New paintings and regular art updates.
You know I like creating these pictures by putting usually 4 duplicated photos together so you get a fantastic or puzzling image floating in the middle of a sky.
Flying mountains
Fiery roof,
Limestone ufo,
Floating in the seat.
Mist and shadow
Stone built wall
Mountain landscape
Sky reflected on sea.
I was startled to meet this figurehead at R&B T cafe on the toll road around the Great Orme today. He’s a ships figure head and the cafe owner said he is victorian. Most figureheads are female so he is unusual. He doesn’t have a name so I suggested Posiedon.
I did a drawing of him and the owner liked it so much he asked me for it. He’s going to get it framed. So all I have is a photo of the figurehead and my drawing, and of course a nice memory.
To find the cafe you take the Toll Road from the ski centre side of the Great Orme mountain. The marine drive takes you around the base of the mountain. There are sea views across to Anglesey, and Conwy and Conwy Castle. Today though it was very misty. There was not much of a view just a haze as we looked out from the cafe’s viewing platform. (Which is up some steps at the back of the cafe.)
When you go out in the evening at the coast everything can look great. When the sea is a flat calm and the flowers of wonderful plants shine in the light. Then you forget the cold wet, windy, miserable weather you get for the other half of the year.
Much to my surprise the sun beat down on us today. And not being very sensible after the horrendous rain we had over the last few days I forgot to put sun block on. Also as a consequence of traipsing up a mountain and then alongside the sea I got more than my fair share of sunlight today. I’m usually so careful. So I’m hot and red and rather uncomfortable tonight. That’s why I’m blogging. X
Goodnight x
An old watercolour of Bovisand Bay. Choppy waters, Devon coast near Plymouth. Cornwall in the distance. Thus is where I want to be. Staring out at sunshine or showers, paddling in the water or splashing about further out. Looking at the plants and animals in the countryside around the bay.
The rocks on the left hand side are where local youths “tombstone” or jump off the top into the bay when the tide is in. Round the headland is another part of the bay. A woman died trying to swim round to it several years ago. There are shops and bungalows High up on the cliffs in the other part of the bay, but the last time we went the carpark above it was partly fenced off due to the cliff collapsing. With more storms and bad weather it is possible that costal erosion will increase and many costal properties and land will be lost to the seas.
I just watched a programme on TV about colours, one of which was blue. They showed the rock, Lapis Lazuli, which can only be found in a small number of places in the world including Afghanistan and California.
Lapis Lazuli was used as a paint pigment in paintings by artists like Titian. The rock is ground down to fine powder and then mixed with oil and wax to make oil paint. The resulting colour is called ultramarine and is a superb blue used in things like the blue paint in the robes of the virgin Mary in Titian’s paintings.
So how did Lapis Lazuli become blue? Sulphur rich rock, which was a pale grey brown was heated up 30 or 40 kilometres below the Earth’s surface. The intense heat and pressure apparently compresses the mineral and makes three atoms of Sulphur line up in each molecule. It is this geometry in the molecules that causes it to reflect pure blue light. (Sulphur is usually found in nature in a yellow, red, orange, brown or black form – the Volcanic moon of Jupiter, Io, is coloured by Sulphur).
Blue sky
Blue Sea.
Blue life.
Blue me
X
I need a drink
Cola
No
Cocoa
No
Coffee
No
Gin
No
Beer
No
Cider
No
Milk
No
Whiskey
No
Tea
No
Orange Juice
No
Water
Yes
Cold
Yes
With ice
Yes
Sparkling
Yes
Tap water
YES.
why spend money on water if you can get it out of the tap? We are very lucky in my country to be able to have freshly piped water. In a lot of the World this does not happen.
But we still buy water in bottles! And when we have bought our bottles water the plastic bottle it usually comes in gets thrown away and Sent to landfill or ends up floating in the ocean and destroying the sea life. Meanwhile many people in the world have to drink filthy water and maybe carry it for miles before they can drink or use it. Maybe we should care more about people who are really thirsty. My choice of drinks is almost unlimited. The world must try and be fairer.
Save the world, drink tap water if you can!
For Sue Vincent’s Thursday #writephoto prompt.
‘Well it was like this officer’ she said, ‘we were down on the beach and saw the cave’. She sneezed, the cold was getting into her bones ‘ it reminded me of the film “whiskey galore” based on the book by Compton MacKensie, so we decided to explore it. We scrambled down the rocks and walked past the waterfall. We went straight in because it had started to lash down with rain, so it was a chance to get under shelter too’
‘About what time was that?’ the policeman had a little hand held computer which he typed into. Not as interesting as a notebook she thought.
‘Around 10am yesterday.’ she pulled the silver space blanket tighter around her shoulders. ‘We are on holiday, we don’t know about the tides’ She looked down at her husband lying on a stretcher The ambulance people had put an oxygen mask on him and dressed the cut on his head. He gave her a little wave.
‘Yes, the tide came in while we were exploring, the cave goes back so far and the water just came up before we knew it. We were in waist deep water, but the waves were pushing us deeper in when we tried to swim out. In the end we found a ledge to sit on…. .’ the policeman was still typing ‘so what happened then?’ ‘we tried using our phones but they wouldn’t work, they had got a soaking, we tried wading out, but by then we were too cold. So we just sat as close together as we could.’
She sighed ‘ we must both have fallen asleep because when we woke up again the tide had come back in. We were exhausted and decided to wait till morning. My husband stood up to stretch and that’s when he cracked his head on the rock’. ‘So that’s when we found you’ said the policeman. ‘It was the landlady at your B&B that alerted us’
‘one thing’ he said ‘what’s that wrapped in your coat?’
‘This? It’s an old bottle of 25 year old single malt’ she smiled.
I wrote three little plays for the Titchy Theatre yesterday. They were read out at the show. I will post them here one a day.
Monster (tourist to reporter – look south or some such channel)
Reporter : so where did you see it?
Tourist : down by the quay, you know, the harbour?
R: and was it big?
T: well… It was as big as a boat, no… A ship
R: what did it look like?
T: er…. It had glowing all over it
R: what sort of lights?
T: Well… Yellow-ish. Like Glowing yellow eyes, and I think it had huge teeth too!
R: why?
T: it seemed to have a grill or something over its mouth, but you could see light shining through… You know… Glowing like an alien?
R: did it make a noise?
T: yes, a very low humming, and a metallic, clanking noise.
R: so…. how do you feel?
T: very scared. I’ve never seen anything like it before
R: can I ask you where you’re from?
T: oh yes. Stoke-on-Trent
R: so … Have you ever been to the seaside before?
T: oh yeah. You know, magaluf, Malaga, Ibetha.
R: and there was nothing like this there?
T: No… Just always sunny, and at night we went off and partied… The other thing I remember is this long wailing noise! I mean, it was foggy, so I could only sense the looming figure the Monster…. .!!
R: OK. Well…. We checked with the Coast Guard… .
T: Yeah??
R: the wailing noise was from the lighthouse foghorn.
T: Oh
R: And the big, dark, lit-up ship thing.
T: Yes?
R: Was a car ferry…….
Christine Mallaband-Brown
Tidal waves of books,
Sloshing round my room,
Pouring down from bookcases
Dripping from tables,
Making a beach of pamphlets
Puddles of novels
A tide of documents.
I sit in a paper sailing boat
Atop an ocean of biography.
Littered with paperbacks
Swimming with pratchett turtles
and the old man of the sea.
I’m drowning in books,
Flooded by books
Waves crashing over my head.
Whirlpools of literature ……..
Mallaband-Brown