New paintings and regular art updates.
My paintbrush flittered quickly
Across the canvas
A blob of red and brown
A touch of white on a rotund belly
Fluffed up to keep out the cold.
An hour of painting
Green sprigs above
Snow below
Footprints trail
Sparse grass protrudes
Hop on the way
To Christmas.
Oh for some rain, but today came the news that there is an amber heat warning for parts of Britain. That means there is some danger to health for people, especially for the vulnerable ones. There might be a cooler week next week, but that doesn’t mean rain.
In other news we had reports that we can expect temperatures of up to 40°Celcius in future years, that’s a lot higher than we are used to. Britain has a maritime weather system, meaning weather coming from all directions and all sorts of types. Rain, wind, sleet, hail, snow, sun, fog, mist, drizzle, gales, thunder and even tornadoes and water spouts, we get it all!
Amber warning of snow and possible snow up to 10 centimetres. Also temperatures down to – 10°C. It makes me worry about people sleeping out on the streets. I see them more and more. I buy the big issue off sellers and try and give a few coins, but it’s not much. When you think about it people are struggling with increasing rents and mortgages, people are barely coping. I can only hope that this government try to do more than the last one? But I worry that the poor are often seen as deserving or undeserving when rich people are always fine. Oh I don’t know, I just want us all to be safe. X
Mid November and the snow is falling. Not deep, but palpably real. Very early for this time of year, it usually doesn’t happen till January if at all. I’ve had the central heating on for three days now and it might keep going till the weekend. I’m waiting for the morning as it is forecast to get worse before it gets better. Sorry it’s not a more exiting view!
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….
Wifi is back on and I am trying to catch up.
Esther Chilton has another prompt using the word crazy. I wrote about this trip with my hubby….
So many crazy things! Cycling home to my mother in laws house over the pennines springs to mind. It was after an easter camping trip. It snowed heavily as we started home over main roads. It was about 45 miles to cycle. But there was a steep hill to climb at the end. We were heading up about five miles of steep hill. Unfortunately the snow had other ideas. The road had been cleared until we got halfway up. Then we were faced with snow drifts and snowbanks. Even with our combined strength (we were on our tandem with a bike trailer carrying our gear) we realised it was crazy to go on. So a twenty mile detour back down the hill was the only solution.
The place where we stopped? A village called Turn!
Wondrous garden in the countryside on the borders of Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. In Willowbridge I think? Every spring my hubby and I would go to see the rhododendrons in flower in the Quarry garden, sometimes they were fully in bloom, other years the blooms hadn’t opened or were going over. Today they were perfect. I just wish my hubby was here still to see them. I’d been to the hospital for more tests so this was a treat for my sister who had come with me. She held onto me on the steeper slopes. Today it was very blustery and overcast with a cold wind but at least it wasn’t snowing like it had been in some previous years.
Holidays, more memories of adventures long gone by. Camping in a tent at Easter thirty years ago.
We’d cycled up to Clitheroe in Lancashire and used our cycle trailer to carry our camping gear.
The holiday started out sunny, but the wind picked up and by the time we had the tent up the snow was blowing sideways at it. I even wrote C 4 R on the snow on the side of the tent.
We went off for a cycle into town and stopped off at a tiny cinema. It was very posh, there were photos of the Queen in the ladies loo! I remember we got a bit of warmth while watching the cat from outer space.
We had dinner at the local pub and cycled back to the tent afterwards. Luckily it was downhill but we were slipping around on the falling snow. We ended up putting on extra clothes, three jumpers and an extra pair of trousers each. We found out in the morning it had been minus 11°C.
The rest of the week was almost as cold and we cycled back in deep snow!
14 years ago and we had heavy snow. On the night of 14 February 2010. The orange sodium streetlamps cast a reddish glow across the snow. Those lamps are now changed to white LED lights. Less energy used, less atmospheric lighting. No snow!
This has been the hottest February on record. Even in the alps and other mountains in the UK and Europe the amount of snow is 47% less than in previous years. Not good for skiers and winter sports.
This was on my Facebook memories today.
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?
I once cycled down an against traffic bus lane in the snow!
I was trying to cycle to work and the roads were covered in snow except where the buses ran. It was snowing heavily and I was going to be late. I didn’t know my highway code which apparently prohibited cycling in such a bus lane (although cycling in a ‘with’ traffic lane was allowed). Long story short, I was pounced on by a young policewoman sheltering in a doorway who told me off in a very nasty way. I was allowed to continue as long as I pushed my bike on the pavement. I later got a caution in the post!
Mallaband-Brown