New paintings and regular art updates.
No glitterball today,
no sparkling champagne.
Just leftovers and dregs,
an ordinary Saturday.
We’ve enjoyed the holiday,
and more is to follow
but now it is time,
for life to settle.
Time passes on,
the world keeps turning.
The decade almost done,
a new one beginning.
So let us all pause
and rest for a day,
Take stock of our past
call it good old Saturday.
There was an eclipse today in some parts of the world. Not here though. This was an annular eclipse, where the moon doesn’t fully cover the sun and leaves a ring of sun shining behind the moon.
So why does this happen. In normal eclipses the moon appears to be the same size as the sun so its completely covered. That is because the moon is something like 40 times smaller than the sun, but also 40 times closer to us. So they have the same apparent size in the sky. But with an annular eclipse the Sun can be slightly closer or the moon slightly father away. Why? Because the Earth rotates round the Sun in an ellipse, which is an oval with two focal points. The sun sits on one focus, but the Earth orbits around both. That means sometimes it is further away from the sun and sometimes closer Then it also means the moon is further away from the sun or slightly closer to it. The moon rotates round the earth in the same way in an elliptical orbit. So sometimes it is closer to, and sometimes further away. If you add the two positions up further to the sun and further away from the earth you get an annular eclipse.
I can’t explain it more clearly. It is most difficult to think your way through how it works but I hope this makes sense.
This might be someone’s meal today, tonight, next week. They may be on a low income, on benefits or state handouts. They might be in a refugee camp trying to flee from famine or oppression.
Coming closer to home, in a land that is the sixth richest in the World and where many more billionaires live than ever before, the number of Foodbanks here over the last few years have soared, from a handful ten years ago to more of them than McDonald’s outlets now! There are around two THOUSAND Foodbanks in this country now. Let that sink in. And people using them are only allowed two or three referrals in a six month period. That referral gives them emergency food for three or four days. They are used when someones benefit has been cancelled or delayed. I know about them because I used to refer people into them. I had to jump through hoops to get a referral for them. Often I came up against the arguments about whether they were deserving enough. I would be talking to a decision maker who would criticise the person’s ability to budget a paltry amount of money that the decision maker could not possibly have lived on themselves.
My question again is why are there Foodbanks? Why are the poorest in society forgotten? Why do the rich think it’s OK to look down on the poor? Remember that it is only by luck that we are born into the lives we have.
You may or may not be celibrating Christmas, but can I wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas and send seasons greetings. It may not be the best time of the year for many of us. But at least if people take a little time to think about others then things might improve in the world.
Not everyone is religious and the season does not have the same meaning for everyone. That doesn’t mean that anyone should be excluded from good wishes.
It’s difficult to write about this as I am agnostic, I am not sure what I believe, but I think respecting others is what I am getting at. There are too many wars and fighting. Sending love.
Memories play tricks, but I’m sure there were moments in my life when I was happier, or fitter, or could remember more facts. Or even remember the name of the hole in the top of a car that let’s sunlight in…. Roof window? Sky light? OK I know, it’s sun roof….
Some years ago I think I was content. Can’t remember the exact date, but we went on holiday a couple of times and I was fit enough to go cycling…. But the world turns, and I keep getting older. The things you get used to change, not necessarily in the way you want.
I don’t suppose anything can stay perfect, or you can stay content forever, it would just be nice for it to stay that way for a bit longer.
Four faces, four seasons, four points of the compass. Why four. Why is a four leaf clover lucky? Four wheels on a car, for stability? Four suits in cards…. Four quarters, but that’s just quarters. The four winds.
But then I can’t think of many other fours. And why four anyway? We have ten fingers and ten toes, and for that matter the British culture used to have twelve as its main number, twelve inches in a foot, twelve pennies in a shilling. But then there are all sorts of other numbers, 1 for winning, coming first, two’s company. Threes a crowd, bronze medal, third place. Who wants to come fourth? Seven and eight are supposed to be lucky numbers. Thirteen may be unlucky?
However you look at numbers all of them will be imbued with some story or other. That’s what humans do. Tell stories….
For instance, this is the just after full moon. Its in the same place in the sky as it was over the last few days, but not at the same time! I know the Earth and Moon orbit each other, and the moon is tidally locked with us. Which means it has one side always facing towards us. But as I say its in about the same place, but each day its a bit later, so after 5 days it’s moved from being there at 2am to 6am…..
Think about it. The Earth rotates in 24 hours, if the Moon is coming up later each day it must be going round the Earth at a certain speed. I don’t have the mathematic skill to work that out but if it takes 6 days to move 4 hours then if you multiply 4×6 you get 24 (hours) for it to end up in the same place so if you multiply 5(days)x6 you get 30, which is approximately a month to get to the same place in the sky and appear again at 2am. The Moon waxes and wanes while doing this. From that you can tell approximately where the sun is in relationship to us. If the half moon, and all the other phases are facing one way before full moon, the Sun is on the lighter side of the Moon. If its curved the other way as the moon starts to go away from full, then it’s on the other side. You can guess when the sun will rise from this, the smaller the area of brightness the more to the side of the Earth the sun must be. I can’t work out whether the sun would be rising sooner or later depending on its phase. I can see in my mind that if you were looking at both Earth and Moon from space they would be lit from the same direction, but sometimes you see the Moon in daylight, so I don’t know how that works. I think I would need to start drawing very long thin triangles, based on say a quarter of a centimeter on one side and 93 centimeters on the other two to work something out (based on the ratio of distances from the Earth to the Moon and the Earth to the Sun – .5:93…this is just scaling down the siz. I’m thinking in miles because I don’t know the distances in kilometers…. Its all got a bit complicated….
I remember once watching the moon every day for a week from the top of the hill, each day it got closer to the setting sun, till finally there was almost an eclipse. Somewhere on Earth there must have been an eclipse in the following day or so, but we missed it because the sun had already set.
Why can’t I get things done?
I think and think,
Decide, then change my mind.
I wait till the time seems right,
Then miss acting on it.
Why? because I spend time thinking.
Then I think again…….
Too much to do, too little time?
But if I just started early…
Wasn’t so desperate to be perfect.
Took less thought and acted sooner.
Maybe then I could
Get
Things
Done!
But now…
I’m not lazy, not crazy, just hazy…
Stuck!
Warm wine with herbs and sugar. I don’t know what the herbs are as I usually buy a bottle of one that already has things in it. Heat it up in a pan and drink, possibly with mince pies or Christmas cake…
It’s the time of year for indulgence if you can afford it. But many can’t. I’ve visited people in my job who had potatoes and beans for Christmas lunch.
I think about sharing at Christmas, about a bit more kindness, about a lot less austerity. The human race does not like sharing, when greed is good poverty follows. People need to think more about others. I am odd I know…..
It’s been a busy few days with some ups and downs, on the whole things are OK, but things feel a bit flat. Like these leaves, just squashed by footsteps.
I was thinking about my worries and concerns earlier, but now I’ve thought a bit I realise I’m beating myself up before anything has actually happened. I guess it’s because I’m tired. I’ve set myself a lot of things to do, I’m fed up with sitting back and resting, I need to occupy my mind, but I’m not young anymore….. Well this is cheerful!
Talking to the world, is it listening?
Mallaband-Brown