
Rained all day,
today,
poured down,
persisted it down,
grey clouds,
lower than the tree tops,
streaks of water on the windows,
birds needing shelter,
sparrows soaked,
don’t go out,
keep warm and dry.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Rained all day,
today,
poured down,
persisted it down,
grey clouds,
lower than the tree tops,
streaks of water on the windows,
birds needing shelter,
sparrows soaked,
don’t go out,
keep warm and dry.

I found this in the front bedroom while having a clear out. It’s the photo I used to base a painting of my old cat on. Looking up the stairs at the window. It’s great to find it, it brings back great memories of a very friendly intelligent cat. She used to like sitting in the sun on the windowledge. She would sit there in the mornings until the sun moved round to the other side of the house, then she would move to the bedroom window, or she would come downstairs and go out into the garden. Good memories.

One yellow leaf, fallen
Sitting with weeds and grass
Old brown leaves
Already over.
Leaves that turn to mulch
Rotting
Nutrients
Sinking
Into the ground
To renew next year
Feed the roots
To grow new shoots
After winters sleep.

Rather a painterly effect. The cats fur has an interesting pattern in it. The newspaper layers are defined. The surface of the box has a slight mottled effect. This was all done by using the style tool and choosing effect number two. The background colours add to the composition. I would have liked to get the cat looking more directly at me, but she wasn’t playing tonight! She does like perching on boxes as you can see. I think it looks quite good.

Tasty roses, like cake
Spread out like icing flowers
Sculpted into petals
Shaped and molded
Moulded? Moldering?
Complications
Convolution
Like a convolvulus
Flowers that multiply
Given in friendship
Pattern of mind and ideas.

In exchange for some pears my friend gave me some flowers. I thought how kind, I wasn’t expecting anything back. The roses are a mellow red colour, and there are pale purple Fushias and white roses and some different white flowers.
Apparently the Victorians used to give different meanings to different plants. For instance Forget-me-nots. I think also Pansies and Lily of the Valley. I don’t know the meanings, but I know people used to press flowers within the pages of heavy books. Or even flower presses. The idea was to squash the flower so it became dried and flattened. If the person pressing it was artistic it could be used in artwork, some of them would be used for illustration purposes. I’m not sure how they would have coped with larger flowers like multi petal led or stemmed flowers. I guess they would have needed more steady pressure? Sorry, a lot of this is speculation. My mind wanders across different thoughts….

I don’t know what species it is, I can’t get very good closeups with my phone but I think it’s a Bee, however it could be a hover fly? The back end of it doesn’t look fuzzy enough. But it has yellow and black bands on it. So does anyone know?
Whether bee or fly, at least its something that pollinates plants, and that’s what we need to protect in the world. Imagine a world without pollinating insects? There would be a lot less fruit and vegetables unless we were to hand pollinate or create machines that could do it. But we don’t need that. We need to protect what we already have! Banning pesticides that kill bees, like nicotioides. Farming responsibly and safely. Its a difficult balance. But we must make it happen.

Tea, (early evening meal). Cornish pasty. Mixed salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, sliced mushroom, baby bell peppers and a bit of dijon mustard and light mayonnaise. On a Portmeirion dinner plate. I think it was a good balance of food groups. Trying to cut down on carbohydrates and fats a bit. Colour on a plate.

Just a photo I took a few days ago. A still life. I’m still ill and haven’t been out much recently, so I am thinking about what I can write about. As the saying goes, autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. It would be good to get out and enjoy the world but I’m keeping my germs to myself. Its only a cold but its still irritating.
Stay safe everyone.
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Not all photos have to be brightly coloured or black and white. These plants are all very similar in tone, but the shapes of the leaves, flower and seed heads bring it to life. I think I took the photo at the back of Trentham Gardens at the south of Stoke-on-Trent. We need more wildflowers to help the bees.