What to do on the Solstice

Posted on June 20, 2020June 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Congleton, Double sunset, Hill, Leek, Life, Phenomenon, Seeing, Solstice, The cloud, View, What to do?Leave a comment

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I can remember seeing the sun set and then come out again from behind the Cloud hill, near Congleton, Cheshire.

I could not remember where we were but according to ITV.com there is a place to stand to see it….

‘The solar event which happens just once each year will be visible in the Midlands tonight.

The double sunset takes places during the the summer solstice and can be seen from various locations around North Staffordshire.

According to the Oxford Journals the double sunset can be seen from the churchyard of St Edward the Confessor in Leek. The alignment of a local hill means that the Sun is occulted close to sunset around the time of the summer solstice. This phenomenon was described in 1686 by Dr Robert Plot. Calculations show the phenomenon will be visible for another 500 years.

How does it happen?

The apparent double sunset is due to the rotation of the Earth. As the sun sinks behind The Cloud the planet continues to rotate, allowing the sun to become briefly visible again.’

Apologies for the length of the quote, but it explains what I mean clearly.

Please note I’ve now been advised: due to earth movement and buildings it can no longer be seen in St Edwards churchyard but can be viewed from Lowe hill near Leek. My Dad is Doug Pickford who has written books about local legends (info from a friend)

Poppies near Argenteuil.

Posted on June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Claude Monet, Fine Art, French impressionist, Life, Monet, Painting, Poppy field, Relaxing, Summers day, Walking7 Comments

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Monets’ painting of a poppy field is such a ubiquitous image, but beautiful nonetheless. The figures at the top of the hill are the same couple at the bottom of the hill, though I doubt that he painted so quickly that he managed to paint the rest of the picture by the time they had walked down the hill.

The trees in the background and the house set at the back of the field frame a beautiful summers day. It always seems so calm and peaceful when I look at it. I feel joyful and relaxed, thinking of glimpsing a view like that in Devon or Yorkshire. I know many wildflower meadows have gone, but maybe we will restore more of them in the future so people can enjoy walking through them again.

Strawberries and cream

Posted on June 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beatles, Evaporated milk, Food, Fun, Life, Memories, Pick your own, Single cream, Strawberries, Strawberries and cream, Taste of summer, Transistor radio4 Comments

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First of the season, fresh strawberries and extra thick cream (saves having to whip it). Added a tiny bit of sweetener on to the strawberries. I have one that doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste.

When I was young we used to go and pick our own strawberries. You would spend ages in a field searching under leaves to find the berries. Often they were padded underneath the plants with straw to keep the berries from trailing on the ground. I think that’s where they got their name? Summer days when most of the strawberries missed the punnet and fell into our mouths instead. When music by the beatles played out of little transistor radios.

And when we got home? Strawberries with either single cream and white sugar. Or if we hadn’t got cream in, evapourated milk… Heaven…

My mona

Posted on June 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Digital drawing, Drawing, Fun, Leonardo, Life, Mona Lisa, Painting, Sketch, SketchfuLeave a comment

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I drew this at sketchfu about eight years ago. It is simply drawn with vasious circular brushes. Different sizes, a palette of colours, different opacity and transparency and an eraser.

I was looking at a post on Facebook by portrait artists. They thought digital art was just taking a picture in Photoshop and using filters to make it look like a drawing. I don’t think they understood the hours it takes to do something like this. It’s not brilliant, but it was difficult.

Noctilucent clouds.

Posted on June 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Astronomy, Atmosphere, Environment, High in the atmosphere, Life, Meteor dust, Meteor smoke, Noctilucent clouds, Reflected, Science, Space, SunlightLeave a comment

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High up in the atmosphere, close to space, Noctilucent clouds start to appear in the summer months. They glow an almost electric blue and are caused by sunlight reflecting off gas particles from meteors that have broken and burned up as they strike the earth’s atmosphere at high speeds. Over the last few years these clouds have become more common and scientists are investigating why.

I see information about these and other atmospheric and astronomical phenomena at Spaceweather.com a fascinating Web page.

Souvenir

Posted on June 16, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white, Colour, Drawing, Knitting, Life, Pattern, Pen and ink, Picture, Sketching, Souvenir, Thai doll, Urban sketchers challenge, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Texture and pattern. Today’s Urban sketchers challenge was drawing a souvenir so I drew a Thai woman and baby doll that my friend gave me. As I’m doing textures and symbols on my illustration course I decided to try out different marks to show the knitting on the cushion underneath the doll.

I have been doing a lot of pen and ink drawings lately, not using pencil or charcoal much. Maybe I should try some other techniques?

Won a zoom quiz

Posted on June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Answers, Fun, Have a go, Life, Questions, Quiz, Random, Six of the best, Teamwork, ZoomLeave a comment

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It was a bit chaotic, but fun. Questions included what whale and bridge have the same name (humpback). Who sang my boy lollypop (millie small), mimi was a character in which opera (la boheme). We were half a point in front at the end. It was a close run thing. Teamwork is so important. Seven teams, how can you have so much fun online? Did I say? We won!

Limerick challenge…

Posted on June 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Fun, Humour, Life, Limerick, Nose, Poem, Poetry, Random, RhymeLeave a comment

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I just wrote this at Easter Chiltons blog, where the prompt was to use the word nose on some part of the limerick…

I hope you think this is funny! 😂

Crochet blanket

Posted on June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Big, Birthday, Blanket, Colourful, Crochet, Life, Orange, Present, Random, Stripey2 Comments

My sisters birthday present to me. A crochet blanket which I think will live on the back of the sofa. Bright, colourful, joyous. Stripey….

I think I might display it horizontally. I already have two green blankets which I’m putting on our arms chairs. It should be a riot of colours in here!

Thanks sis!

Anyone seen a dalek?

Posted on June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 60's iconic TV, Dalek, Day out, Dr Who, Froghall, Fun, Life, Memories, Photo, Sci fi, Space, Station, Tardis, Time, Time and relative dimensions in spaceLeave a comment

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A couple of years ago we saw a Dalek on a station (I think it was Froghall) in the Staffordshire moorlands. Memory fades, but I know I had a short video of it perambulating backwards and forwards along the platform. I remember looking for who was running it. The original ones on TV in the sci-fi series Doctor Who, were moved by people inside the Daleks, pedalling them along.

This one was being moved by a remote control I think. I saw a man with a radio controller in his hand. Later we went to look at a model Tardis in the station itself. Tardis stands for Time and relative dimensions in space. Anyone who is a Doctor Who fan would know that.

It’s not often that you bump into an iconic 1960’s TV character in real life.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life