New paintings and regular art updates.
Is my heart broken?
I have to find out..
A failure to function
I want to scream and shout!
How many more things
Can fall off, or break,
This last year has been awful
For goodness sake!
Each time I get over
One thing and another
Life comes and bites me
Will I ever recover?
Last night two of my cats
Sat on the arms of my chair
Like little lions
What did I do?
Move to take a photo
Then one curled up
And went to sleep!
This morning the last flower on the Gladioli stem had fallen onto the path. I think someone had knocked it off as they walked past. I picked it up and put it on my step because I liked it’s beauty against the old peeling paint. It will soon fade and wither so I’m glad I captured it before it’s gone.
Apparently there was another aurora show last night but I must have been asleep. There is another one due tonight in the UK but now it’s raining! This bad photo is from a few weeks ago. I have a tremor and as this was a long (night) exposure over 60 seconds it means I have awful camera shake. Anyway it seems Auroras are increasing because we are close to solar maximum (the sun’s magnetic poles get more and more tangled until suspots explode out as various coronal mass ejections or solar flares, maximum is every 22 years) Then in 11 years later it returns to solar minimum. I’m sorry if this isn’t explained very well.
I decided to write a poem on a poetry page on Facebook. Here it is.
I would like to be brave and post something here.
But my poems are mostly spontaneous.
An explosion of thought on the page.
My mind dances around thoughts,
Spiralling into nooks and crannies.
Flying across the landscape of my brain.
Hopefully landing safely and intact.
It was warm in my bedroom last night, so my cat who usually sleeps on the floor next to my bed must have decided to sleep on the windowledge where it’s a bit cooler. The ivy and buddliea growing outside help shade the stairs landing. I need to cut it back but it will be costly. Meanwhile the cat snoozes happily.
Hydrangea duplicated, green faces seem to emerge from the background of bricks. Pareidolia at large.
Ten year old sketch. I used to like drawing people when we went out to the local pub, or to visit friends. It’s just an easy and quick way of keeping my hand in for drawing portraits.
There are groups you can join on the Internet to draw portraits of each other but I always forget its on until it’s over and I hardly go anywhere anymore.
Today is Staffordshire Oatcake day. According to Google:
“Oatcake Day is celebrated annually on August 8th to honor Staffordshire and its famous oatcake. The day began in 2010. Some people celebrate by visiting Staffordshire Oatcakes in Hanley to learn how the Potteries staple is made. Others share their oatcake creations on social media using the hashtag #StaffordshireDay.”
Basically the Staffordshire Oatcake is a thin pancake style flat tasty disk made of oatmeal flour, yeast, water and possibly other ingredients. It is cooked on a hot griddle in a thin layer so it ends up looking a bit like a lace doily but with fewer holes. You can buy a dozen or half a dozen to take home, or if you get them from an oatcake shop you can have them with various toppings. Mostly cheese and bacon, or bacon and mushroom. My favourite is sausage, cheese and tinned tomatoes. Sometimes with a bit of brown sauce. You can also eat them hot with butter and jam, but that’s probably not acceptable behaviour! And rolled or folded? That’s your choice!
Definitely a Staffordshire specialty. Not to be confused with Scottish oatcakes which are smaller and thicker.
Local artist, poet and author, Arthur Berry wrote “Ode to the Oatcake”…
I asked WordPress to show me a photo from it’s free photo library of ‘parking restrictions’. So I was slightly surprised to see a racoon nesting in a tree! I do wonder what criteria it’s search engine uses. But it was amusing so I’ve posted it.
Why am I thinking of parking? I live on a street with residents only parking. I don’t mind if other people park up as long as I can fit in but recently builders have been parking up while renovating buildings in the street.
Today I saw two men in yellow fluorescent jackets wandering up and down the pavement. One seemed to be writing something in a book. Dreaded parking wardens. They ticketed a van. If the owner had knocked on my door I would have lent him my car parking pass. But it’s a good job I didn’t as I now have a visitor and she needs it.
Mallaband-Brown