cycleway near Waterhouses in Staffordshire, England. It runs along an eight mile stretch of valley and is a path for walking and cycling.
There is a cave up on the hillside, it’s called Thors cave. I walked up once.. Very steep. The valley is wooded and there is a stream running alongside the footpath for some of its length. It has a small tunnel through part of the hillside as it used to be a small narrow gauge railway with only two engines (hubby tells me). It was used for dairy products and passengers. A light railway branch line. We are so lucky to be near to such a beautiful place.
Colours of the moment. Blue and yellow, sorrow and sunshine. Rock and air. Sun and cloud. Buildings in history, broken, and ruined. Life grows in the cracks. A maze, the Minotaur hidden. A ball of string to use to escape? Walls fall, golden stone and sea rushing in. My mind is lost in thought.
Our wonderful Chancellor has today reduced the cost of fuel at the pumps by five pence. That works out at around .33% off the price or one third of one percent! Given that petrol and diesel prices have recently gone up by 50%. This does not seem like an overly generous cut! Given other taxes are going up I wonder what they would like us to think about this? The cost of living and inflation is increasing. Living standards are falling.
Faces drawn in a nice app I used to use a few years ago. But I had to delete it because I don’t have enough memory on my phone. Maybe when I finally upgrade it I will reinstall it. I think it was called sketcher app. I think I still have it on another device but that’s not linked to the Internet very well so I have to mess about trying to link things. Maybe I should get more organised. I quite like this.
Mallaband-Brown