New paintings and regular art updates.
Old willow tree
Standing tall
Your long thin leaves
Now wave and fall
From green to gold
And yellow hue
Fluttering against
A sky of blue.
Then wind blows strong
Storm comes along
Your leaves are shredded
And stripped
To lie among
The fallen mulch
For slugs and snails
To munch!
If the sky looks odd I take a photo now. Just one this time….
Reports say that aurora are due because of big solar flares so I decided to look. The sky looks cloudy, but I’m short sighted and have cataracts so I can’t really tell. Plus it’s too cold to go outside and I don’t want to trip up in the dark so I have a light on in the living room. Parkinsonism makes me shake so as this is a 60 second exposure it’s all very blurry. But camera shake does not change the colour of the sky to green!
Probably everyone is in bed but I give you…. It’s cloudy but the sky’s green again! 3.10 am 5.10.24 in Stoke, England from my kitchen window.
Walking through the middle of Stoke today, there is a small patch of land next to a car wash that was seeded with wildflowers a few years ago. Every year I walk past and I’m amazed with what springs up. I think the local bees must be happy. Just down the road from there another patch of land in front of a large billboard has become overgrown with buddlea and grass and amazing clover flowers. I hope they don’t get cut down!
What a treat! Starter with wasabi mayonnaise at Miso Japanese restaurant in Stoke, Stoke on Trent.
Then I had a bento box, your choice of main dish plus vegetable goyoza, sticky rice with sesame seeds, salad, cucumber sushi rolls and thinly sliced pickled ginger. There are vegan, vegetarian and meat or fish options.
Then we had sake and also plum wine. I’m not used to drinking much anymore but a relative was over visiting me so we decided to go mad.
I don’t go out very often anymore, but I remember years ago we used to visit the restaurant regularly. I’m glad I went, it’s really friendly and the food is always good.
All that’s left is a small bag of rubbish. My studio was a small space but I fitted a lot in it. Now my living room looks like one of those TV programmes about hoarders! I didn’t realise how much space it would take up and a lot of my paintings have gone to a friend’s studio for a while. I’m going to have to learn to throw things away. It’s not an exciting photo but it means a lot to me. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford to go back. I’ve got to have some hopes!
Narrow boat painted on the car park of Westend village in Stoke. It’s on the route of the Newcastle branch of the Trent and Mersey canal that used to run alongside London Road. This photo was taken from the hump in the road in Corporation Street that used to be a canal bridge. I hope they repaint it! It’s much more faded than this but I’ve upped the contrast and saturation because it’s really dull and the paint has peeled off.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was street. I painted a street scene when I came to Stoke 40 years ago. I did a copy of it recently and I have a photo of the work in progress on my phone. As this is a digital sketch it’s not accurate and rather messy, but I thought I’d give it a go. Artrage app drawn with a stylus.
Hello Duck, hello Chick, Deary, Sweet pea, Luv, my Dear, so many ways to greet each other depending on where you live in the UK, (and probably around the world).
Duck used to make me laugh. When I first came to Stoke I literally used to duck! I thought someone was going to throw something at me!
So I’ve drawn a little friendly duck to cheer me up and remind me that misunderstanding can be funny as well as annoying!
Little bridge over a rocky chasm, (a small split in the rocks), another feature at Biddulph Grange. I’d forgotten this photo. I think we walked over the bridge, but to be honest I can’t remember. It seems to teeter over the gap, and I get vertigo, so maybe not! The approach up to it isn’t fenced in, so I’d be nervous just walking up to it…
I haven’t got the hang of social media food posting. I either take photos of the plates before I get the food or after I’ve eaten it!
We’ve just been for a birthday meal at Sawadee Thai taste in Stoke. It’s becoming a redular thing. Tonight we had starters of athai fishcakes and spare ribs, then red duck curry and jasmine rice. We used to have more food but I’m trying to be good as its all too nice but too filling! Plus I had some mango and pineapple pieces for afters. Full up and sleepy now…
Mallaband-Brown