Fuzzy trees

Yes I’m playing with images again. This result seems almost like a sepia victorian image. The image is mirrored four times. Streetlights glow orange in the semi darkness. Because the snow had only just fallen all the twigs and branches were covered in a frosting of snow. Like it has been sprinkled from a sugar sifter. Castor sugar, not icing. It also looks like brocade or lacework. The contrasting lights and darks give it an antique feel. It’s surprising what you can make of a tatty photo of a snowy garden.

We had snow

Five am and the sky was orange. The snow was dumped on us. Only a couple of inches, but you don’t know how disruptive that can be in a country that doesn’t get much of the white stuff in the winter.

As our street lamps change from sodium light to white led lamps I wonder if that orange glow will fade and we will get silvery white instead? The sound is deafened by the snow, everything is muffled. I think I can hear sleighbells…..

Tree or decorations

Since we haven’t got a tree this Christmas I haven’t put any baubles or decorations up. But that didn’t stop me getting an old box of them out to draw. The #bandofsketchers prompt for Christmas Eve…. Now I’m having a caramel chocolate and a glass of port while watching ‘the day after tomorrow’ I guess they put it on because its full of snow…..

Looking up

Looking up I see a grey orange sky. That grey that foretells either snow or fog. Mist wraps round trees, swirls of cold wet air netting the world in damp chills. How many spiders webs are covered in dew? Frost builds and creaks, snapping and wilting late flowers. Will it snow? Will the World be silenced? Snuffed under white goose down…. And will it happen before Christmas?

Cold night

Will there be frost? It certainly feels like it. The sky has cleared and the damp air seems to be clamping down on the world tonight.

The chill from outside has sneaked in here. I opened the back door to let the cat out and a whole cold layer of air has run like a river through the house. My top half is warm but my knees and feet are cold.

It’s snowing around the country but I think its just going to freeze here tonight….

Have you heard of ‘Thunder Snow’?

No? Neither had I.

But in Edinburgh yesterday they got it! Basically it was a thunderstorm but because it was so cold there was snow instead of rain. The descriptions were that the lightening was brighter then normal (the whiteness of the snow made the light reflect more brilliantly). The thunder sounded like an explosion (muffled by the snow and clouds). Some people even rang the emergency services. Apparently its a rare phenomena but not unknown.

Tree

This is where we walked today, up the hill, across the valley of the Trent. Part of the city laid out across the view. We are a long but thin city. Countryside all around us. A lot of green spaces despite the terraces. Not huge and grey like Manchester and Birmingham. Yes we get traffic jams and pollution, our infrastructure is poor, with many bottlenecks for cars and lorries, particularly when the nearby motorway gets blocked and all its traffic hits the cities dual carriage ways. Then again we can be completely blocked up by snowfalls. Ah well, that’s life…. The tree looks out over all of that and just ignores it and carries on growing…

Three years ago

Three years ago I was going to life drawing classes every week. The place was a bit far out in the countryside down quite narrow winding roads but I enjoyed going. The worst night was when it snowed while we were in the class. It was a very slippery and skiddy drive home. I remember there were two ways of getting there, through the town roads and then country lanes, or along a very fast dual carriageway then along equally twisty lanes. I preferred the slower town route, I might have got there later but there were not insane idiots speeding in huge trucks driving to close to my rear bumper.

The class was fun, always an interesting challenge to draw. A variety of models and sometimes a clothed pose from various guest models, like Lux whe was modeling for us on this occasion. She played the guitar if I remember….. Probably a 6b pencil sketch, that’s my favourite pencil to draw with, allows you to get all sorts of shades and textures. I really miss going to the class.