Trees are lungs

Posted on January 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ancient trees, Carbon Dioxide, Fires, Forest fires, global warming, Life, Oxygen, Plants, TreesLeave a comment

We breathe in breathe out…. Carbon Dioxide. But trees and plants breathe out oxygen after taking in carbon dioxide. Why? Because they photosynthesise. They turn gas and water into food and grow. Oxygen is a biproduct.

Looking at a tree in winter you can almost see the bronchial tubes of lungs, the alveoli would be the leaves in summer.

That’s why we need to plant trees not cut them down. In the Amazon and other rainforest millions have been cut down. All over the world trees and plants are burning, either at the hands of humans or through fires caused by global warming.

We must change this. We must care. Even my government is cutting down woods and forests for stupid fast railways and roads.

Not in my name is the phrase isn’t it?

Painting candidate…

Posted on January 8, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, diagonals, evening sky, Ice, Image, landscape view, Picture, Possible painting, TreesLeave a comment

I’m always taking photos, but not all of them feel like they could be turned into a painting. I like this evening sky reflected in the lake, a stretch of ice covering part of it. I’m not sure how the picnic table avoided getting snow underneath so neatly… It must have fallen straight down.. I like the diagonals in this, it adds feeling to it…

Might go round the lake…

Posted on December 26, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, Gales, Planning to walk, Soughing wind, Trees, Weather, Westport lake, Wet, WindLeave a comment

There are gales forecast for tomorrow but we might go out for a wet and windy walk round Westport lake in The birth of our city. I live the sound of wind rushing through the trees. You can hear the waves of air coming as first one tree bends and then the next. Air ‘soughing’ through the tree tops. Twigs or sometimes branches snapping off. Bits of tree strewn across the paths. Sometimes we hire bikes to cycle round it, but they won’t be open tomorrow.

In the photo the weather was fair and I think it was early summer. There should be lots of birds there so we will take some brown bread to feed them. That’s if the weather isn’t too foul. I once went for a walk and my phone drowned in the pocket of my waterproof coat. If its like that I might just admire the view from my car.

Landscape

Posted on December 18, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Experiment, Fun, Landscape, Learning, Photo, Playing, Science, Texture, TreesLeave a comment

I love playing with things as you know. I add textures or add colours, mirror things or duplicate them. Art is exciting. Not every image is good, some work, others don’t. But playing with things helps you learn new things. Scientists experiment, that’s how they changed from Alchemists to chemist’s or physicists or biologists or mathematicians. They took things and learnt how they worked. That’s basically what I hope I do. Maybe not as logically or not done in an organised way, but I try.

Structure

Posted on December 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dawn, Encroaching, Expanding, Imagination, Life, Mystery, Sci-fi, Short story, Structure, TreesLeave a comment

Looking out the window she saw a strange metallic structure had risen overnight. Where once there had been fields beyond the treeline now the metal was greeting the dawn. It must be 50 meters high, would it be filled in like a building or was this superstructure it? What was it?

Slowly as she watched the metal started to glow. First white hot, then blue hot. She saw the structure growing, upwards, sideways, forwards, and backwards. The light settled and she saw it had grown like a crystal, now it had reached the trees….. She waited… Would it expand again?

Blossom time

Posted on December 16, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Blossom, Fruit, Ink drawing, Life, Memory, Sketching challenge, Trees2 Comments

I keep finding old photos of my drawings over the last few months. This was day 25 of our Urban Sketchers challenge to draw pictures in lockdown. Over the months I’ve had more drawing practice than I had for several years before.

I notice the tricycle, that had to have new back wheels one of the old ones collapsed and the other one was almost rusted through. And the copper coloured windmill that fell apart in a heavy wind!

The blossom was pink and white cherry and pear blossom. Billowing and beautiful, we had abundant fruit this year. Only five or six months to wait before it comes back.

Tree by river

Posted on December 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, December, Flood, Photo, Rain, River, River Trent, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Tree, Trees, Walk, Water, WinterLeave a comment

Tree or trees? One limb broken. The grey path reflects the grey sky. Water rushes down the river, brown and muddy. In speight, almost overcoming the banks. The rain is trapped on the pathways, the grass sodden and squelchy. I walked along there this afternoon as part of a long walk. I can feel the wet mud between my toes overtopping my shoes, pulling at their soles. Water is like glue. Stronger than gravity. My feet lift out of the shoes as they lift from the ground. My feet still feel cold and are aching hours afterwards. Perhaps I need a bowl of hot water to soak them in. I wish I’d got some bathsalts! Time to rest.

Nest

Posted on December 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Branchrs, Fear, Hidden, Horror, Nest, Short story, Trees, Very short storyLeave a comment

It looked like a massive nest or a basket. Clearly woven, held together with branches not twigs. Something horrendous lived there. Something that could think, could weave, could create a threat in the vision of tangled trees.

She tried to dispelling her fears, to get freedom back. But as she looked on, two huge spikes shot up into the air and the massive bulk of a head loomed into the sky. She knew she had lost when the gold green eyes sparkled as they opened. The beast was awake!

Branches

Posted on December 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Branches, Cold, Creative writing?, Fingers, Fog, Horror, Mist, Mystery, Trapped, Trees, Very short story, Wet, Wood1 Comment

Misty and overcast, branches and twigs reach out like witches fingers. Darkening mist twists and turns. Hidden eyes watch as the gloom deepens. Footsteps trail through the bracken. Water lies in droplets across the dead and dying wood.

She had seen light from the footpath. A cottage.. A campfire? What was there. Goaded by her imagination she stepped off the path. Feet tangling in blackberries and vines. She stumbled and the branches reached down….

Winter blossom

Posted on November 26, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blossom, Exhibiriin, Orme Art, Panting, Picture, Trees, Winter tree4 Comments

This popped up on my Facebook memories from a couple of years ago. Winter blossom shows a face in profile hidden in the twisted branches. The idea of the tree is based on a tree across the road from us that actually blossoms in December. It’s just coming into flower now. But clearly my idea is a bit more abstract and surreal. I did the painting and it sold at an Orme Art exhibition in the November, where my friend had fallen in love with it.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Trees