In the canal 😭

Posted on March 29, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged burnt, Canal, dirty, Life, Litter, plastic bottles, Rubbish, scooter, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trent and mersey canalLeave a comment

I was depressed by the amount of rubbish floating in the canal today. It was in an area close to Stoke Town centre.

I saw many old plastic bottles, they were dirty, as if they had been stored somewhere outside and then dumped together into the canal later. There were bits of broken wood and even an old set of mudguards from a bike floating on the surface. It makes me angry, because this section of canal is part of our city. How disgusting that stuff can just be dumped. Then further on towards Dolphin Boats but on the other side was a burnt out motor scooter. No one seems to care. I tagged in the Canal and Rivers Trust. I hope they can arrange a clean up.

Canal view

Posted on March 18, 2021March 18, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Bottle oven, Coloured pencils, dolphin boats, Drawing, Sketching, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Trent and mersey canal1 Comment

Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was decay. It took me a while to find a subject that I liked. In this case it was a photo I took of an old bottle oven and fencing / boarding reflected in the Trent and Mersey canal. This was near Dolphin boats in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

I used Boldmere colouring pencils for the drawing which made it paler than the photo. I could use some watercolour washes to increase the depth of colour but I quite like the way this is blended. One thing I didn’t include was the debris floating in the canal after so many windy days.

Geese

Posted on March 16, 2021March 16, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, Birds, Geese, lakes, Longport, Staffordshire, Staffordshire wildlife Trust, Stoke-on trent, Walking, Westport lakeLeave a comment

On Westport lake yesterday. The water was as still as a millpond one minute, then blustery gusts of wind rippled the surface and blurred the reflections.

Seeing a row of geese standing on one leg was an amusing picture. The water was very shallow at the edge, but these are old pit workings I think and there are deep sections. People have drowned in them two lakes, caught up in the weeds that spread inwards from the sides. This is more of a nature reserve than a leasure area and now it is being run by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust you can see how much it has improved. The one fly in the ointment is that the local council is thinking of introducing parking charges. There is a petition against this. A lot of people using the site don’t have the means to pay high prices, and it would probably impact on the cafe when it reopens.. I signed the petition against it…

Pinchetel

Posted on March 14, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, day 42, Exercise, Hill, Honeywall, Hubby, Penkhull, pinchetel, Stoke-on trent, Time, Tired, Walking, Weather, wet and windyLeave a comment

Three miles walked today round the village in a city of Penkhull. Part of Stoke on Trent. To reach the village centre we decided to walk up a hill called Honeywall, past the Beehive public house and this sign erected in 2011 by the Penkhull Residents Association. Instead of continuing straight up the hill we walked down an interesting side road and then right an up to the Church of St Thomas which stands on the village green. As we walked past a flower bed we spotted these bottles decorated as bottle ovens with a top hatted figure standing next to them. Then we walked down and around Thistley Hough and finally by circuitous routes home to make sure the walk was long enough. I’ve only walked about 22 miles this week, a bit down on last week, but the weather has been wet and windy, and my hubby doesn’t want to walk to far, but I feel fitter (and tired). Day 42!

Stoke Sings Spirituals

Posted on March 13, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #ssf21, Art, gospel singing, Life, Music, Portrait, Singing, Sketch, spirituals, Staffordshire, Stoke Sings Festival 2021, Stoke-on trent, WorkshopLeave a comment

Dr Kathy Bullock ran the afternoon workshop for the Stoke Sings Festival 2021, #ssf21. She was brilliant, giving a history of the slave trade and the way people were transported from Africa across the world as slaves. Dragged from their homes and imprisoned in cells until ships came and took them away. She explained the inhuman ways they were held and treated. Their transportation in ships where they were often thrown overboard if they were sick or had died during the passage. Beaten and tortured. And from this came the spiritual songs people sang as they worked, and later the Gospel songs as they worshipped. The history of African America is so sad and their treatment was and is despicable. They deserve the freedom that some people just have through the luck of birth.

The workshop was wonderful, Dr Bullock’s singing is great. It was so informative and thought provoking.

Stoke Sings 2021, workshops.

Posted on March 13, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #ssf21, Choir, Fun, gathering, Singing, Staffordshire, Stoke Sings Festival 2021, Stoke-on trent, virtual mass choir, workshop leaders, Workshops, ZoomLeave a comment

Today is Stoke Sings Festival 2021. Over a hundred singers have got together virtually on Zoom and are singing together (muted sadly, it’s not possible to sync the sound). #ssf21 is the hashtag and I’ve posted a couple of drawings here of the workshop leaders as they taught us…

Bottle oven combination

Posted on March 11, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bottle oven, Canal, Landscape, multiple photos, Photos, Shelton, Stoke-on trent, Trent and mersey canal, WeatherLeave a comment

Same bottle oven, six different views, three of the oven, three reflected in the surface of the Trent and Mersey canal. Today I walked four and a half miles. We were doing mostly flat walking although there are a few uphill stretches where the locks allow water to be lowered in stages down hill, the barges float into the locks which are either emptied and the water and barge move downhill, or filled, so the barge moves up hill. We noticed a lot of debris from trees and litter was floating in the canal, the weather was so windy yesterday its blown in…

Here be dragons…

Posted on March 1, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 1st March, Design, Dragon, Fountain, Hanley Park, Life, Photo, St David's day, Stoke-on trent, victorian, WalesLeave a comment

Not Welsh Dragons, but at least they are dragons. Today is Saint David’s day, the patron Saint of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales. But the symbol for the day is the daffodil. This is a bit of a confused blog post!

Anyway this dragon fountain is in Hanley Park, Stoke-on-Trent’s. I think the dragons are more like water monsters as they have fishy tails (and this is a fishy tale!)

Trees in winter

Posted on February 26, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, muddy, Photo, Photo director, river Bank, River Trent, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trees, Trent, WetLeave a comment

Reflections again, this time of trees along the river Trent a few weeks ago. Walking in the rain, trying to avoid the fifty yard long puddles on the paths. Stepping through muddy grass with shoes sinking into the earth. It was wet! Subtle hints of green in the bushes that was knocked back when the temperatures dropped and the snow fell. A whole section of the newly restored river bank washed away and the new housing estate on the flood plain is threatened. Why build on the flood plain anyway? Money!

Today’s walk

Posted on February 26, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, day 26, longer than expected, Shelton, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Tired, WalkingLeave a comment

don’t know why the doors are halfway up these bottle ovens. They are on a small estate of apartments by the Trent and Mersey canal in Shelton Stoke-on-Trent. Today I managed to walk 4.6 miles, which is far enough. I will probably post some more photos later…

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Stoke-on trent