Just bark

Geometric shapes and peeling bark. This morning I went back to my Wednesday art group. I’ve really missed it. Something prompted me burst into song so I ended up singing a verse of “Summertime” which I think is from the opera “Porgy and Bess”,

On the way out I saw this tree with the angles and muted colours in the background. I do wonder what tree it is, it looks like a birch, but too white to be a silver birch plus the bark is peeling off it?

Really low pressure

I decided to tap my barometer last night because I haven’t set it in a while. Tapping it allows the (black) pointer to move. It was on change, but it flew down to much rain last night. It’s been raining all morning and the pressure has not risen again. I think this is because another named storm is passing over the UK again, the second in recent days. It’s called Herminia. There is a third heading our way tomorrow. What fun (not).

At the top of the stairs

This munchkin was curled up by my bookcase at the top of the stairs this morning. He’s a medium sized cat and just about fits, he was well asleep but one of the others ran past and disturbed him. He’s like a little guard, he follows me about and keeps an eye on me. The only problem is the risk of tripping up over him. The other boy cat sleeps on a step halfway up the stairs…. And it’s a good job he has white on him or I could go head over heels!

Dawn branches

Dawns coming a little earlier everyday. It’s almost a month since the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere (getting dark slightly earlier in the South).

I only really feel the year has turned when there’s still a bit of light in the sky at 5pm. I remember work days when I would go to the work in the dark and home in the dark.  I’m just waiting, hoping for sunlight and warmth.

January Aurora

Four images through my window.

I heard there were aurora last night, so at about 4am I took some very shaky photos. I think the pale whitish dots near the top of the photos was a star or planet that left a trail. The yellow colour was a neighbour’s lights.

I don’t have a tripod and as I have Parkinsons disease I can’t hold the camera still. So this is propped up on a pillow, 1 minute exposure. Sorry they are so blurred.

Zoom in

Playing with symmetry and light. The green is from an aurora a few months ago, the orange is from light reflected off the fence outside the kitchen window at night. I liked framing it in a circle, it looks like I’m zooming in on the centre of the space and it’s fuzzy enough to indicate movement. I like exploring ways of creating art and images. You don’t always know what to expect.

Soup?

Someone sent me this photo of lentil soup and suggested I try it but I wasn’t up to following the recipe. But I did like their photo. Apologies if it is copyright but I don’t think so? The table was visible in the original and the dinner mat was twisted but I straightened it up a bit and cropped it to lose the table. I just like the orange bowl and the thin blue line round the edge. It just seperates the bowl from the white and yellow of the mat.

Floating

A photo from 7 years ago. It’s just a horizontal mirroring of the top of a tree. It feels tranquil, like a flooded flat lake that has risen to cover the land. A perfect reflection created digitally.

In other thoughts I’m having a quiet day, my stomach is upset again and I’m just trying to sleep, relax, and stay calm like the photo.

Leaf

Leaf leaves tree

How long will it be

Before naked branches

Are clothed again?

First frost, then rain

Maybe snow will come again.

Icicles hang on gutters

Defrost as cold rain sputters

Then one day a bud bursts open.

Spring comes slowly,

Time is sullen.

In these months leaves are rotten

And autumn colours are forgotten.

Farewell friend

The end….