Timothy Trow memorial day

Timothy Trow was  a tram conductor who tried to save a young girl who had fallen in a local canal, he drowned while trying to save her. He is recognised as a local hero. Today, 13th April  is the anniversary of his death.

I sang with two choirs to commemorate his death by the Memorial stone laid near to where he died on London Road, in the West End area of Stoke on Trent. Singing a song about his life by a local song writer. We then had went over to the local Methodist church, a decendant of the girl who was saved read a piece about the incident. The choirs then sang three more songs.

There were images selected by the local archives department on display inside the church. In all it was a very poignant day.

Thirst

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I need a drink

Cola

No

Cocoa

No

Coffee

No

Gin

No

Beer

No

Cider

No

Milk

No

Whiskey

No

Tea

No

Orange Juice

No

Water

Yes

Cold

Yes

With ice

Yes

Sparkling

Yes

Tap water

YES.

why spend money on water if you can get it out of the tap?  We are very lucky in my country to be able to have freshly piped water. In a lot of the World this does not happen.

But we still buy water in bottles! And when we have bought our bottles water the plastic bottle it usually comes in gets thrown away and Sent to landfill or ends up floating in the ocean and destroying the sea life. Meanwhile many people in the world have to drink filthy water and maybe carry it for miles before they can drink or use it. Maybe we should care more about people who are really thirsty. My choice of drinks is almost unlimited. The world must try and be fairer.

Save the world, drink tap water if you can!

A few more….

Digital, digita, digit, digit, digit, dig, dug

What fun I had drawing these. From faces to flowers, plates and jugs. Lace and mandelbrot, eyes, patterns and rocks. I like trying to draw anything. 

The jug is a drawing of a Clarice Cliff designed pot by the way.

All drawn at the now defunct Sketchfu website.

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My Sketchfu drawings

There used to be quite a basic drawing website called Sketchfu. These are drawings I did there and saved before the site closed around 2013?

Some of them were challenges to copy images that had been posted to the site. It was a good community and I’m proud to say I helped moderate it over quite a few years. All images are digital drawings by myself, not photos.

Sun seeker

 

It’s sunny by the sofa and our tom cat never fails to find the sun. As the light moves across the room he will follow it. Eyelids drooping as he naps. Head nodding. Whiskers splayed in the sunlight. Plants display phototropism, bending towards sunlight. Is this an example of ‘catatropism’ (or would that be humans moving towards cats?).

 

In the case of these seedlings I have to turn them round because they bend each day towards the light. True phototropism. But the cat has also moved again. _20190411_111757

He’s a true sun seeker.

Wasp

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Wasp! I’ve stood on one and been stung before now. I don’t like them but I can live with them, except when they built a nest in between some bricks and started coming out into the kitchen when they emerged. I got up one morning and there were a few wasps flying round the kitchen. Two many to catch and I didn’t have any fly spray so I had to hoover them up in the vacuum cleaner. I felt guilty about it. Then over the next week we had more every morning. I had to book pest control in the end.

Now years later I just had a huge wasp fly into the living room. It must have come in from the garden when my partner went outside.

The cats ears pricked up and he started looking up and jumping onto cupboards to try and catch it. I don’t think chewed wasp would be good for him. Then it flew onto the window behind a net curtain.

I shouted my partner as I could not reach. A plastic tub and a magazine were used to trap it, now its free flying around outside.

Phew! Strange how insects can be so upsetting. Wasps are useful for eating pests and pollenation. And thankfully I didn’t have to vacuum it up!

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Dawn chorus

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I came downstairs about an hour ago and the sweet, loud, melodious song of birds was filling the air. At this time of year in the spring it seems louder and more beautiful than ever. Fizzing through the air like ripe electricity. A great pleasure to listen to.

Then cutting through it the insistent alarm call, not of a blackbird, but a ruddy car alarm! The bird song quietened for about five minutes, a car engine started up in the street, and traffic noise commenced. But soaring high above it the melodies of a Blackbird and its mate have resumed. Liquid notes rising and falling in complicated trills… And that ruddy car alarm again!

Bottle oven / pizza oven….

A replica bottle oven is growing on the grounds of Spode at the moment. It’s going to be a pizza oven at the hotel on the Spode site.

Around the other side of Spode near the Church Street side is the base of an original bottle oven which had been demolished years ago. There are very few real ovens still standing in the city. Many were knocked down or fell into disrepair over the years. Where hundreds once stood and smoke stained the city sky less than fifty are still standing and many of these are in danger of being lost to the history of the city, county, and country.

Even now buddleia and other shrubs are growing in between their bricks, pulling the ovens down in continued dereliction. Hopefully some can be conserved.

For those who don’t know bottle ovens are bottle shaped buildings containing a central kiln which the oven surrounds. Pottery was stacked inside the kiln and fired by stoking fires under the ovens with coal.

Cats and clutter

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I took these photos within minutes of each other. This is my painting chair where I prop up my canvases while painting at home. I’m between paintings at the moment so the cats often sit on it. The house is full of “stuff” that Mey or may not be used as subject matter. Hence this poem!

Cats and clutter, clutter and cats.

Do the two go together

Like mittens and bats?

Like bread and butter

Like lamb and spring

Grapes and wine

Cheese and bread?

We all live differently

Each to his own

Cats and clutter are in my home!