Baintree and Bocking station.

Posted on January 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Childhood memories, Design, Jinty, Life, Memories, Miniature railway, Railway, Toy trains, Track plan10 Comments

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This is a drawing of a railway line plan my husband drew in 1969 when he was about 16. He has always loved railways and was on the last steam train to leave Manchester Victoria station to Rochdale in 1968. He tells me this was a Stanier black 5 steam engine 460 (which means 4 leading wheels, 6 driving wheels and no trailing wheels).

He actually made the minature railway layout , including bushes and trees, a signal box and a station building and railway tracks on Triang 00 guage.

He had a Jinty 060 number 47606 3F class, an 040 diesel and a GWR single, Lord of the Isles. I guess any railway enthusiasts out there will understand this, but others won’t.

A Jinty was a nickname for a particular type of engine that did shunting, banking, pilot duties and local freight. This was a small type of engine which had a short wheelbase and could get round curves easily. It was designed by Sir John Fowler.

47606 is just its running number which identifies it. 3F means its power classification (3 freight).

040 diesel is a small dock shunter used by the sea or rivers to carry freight from ships.

A GWR single has a 422 wheel configuration. It’s classed as XP, (express) and could travel at 80 Miles an hour. It could pull up to 400 tons of passanger coaches ( 6 coaches including the guard’s van).

He has so much knowledge but its locked up in his mind. when I asked him it all came out, how do people learn all this stuff!?

Old writing 7 years ago….

Posted on January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Birdsong, Blog, Blogging, Cat, Dawn, Life, Mars, Morning, Sky, Sunrise 2012Leave a comment

This popped up in my Facebook memories today. I have removed my partners name….

Another Sunday morning, my partner went off about 15 minutes ago, and me and Molly cat are here waiting for the sun to rise. The sky had gone from coal black to a dark shade of Paynes Grey, in fact in the few minutes since I sat down it has lightened considerably….. The cat is happily lying on the desk next to the computer, turning over to have her tummy tickled, she doesnt like being ignored and keeps trying to sit on my drawing tablet that also acts as my mouse! that knocks the text off so I have to reposition the cursor every couple of minutes…The blackbirds were singing in the garden at 6.30, hubby went out to listen and one carried on while the other Pink, pinked its alarm call… the song continues high and beautiful, shapely whistles that vary over different combinations of notes…. I am staying up in case my partners bus does not arrive,. One last look at the sky, only slightly lighter, blue grey, no glimmer of sun yet and overcast with lowish cirrus? clouds…thank goodness for the prospect of a warm bed and a book if hubby does not come back. (It has happened in the past when the bus driver forgot to get up!).

(I think the photos were taken a bit later on the same day.)

Digital patterns

Posted on January 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, Blogging, Design, Digital art, Drawing, Humour, Life, Memories, Reflections, WorkLeave a comment

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I’m a sucker for patterns. If I can’t think of any other art to do I will draw a pattern on my phone or tablet then play with it.

I do wonder where my ideas come from. I must be very visual. I never feel comfortable unless I’ve got something to look at. Minimalism is not for me.

I once had to live in a student residence while I was on placement somewhere. I had a room with a bed and a desk and chair. Blank walls. That dingey pale grey /blue /green that public buildings are painted. One kitchen between about 16 rooms and a toilet and shower block.

No home comforts and it was the start of November and I was based there for a months placement. I could only come home at weekends.

I went out and bought a couple of sheets of wrapping paper. A newspaper, a party bag made out of holographic shiny metallic paper. Also a few postcards and a sketch book.

By the end of the day I had 42 (honestly) pictures, photos, patterned paper, the beautiful wrapping paper all stuck up on the walls .. Then I felt much better… Its my visual brain you see…..

An error has occured

Posted on January 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Computers, Errors, Fun, Humour, Life, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

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An error has occurred:

With your words
With your mind,
With your computer,

An error has iccured:

With your link
With your ink,
With your printer,

An errer has inccured:

With your font,
With your print,
Its too faint.

An irritation has infected:

With your mind,
What you find
Computer error!!!

Here’s hoping…

Posted on January 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Internet, Life, Photos, Reflections, WordPress, WorkLeave a comment

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I haven’t been able to use WordPress as I used to for the last few days because I’ve been having some work done on my social media. It seems to be working now on my tablet but not on my mobile phone?

I think I altered something and it has thrown everything out of kilter, so this is another test to see if the post and its accompanying picture go to my Facebook page.

Fingers crossed. X

Another window

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, shadow, Silhouette, Spode, Sunlight, Window, WinterLeave a comment

Another inspiration. I may do a painting of this. The fresh colours of a winter sky against the dark silhouette of the room.

A low sun makes for startling shadows and highlights. Sometimes overwhelming brilliance can burn out even the darkest tones.

I should try and take more pictures!

Where did she go?

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Bugs, Computer illiterate, Humour, Internet, Life, Poem, Poetry, WordPressLeave a comment

I’m having some work done to this page and somethings gone a bit wonky :

I don’t understand URL

What did you say?

I don’t understand HTML

Oh go away!

I don’t get hash tags #

I don’t know at’s @

I don’t know coding…

Oh hell!

Bit of a makeover

Posted on January 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blog, Blogging, Change, Changes, Computer, Design, Facebook, Fun, Instagram, Learning, Life, Painting, Reflections, Social media, Twitter2 Comments

Things are changing on planet Mallaband-Brown so you might notice a few tweaks here and there thanks to my friend Mike from @staffsdesign.

I wanted to update my social media and make it easier for people to follow me. Being an artist has made me a lot happier and nows the time to try and make it work.

I didn’t realise amalgamating all my Web pages and sites would be so complicated and I’m so pleased to have had someone to sort everything out.

This is also a test to see whether it posts to my new Facebook page.

You should be able to follow me on the Internet at @mallabandbrown !

Egyptian strawberries

Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Life, Politics, Reflections, Strawberries3 Comments

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I don’t want to bother you with politics. But (and there always is one), my country is about to go through Brexit, which is, British exit from the European Union.

We are lucky here, we can get food from around the world, we can afford to buy it, unlike some places that have been exploited and kept down. But for how long?

If we want strawberries from Egypt or other countries we don’t currently struggle to get them. There are pan European trade agreements which allow their movement across the continent. But without them things might find it more difficult. Perhaps they could sail through the Mediterranean around the bay of biscay and up the Channel… By which time they may not be as fresh and that’s without any storms. Or they could come by airfreight but there may be more checks at Borders..

I know its not happened yet but I wish we could see the results of this strange decision and how it will affect us.

Blood moon

Posted on January 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Astronomy, Blood moon, Earth, Eclipse, Life, Lunar eclipse, Moon, Stars2 Comments

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Tonight there is a full lunar eclipse which is when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and the earth casts its shadow on the moon.

As it progresses first there is shadow on one side of the moon. Gradually. Like a solar eclipse the curve of the Earth cuts into the Moon. As it progresses the white light from the sun is cut out by Earth’s shadow until only red light passes through Earth’s atmosphere and the Moon turns orangey red. Then the Moon starts to pull out of the shadow and gradually returns to normal

Tonight the moon is at its closest approach to earth so it is known as a super moon.

As a matter of interest I decided to try and draw what a flat earth would look like…. It would cast a flat shadow.. When it was fully eclipsed the moon would appear to be cut in half. Possibly by a red line? Other effects of a flat earth would be daylight all over the upper side then darkness all over the upper side as we tumbled through space. Also what is on the underside and is there a Trumpesque wall round the edge to keep the water in? I recently read an article about gravity. On a flat earth the people on the edge would be lying down as the gravity would be pulling everyone towards the centre of the disc……

Anyway enough rambling