Proserpine

Youdraw image

Youdraw is a website that used to rely on Java script but after a while of being down its started up again. The area you draw on is only an inch by two inches in portrait orientation. You have a thick and thin black pen and a thick and thin eraser. But despite the limitations if you played with it you could thin the black lines or reduce the eraser marks. I did thousands of drawings there as Christine M-B. I’ve done just a few since it’s started back up. They are trying to collect 500,000 drawings. I copied a lot of my drawings and added colour to them.

Another youdraw I did.

June sketch

June, before all the leaves had grown on the trees. View out the kitchen window over the main garden. Usually there is a cat in the way but not on this day. The bird feeder on the window didn’t get used. I guess being stared at by an interested looking cat isn’t a good thing when all you want to do is peacefully eat some sunflower seed kernels. This view showed the ripening cherries on the tree, gone and eaten a month later. X

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Want to visit Wales

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?

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.

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

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

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?

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

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.