Ball lightening?

I was just reading an article in the New Scientist on line about the phenomenon of ball lightening. Then I remembered that I visited an old lady as part of my job, twenty years ago. We were having a chat over a cup of tea. She told me about when she was a lot younger. She was in her living room, maybe in the 1950’s? There was a lightening storm outside and she had got her window open as it was a hot day. Suddenly a ball of light floated in through the open window, bounced off the floor and then disappeared again. She had never seen anything like it but thought it might be ball lightening? I didn’t ask her much because I didn’t know what to ask. She went on to say that from then on she always unplugged everything electrical in the house and kept her windows shut in a thunderstorm in case it happened again.

I would love to see something like that. But would it be dangerous and knock out electrical equipment if they came into contact with each other? Strange how memories you’ve never had before can suddenly come back to you.

I wish

I wish that I was driving on this road, following it round the bends, storing by a stile at the side of the road and climbing over it, walking up the hill, maybe past a few grazing sheep, till at the top I would see mountains in the distance in one direction, and tree covered hills in another. If I looked in one direction hard enough I think I would see a distant view of the sea.

Where am I? I could be in Scotland, or some parts of England, but this winding road is in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 land of ancient people’s and dragons. Wales is in a lockdown for just over two weeks at the moment. I hope the people will all be safe. In the meantime I’m expecting where I am now to have another lockdown soon…. When will this end….

Edited portrait of Stephen Hawking

I uused an app called photoeditor to change the character of this digital drawing. The style option changes the line work and makes it look more standardised if that makes sense? It seems to smooth things out and tidy them up although it adds extra lines into the drawing.

I used sketcher free app to do the initial drawing. It’s relatively like using pencil and crayons, you get different options of drawing tools.

I admired Stephen Hawking, he was a brilliant physicist and had amazing knowledge. I wish more people appreciated scientists.

Geese

A memory of a walk round Westport Lake last year. The geese were very keen to be fed. We were gradually increasing the lengths of our walks. Then I started going for walks with a friend. I miss them. About three weeks ago I got tonsillitis and its knocked me for six. I’m getting better but still very achy. Why does that happen?I think I will be OK but I don’t want to catch anything else! Sunny warm days… Come back soon.

Oops!

Remind me not to optimise my photos when my antivirus advises me to! My phone is crammed with pictures, like the one above. But they are all over the place now. They were sort of in date order now anything from last year is stuck together in the file for October 2020. Yes I’ve saved a lot of space, but the recent things I was working on have gone walkabout! Grr

I’m going to have to try and find them again, I’ve got a commission to do and I need those photos! Plus I’ve optimise them, which means they are a lot smaller. And I’ve deleted the originals… But when you have THOUSANDS of photos what can you do?

Grr…

Cat box

I painted the leather seat if this stool/box about thirty years ago. It used to hold all my old oil paints but they dried out years ago. I unearthed it recently. One of the problems with being an artist I have found, is collecting art materials. I have stuff that goes back years. I tend to think one day things will come in handy. Is anyone else here an artist? Are you the same? Materials cost so much its almost a sin to throw things away.

This is a cat on a mat on a parquet floor. As you can see even then I loved patterns. It’s varnished, but you can see where I must have left a thinners can on the surface that left paint rings…

Remembering the panto

Before Covid19

In February we were in the local pantomime. It was Aladdin. I also painted the scenery including this cutout of a cast member who had gone through a mangle and had to come out flattened. You would think it was easy. But have you tried painting feet from the back as well as the front? I took photos of the front and back of the person but the feet looked odd? I should have placed them like Charlie Chaplin perhaps? I hope life starts to return to normal and we get to do another panto soon! Oh yes I do! Oh no you don’t!

Watching the tour de France.

As an ex cyclist (I fractured my skull in an accident), I have to say how much I admire the cyclists in the tour. In my healthy days I could ride forty or fifty miles. Now I can’t even get on a bike. I’m old and creaky. I wish I could go back to the old days. I never raced but I did Marshall bike races occasionally. My hubby came third in a tricycle time trial. We used to enjoy touring. After the accident I cycled for a year, then the bike collapsed one day underneath me. It came apart, its brazing below the handlebars had been damaged and suddenly the front wheel was stretching away from me and the pedals cluncked onto the road. I got a car. Big mistake.

Watching the tour brings back those memories. I wich I still cycled.