New paintings and regular art updates.
View of a bright pillar box red boat. Longport Wharf, Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. We were walking down the canal to get back to our car and I glimpsed this bright red boat beyond a bridge over the canal.
The colour works really well against the clouded sky and darker red bricks of the pottery behind it. Worth the added steps!
We saw this family of Swans on our walk round Westport today. The Cygnets are almost adult size now and are stretching their wings and legs and are starting to change from soft down to white plumage.
As we stood and took photos several people walked past with dogs. The male Swan reacted by hissing loudly. One woman and her friends had three small dogs with them. Her friends walked swiftly by but she was panicking and wouldn’t move so I asked her to hand me the dogs lead and I held it while I stood between the Swan and her dog. The Swan just hissed but didn’t attack. She got past and I carried on with my walk. X
I was sitting watching TV when I saw a man’s head looking over our side gate so I tried to open the front door and ask him what he was doing. The door was locked so I called my hubby. He went out and followed the man up our hill. When he caught up with him the man explained he was a motorcyclist and had recently had his bike stolen.
My hubby decided he probably wasn’t a thief and the man was contrite. Then…..
They both spotted a budgie fluttering on the pavement. I was standing at the bottom of the street and saw him take his tee shirt off?
He walked down the hill and explained he’d found a beautiful budgie. He had it gently held in the tee shirt.
Next we tried taking it to the pdsa vets nearby but they were closed so I found their number and rang it. After a brief conversation with their emergency vets in Meir Heath they agreed to take it.
We then had to get the budgie into a suitable container. Luckily I’d got a brown paper bag, but while I was trying to shoo one of our cats away the budgie got free!
We had to get the cat away and I threw a tea towel over the budgie. Popped it in the bag, safe and apparently healthy. Then off to Lyme tree vets at Meir Heath. Tel: 01782 417882.
If its yours I hope you will soon be reunited.
Stag and hind sculpture at Trentham Gardens today. I walked about four miles, not a great distance but it was warm and humid. I think they are casr bronze, they are hollow. There is a small herd of deer at the Gardens, or there were a few years ago. They are up higher on the hill, or they were. There is a path round the lake and a longer one, so I wonder if they are up there. We will explore further.
Back at Trentham after a walk round the lake. I took this looking towards the low sun. It was hard to see the phone screen so it was a bit hit and miss what I would get.
I like the way the trees and clouds are silhouetted. There is a walkway with metal hoops to the right of the tree, various climbers cover parts of it including wisteria and roses. At the far end is a statue, but we came out one of the side entrances and walked down a grassy slope to look back at this.
Carved into the base of a tree trunk. This giant beetle sculpture was on the lakeside walk around Trentham Lake last weekend. It’s good to see sculpture in the landscape. I remember visiting Grizedale Forest sculpture Park in the Lake District around thirty years ago. It had world renound sculptors who created art works all through the forest. There is also something called the Merz barn? in the Lake District, but I can’t remember the name of the artist maybe Jeff Koons? (German?). I hope someone knows what I’m talking about. Must visit again before it’s too late. X
Delightful starters, tasty mains. We really enjoyed the evening meal at the local Thai restaurant. We had Thai fishcakes and spare ribs, then I had glass noodles and seafood with mushrooms and vegetables. Hubby had a hot beef green curry and sticky rice. It was a lovely evening, with a friendly waitress. The only thing that spoiled it was I had a couple of Gin and tonics and wasn’t driving so we had to dash home on foot because it started to rain and we’ve just had a bit of thunder and lightening.
In other news I think England may have beaten someone at football, but I’m not interested. There was an awful lot of shouting as we made our way home.
A tryptich I did a couple of years ago. It’s for sale at the Waiting room gallery in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. Based on one of the photos from the Juno mission to Jupiter a few years ago. It shows the bands of Jupiter viewed from above one of the poles of the planet. I also did a large blue painting of one of Jupiter’s poles too. It was very difficult to capture the swirls and vortices that make up it’s atmosphere. These are acrylic on canvas.
Today we walked from the carpark of the Toby Carvery at Festival Park, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent to Hanley Park and back. The walk was only about three and a half miles but it was quite humid and I’d already been gardening in the morning.
We saw some Geese and Goslings jump off a wall on the other side of the canal, they swam over to us as I think they were looking for food. Sadly we had nothing for them.
Hanley Park was looking lovely with purple and white flowers in the beds up by the pavilion. They must have spent a lot of money on them.f
Finally we walked back to the Carvery. That was a bit difficult. We had taken a seat outside. But we had to order drinks in the bar, which meant sitting in the bar and having our orders taken, then we could take them outside. When I wanted a bag of crisps I had to go and sit again and wait for them to come and take my order. It was OK but a little strange.t
Then home to more gardening.
One thing I did do yesterday was make a couple of pieces clay that might be used as part of a tiled piece at the BCB (British Ceramic Biennial in September at Spode in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. They will be fired up and someone else may end up glazing them.
I made lots of marks using old buttons and metal rings. I tried to give them a three dimensional look. I hope they won’t explode on the kiln.
It’s good finding different things to do when you are having a day out.
Mallaband-Brown