Not the best card I’ve ever drawn but I’m limited in what I can do because my computer needs setting up so I did a finger painting in Artrage and they edited it in something called Sketcher app.
I’ve donated to Parkinsons UK this year so I’ve not sent any cards.
I hope you all have a lovely time wherever you are and no matter what you celebrate or don’t.
Let’s hope for more peace and less war and conflict in the coming year. Try and do at least one kind or generous thing for someone in 2026. You don’t have to be boastful about it. Just try and care.
What happens if we see a supernova on Christmas eve? It could happen, the star Betelguse in the constellation Orion is a Red Giant and fluctuates in brightness as if it is flinging off layers of matter. The variability and it’s massive size means astronomers think it might be due to explode in 1000 to 1,000,000 years.
But Betelguse is 642 light years away from us, so it might already have exploded. We wouldn’t know until the light reaches us. Then for a glorious couple of weeks the light would outshine the brightest stars and possibly be visible in daylight.
Supernovas fade after a few weeks, the star stuff is all burnt up or exploding out in a cooling cloud that will eventually stabilise into a nebulous cloud. Examples include the Crab Nebula.
Meanwhile back on Earth because of the date of its imagined eruption, I wonder what the reaction of the population would be? Secular or religious, it would be interesting.
Oh my goodness! My vaccum cleaner stopped working/ wouldn’t switch on and I guessed it was full of dust, so I put in a new bag, but it still wouldn’t work. So my good friend L said she would try and fix it, she’s good at that kind of thing.
She looked at several YouTube videos and found out how to take the top cover off. Then you had to unscrew another cover to get to the switch….
The problem was the cover was held in place by Allen key. Hers would not fit. So she looked at more videos. Turned out you could gently prise the switch out of its hole to get under it. Dust and debris of rust was discovered. She was very good and brave because my cats have used the machine as A perch for years! I’m embarrassed to reveal how bad it was.
Anyway she gently cleaned it out and put it back together. Lo and behold it works!
So happy, doesn’t make up for the car but it’s saved me paying out a lot to repair it. X
Curry splodge for tea. I like to cook but I struggle to cut things up as Parkinsons shaking makes it hard to hold the knife. It tasted nice though. I buy odd shaped veg so I guess it doesn’t matter how it looks. Had no nan or roti bread so used tortillas instead.
I love this phrase, standard candles, it’s a way of looking at the universe to work out distances in light years.
But I keep getting conspiracy theories about the universe from people on the Internet. I decided to try and explain my point of view.
I explained I’m not a physicist or optical expert. But I’ve read a lot over the years so this is my take on measuring the universe’s size.
This is what I wrote. Please accept my apologies if this is totally wrong. I only have a scant understanding.
I’m no
t an expert in optics but I think they have found the universe is over 13 billion years old based on the time light takes to arrive at earth. The science uses standard candles (globular clusters of stars that have the same light production so they can be used to judge distance because of light intensity). John Gribben explains this well in his popular science books. Parallax can also be used to measure distance. If you look out of one eye at your thumb at arms length, then at it from your other eye you will see it apparently move. The same can be done from earth observatories. Look at a star at one end of Earth’s orbit around the sun then 6 months later at the other end… Effectively creating a very long thin triangle. The star will move a tiny fraction against the background of other stars. Using simple geometry you can measure the distance. These methods helped to work out how far other galaxies are outside the milky way. I read all of this from books by authors like Issac Asimov, Sir Patrick Moore, Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and John Gribben among others. Not by watching Fox news.
(the last bit because I was accused of believing things that are on TV)
Already missing Autumn Colour fades in Winter Llke a Bruegel painting Colour slipping off the branches Like skin falling Leaving black bones. The hounds swallow vermillion Grind umber Sup on the remains.
Sometimes you just have to doodle, To be free. Drawing n the Artrage app. It’s one of my favourite places t draw digitally, you get various pens and thickesses. You also adjust the metallic effect. I enjoy it.
I took this photo a few days ago and have no idea where it was at and who I was with! How can I have forgotten? I honestly don’t remember and you take a picture because the food is so nice. I don’t even remember what flavour it was!
It’s quite presentable, and I’m sure it was tasty, but after the last few days of problems and activity the whole thing has completely gone….
You know, the whole Internet is full of images of food. I guess you could save a lot of wasted space by not posting pictures of it!
Quick sketch, crafty group, I wasn’t well so just did this. Pencil on cartridge paper. I think I still have my skill in drawing but Parkinsons makes it harder. I still hope to get better medication and reduce the dopamine breaking down in my brain. I love art and hate the way this disease is making me “stick”, or shaking uncontrollably.
I’m trying hard to keep going, I do not enjoy how things are. But I realise my life is a lot better than some peoples lives. I’m lucky to live in a country with a universal health service. My eternal gratitude goes to the NHS., without which I would be stuffed!
Can you see this… Sketch of an accordion.. On the back of an envelope in pencil. I loved the curve of it. The way the lines flow up through the instrument and into the knitted jumper. Yes I loved drawing the hands as he played. There is a round table with a half empty glass of bass beer (with a triangular trade mark), a notebook and his mobile phone. Plus a bass beer mat. I am not advertising though. It was lovely and welcoming at the Beehive pub in Honeywall, Stoke-on-Trent.
Mallaband-Brown 