Waxing moon through firework smoke

The moon is three quarters full and was setting behind a tree as midnight struck to end 2022. I tried to take a few photos but my automatic filter makes the moon too bright and is very overexposed. You cannot see its shape. So I tried using manual settings, with that I could get a little bit more definition, but it’s far too grainy. However you can see its not full. There was a mist or firework smoke drifting across the sky. More fireworks had gone off in a few minutes than we saw over the whole of November 5th. The cats were very scared. But it’s calmed down now.

Happy New year to you all.

Glass paperweights

An alien ocean trapped in glass, blue light floods through. My glass paperweight collection sits out of the sun on a window ledge upstairs. As they are spherical thru could act as lenses and magnify the sun’s rays. So I’m careful, I don’t want a fire! I was trying to get a picture of a red glow, but the sunrise was unspectacular this morning. Still I think this turned out nicely.

Flitting

My mind flits

From one thought to another

Over the same land

At different stages of coherence.

Dreams of silky seas

That were not mine

Or high mountain peaks

All is enfolded within.

Pictures taken by others

Hidden folds and valleys

Corrugations of brain.

Dream travel can be overwhelming

Or limited to a single room

Hidden meaning or memory.

Then the cotton thread snaps

And you wake,

To grey darkness

Stuck back in reality

Only a thin film away

But so far

From dream country.

‘Mob’ or ‘Mop’ cap

Borrowed from Penkhull panto, caps for the female cast members of a Christmas Carol. But are they Mob or Mop Caps? I can never remember! I know they seem to get used in performances from mediaeval to victorian times, but I’m not sure how realistic they are. They are quite comfortable to wear, but they won’t have had elastic in them, maybe drawstrings?

Dotted line?

Sunset with dotted line. (top right corner). I think it’s a telephone line not a glitch on the photo. I wanted to get a shot of the winter sky and terraced houses so I stopped to pull over the car on the way back from the gallery at Middleport. It was good to see some blue sky today, but the wind that cleared away a lot of the clouds was quite cold and cutting. And the dotted line? I feel like I should add some text ‘cut along dotted line’ and add a ✂ scissors icon! Even the world can have random glitches, I could literally have cropped it, but no, more interesting like this!

What is this bird?

A friend posted this on Facebook, it looks like it’s from a Chinese or Japanese group? No information about what it is. I would try getting a description from Google but I could not find the url for it. Does anyone know if its real and what it might be? Also no sign if it’s copyrighted, no details of the photographer, so apologies for using the image if it is.

Insufficient storage

My phone is rammed with data and information. I keep trying to delete files, but there’s too much stuff, particularly photos that I want to keep. WordPress tells me I have insufficient space on my phone and on WordPress too. I decided to mainly use my own images on this blog, but a few years on, despite using smaller images, I keep getting told that I’m up to 100% of images. That’s why some of the pictures have disappeared off this blog. I’m trying to do it on earlier posts, so if I refer to an image you might not see it. I can’t afford more memory on my blog, so that’s the situation as it stands. X