Solstice

Posted on May 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Hemispheres, Life, Light, Moon, Poem, Poetry, Solstice, Space, Summer, Sun, Thinking, Time, WinterLeave a comment

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As the year waxes and wanes,

as time passes,

light rises and falls.

Life comes and goes,

hearing bird song, then silence.

Summer solstice,

the world is warm,

but days will shrink and shrivel.

Winter solstice,

the promise of warmth,

locked in ice,

day lengthens, nights slowly shrink.

North and South

seasons, polar opposites.

Hot in one hemisphere,

cold in the other.

Unless, near the equator,

seasons are less obvious,

No frozen wastes here.

World floating in space,

around Sol, the Sun, our star,

Earth tipped at an angle,

anchored by moon,

held in mutual gravity

Eternal?

Possible painting.

Posted on March 18, 2020March 18, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Life, Light, Painting, Self isolating, Still life, Subject matter, ThinkingLeave a comment

I need some inspiration for new paintings. Now I have to stay indoors or in my garden because of the orders to self isolate if you have underlying health issues, I can’t get out and look at things, I can’t go and see the sea. I’m trawling through my phone to see if I can find images to paint. This is a strong candidate (taken at the waiting room gallery, which is closed for the time being). This has an old fashioned look of a still life, with strong shadows and modelling with the sunlight.

I will try and find a canvas for it. I’m worried that the shops I get them from might close? I will have to go out tomorrow and panic buy canvases! And that is not sticking to the self isolating rules!

Today’s art lunch

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Art lunch, Chatting, Discussion, Friends, Fun, Light, Lunch, Photos, Sunlight, Talk, Tired4 Comments

Today’s art lunch was spicy vegetable soup served with chats about funding streams for artists and how to apply for them. Discussing organising workshops. Chatting about doodling. Working out about clearing a work space at the Etruria Artists warehouse.

We were serenaded by lovely jazz music on my friends record player, so stylish. The light was streaming into the living room so I took photos of the sunlight shining on the wall and painting patterns on to it. It was a fun afternoon but I came home shattered and fell fast asleep. I’m struggling to stay awake while writing this!

Old glass lampshade

Posted on February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Antique, Blogging, Etruria, Glass, History, Holy Inadequate pub, Lampshade, Light, Pub, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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Saw this in the pub a few days ago. I’m not sure if it’s antique or a reproduction but it has a feeling of something from the start of the last century. I liked the main shade surrounded by three smaller shades all held together by solid but delicately shaped metal. I wonder if it’s converted from a gas mantle?

I imaging its a considerable weight, so I guess it’s screwed into a ceiling joist. I didn’t think to look at the lights in the rest of the pub so I don’t know if it’s the only one there. Perhaps it’s from a reclamation yard? There are a few round here. Anyway it’s good to see old things about.

Sunlight finds a way

Posted on February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Letting light in, Light, Photo, Poem, Poetry, Short poem, Sun, Sunlight, WordsLeave a comment

The sunlight sneaks in

Through the cracks in the door

Through the chinks in the fence

Under the trees

Through the blinds

Past the steel reinforced concrete

Over the brick wall

Tumbling down the chimney

Through the grid over the window

When it’s sunny

Sunlight finds a way.

Light

Posted on February 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Happy, Life, Light, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Reality, Sad, Thinking, Ups and downs4 Comments

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You light up my life,

Like a street lamp showing the way

That’s a bit glitchy

So sometimes you flicker…

Like a candle,

That gutters and flutters,

Like a bonfire,

Who’s sparks can cause explosions

Like the Sun

Which can be hidden by clouds.

But you give more light than dark,

For which I’m grateful.

Still light at 5pm.

Posted on January 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Daylight, Evening, Life, Light, Night, Photo, Sky, Spring, Time, WinterLeave a comment

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I always know that the year is turning when there is still light in the sky at 5pm. I noticed it more when I was finishing work at 5. I loved coming home in daylight. It makes me feel that there is time to do more with life. I think I get too entombed in the winter… So yay for the return of sunshine!

Fireworks

Posted on January 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chemicals, Electrons, Explosion, Fireworks, Light, New years day, Photons, Science, Spectrum, Trying to understandLeave a comment

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Sodium nitrate, sulphur and carbon. Mixed together make gun powder. That is the explosive mixture they put into fireworks. The ratios of the different elements determine the burning characteristics. Strontium makes red, sodium yellow, copper green, magnesium bright white, other elements make different colours. Cobalt? Possibly blue. The elements burn at different temperatures. Each element, when heated, excites electrons in its atoms. As they cool down again photons of light are given out (emitted). The colour depends on the energy the photons release. Bear with me it gets complicated! In the same way you can tell what elements are in the sun or other celestial objects by their emission lines. If you look at a spectrum (rainbow of colours), given out by the light of the sun there are gaps, these correspond to gases like Hydrogen and Helium.

I don’t know enough science to explain properly.

Anyway the fireworks have stopped so I might go to bed.

Sunset over Alsager Mere

Posted on December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Alsager mere, Colour, Light, Photographs, Silhouette, Staffordshire, Sun, SunsetLeave a comment

It doesn’t get more spectacular, looking out over the mere as the sun set, changing from orange and blue to a peach and rosy purple. It was a long day but enjoyable.

It’s interesting that on Mars the sky is red with dust in the daytime, then the sun sets and the sky turns blue.

I live on the wrong side of the hill so that I don’t get to see sunsets very often. It was lovely to see this.

Sunrise this morning

Posted on December 2, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Changes, Cloud, Cold, Light, Mist, Poem, Poetry, Sunrise, SunshineLeave a comment

The sun crept up and sideways,

Falling West And South,

Skirting tree branches and

Hopping over leaves.

Each minute, slightly higher,

Each second slightly across to South.

As the Sun reaches its Zenith

It falls behind low clouds,

Grey mist rising,

Now its afternoon.

Already going dark and freezing,

Sunrise forgotten in the crepuscular light.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Light