🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Want to visit Wales

Posted on September 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Covid 19, Holiday, Life, Llandudno, North Wales, Pier, Sketch, Travel, Visit, WalesLeave a comment

Over a year ago we visited Llandudno and walked along the pier at the seafront. This is at the far end looking back at a magestic hotel. We also went up the Great Orme mountain in a tram car (there is a chair lift too). We went back to North Wales at Christmas and stayed for a couple of days, but that’s the last time we had a trip over there because of covid 19. I would love to live over there but we would never be able to afford it and I would miss all my friends here. But once life has got back to a more normal situation I think we will start visiting the beautiful countryside of Wales again. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Can I see an elephant?

Posted on September 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Animals, Cloud, Elephant, Environment, Extinction, Imagination, Life, Looks like, Nature, Plants2 Comments

Strange towering cloud seen on our walk. Looks like someone walking with their hands being them and with an Elephants head, trunk raised.

Will our children and our children’s children even recognise Elephants, or Lions and Tigers and all the other animals (and plants) that are becoming extinct? When the last Elephant in the wild has its tusks hacked off by trophy hunters or illegal poachers, will someone notice or care?

Man sets himself up as the most important animal. But that means we should care for what lives on Earth. Not destroy it.

Watching the tour de France.

Posted on September 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bike, Bike frame, Car, Cycling, Exercise, Life, Memory, Tour de FranceLeave a comment

As an ex cyclist (I fractured my skull in an accident), I have to say how much I admire the cyclists in the tour. In my healthy days I could ride forty or fifty miles. Now I can’t even get on a bike. I’m old and creaky. I wish I could go back to the old days. I never raced but I did Marshall bike races occasionally. My hubby came third in a tricycle time trial. We used to enjoy touring. After the accident I cycled for a year, then the bike collapsed one day underneath me. It came apart, its brazing below the handlebars had been damaged and suddenly the front wheel was stretching away from me and the pedals cluncked onto the road. I got a car. Big mistake.

Watching the tour brings back those memories. I wich I still cycled.

Eye-opener

Posted on September 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colours, Contrast, Duplicated, Eyes, Images, Layout app, Life, Photo, Photodirector, StyleLeave a comment

Photo of my eye duplicated then edited in photodirector. Using a brush tool and a style tool. It might not be pretty but I hope it is interesting. I could imagine turning it into a print. The more I play, the more I learn. I like the colours, the shading, the contrast of marks even though they are created by an algorithm. To me it’s fun.

Cloud over Barlaston

Posted on September 5, 2020September 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Black, Blue, Canal, Dark, Life, Moths, Nightfall, Poem, Poetry, Sky, Towpath, WalkingLeave a comment

Soft little clouds

Fluttering like bird feathers

Swirling down the air currents

Darkness falling

Now the moon rises

Shadows lengthen.

Time to stretch our legs,

Head home,

A long, flat walk

Into the dusk.

Bat’s flitter overhead,

Moths race to our torches.

Mistaking them for the rising moon.

Home in time for supper.

Blue sky lost in the dark….

Daliah?

Posted on September 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bees, Canal, Colours, Daliah?, Double flowers, Flowers, Insects, Life, Purple, single flowers, Spectrum, Ultraviolet, WalkLeave a comment

Are they? I think they are. Seen by my friend during a walk. They were in a garden along the canal. These were such a bright colour she took a photo of them.

Flowers are wonderful thing, such amazing structures, with colours outside of the visible spectrum that attract insects to pollinate them. They sometimes use the ultraviolet end of the spectrum to show insects where their nectar is. The trouble with flowers like these is that there are so many petals that the insects can’t get at the nectar. The human intervention of breeding flowers could have a detrimental effect on insect life. There are plants that are advertised as bee friendly, but sometimes that’s all it is, an advert. Single flowered plants are probably best.

Fern fronds

Posted on September 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Carboniferous, Environment, Evolution, Ferns, Gardening, Life, Nature, Random, Silica, ToxicLeave a comment

Ferns are ancient plants. They predate flowering plants. You can find fossils of them in the carboniferous era. They propagate, not by seed, but by spores which are held on the underside of the leaves. In sporediea. They are discharged into the air and are blown away by the wind. From there they create tiny ferns, I can’t remember the exact details because its over forty years since I learnt about them. All I can say is I must look it up. I do know they have silica in their cells and can be toxic to cattle and sheep.

Ferns are beautiful, they have lovely spiral fronds which then unfurl. There are different colours shapes and sizes. I know that some people have gardens full of ferns. I obviously need to find out more.

Rain arch?

Posted on September 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fun, Life, Phenomena, Rain arch, Sci-fi, Short story, Story, Strange taleLeave a comment

Look up on the sky. Can you see it? The rain arch. I don’t understand it. That’s not normal? Who knows what it means?

Is it a stunt, is it possible? How can you believe that is real?

These were the questions being asked by people who saw it. The picture went viral. Then stories of other arches appeared in the news. There was more rain and more arches. No one had an explanation. But strange things continued to happen. The rain arches started appearing at night. There was only the arches. A new phenomena.

Pinned down…. By my cat!

Posted on September 4, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Cramp, Fun, His slave, Humour, Leg, Life, Move!, Sleeping cat, Tired, TrappedLeave a comment

Oh come on cat! I can’t move because you are lying om my leg. Weighing it down, stretched out on my lap. I don’t want to disturb you, warm and sleepy. But I need my leg back! It’s falling asleep. I’ve got pain on my ankles, in my hip, in my lower back… There are plenty of other places you could sit or lie. But I want to move. Then you sigh, and relax, and I am lost. I am just your mattress, your bed. I am your slave.

Another walk

Posted on September 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ankles, Exercise, Life, Miles, Penkhull, Random, Uphill, Walk, WalkingLeave a comment

Today I was walking up hill and through a local nature reserve. There were also steep steps down which must have been 18 inches deep. I had to grab hold of the handrail and lower myself down each step.

I’ve decided to walk up our steep hill each time we go out for a walk so me and my friend both get a good stretch of our legs and I hope to get the hill over and done with at the start…. Then she decided to drag me up some extra steep bits..

Ooo my ankles hurt! Tomorrow I might be walking to a local park to do some sketching.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life