New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was factory. This is the view from our window across the road to the factory. They have trees and plants in front of it to screen it a bit. The tree is covered by ivy at the moment but the buds are already showing ready for spring.
Sitting waiting for my hubby while he was at an appointment. All the angles and layers made it an interesting view to draw. I got bored with looking at my phone and listening to ‘easy listening’ radio. I added colour when I got home. I also tried to draw a garden chair that was in the courtyard and looked a bit chunky.
Stand on the North of the Earth and look at the full moon. It seems to be one way up. Stand in the Southern Hemisphere and it will be the other way up. Basically one view is 🙃 upside down compared with the other. In fact if you are near the equator the view will be at right angles to the normal view. I think some people see the moon as a boat crossing the sky when it is waining. ie a young or old moon. When you only live in one Hemisphere you dont realise that other people can have a different perspective. Trying to put yourself in there position can change the way you look at life. I’d love to go south of the equator and see the Southern Cross and the greater and lesser Magellanic clouds (small galaxies near our milky way galaxy) which are not visible in the North.
How lucky to have glasses, to be able to see. I didn’t always wear glasses. My poor eyesight was only picked up in eye screening at school. I don’t remember things being blurred or hard to see. Did I sit at the front of the class? I don’t know. I remember my first glasses. They had beautiful blue frames. I learnt to be patient as the optician looked into the back of my eyes. Shining a light so I could see the blood vessels reflected somehow onto my retinas.
Rugby ball shaped eyes were the diagnosis. Short sighted. Suddenly I could see the world clearly. I felt freed from a struggle I did not know I had been going through. I only realised how bad my eyesight was when I learnt to swim. I couldn’t wear my glasses in the swimming pool and I could not recognise my friends unless they came close.
Now I understand why I got lost on a beach a few years before! I could not see my family when I wandered off. And why I got lost on a caravan site. I could not see the numbers on the vans…. Yes I am lucky. I wish others could be too…
Today, for the first time in about three months I walked around the top of our hill (I drove up as I’m still nervous of putting pressure on my calf muscles).
It still had a little uphill section at the end (we walked downhill at the start). But I managed OK. I’d decided to go out early, before the sun set, and the sky still had some colour in it when we got down to the area of school playing fields that spread down into the Trent Valley.
On the walk we saw two dog walkers, one with a French bulldog and a Staffordshire bull terrier, the other with two beautiful golden retrievers. Both pairs of dogs wanted a fuss so that delayed us getting to see the sunset. It was only a couple of thousand steps but as I had already walked into town and back I at least got my 5000 steps in. On a cold breezy day it was good to blow the cobwebs away at last.
Golden eyes through the catflap.
Staring through a cat window
Looking for warmth
On a cold bright day.
Staying outside
Because another cat
Is staring out
Looking at the sunshine!
The sky is gloomy, but salmon pink was seeping underneath it this evening, like a strawberry blancmange layer in a trifle. Deep green and paynes grey sandwich the pink. We avoided the rain as the wind was blowing away from us. I love walking on this side of the hill, we live on the shady side!
On our walk we saw a glorious copper beech tree. I think it’s only quite young but it is set on its own above the valley of the Trent. I’d love to live in the house on the other side of the road and have this magnificent tree to look at and must be lovely to look at as the sun rises behind it. I will have to get up early to get a shot of that.
A pleasant view
Seeing green lawns
Milky and blue
skies
An English summer.
Strong stones
Arch over the path
Steps up a curved seat.
Rest here in the shade
Sit for a while
Remember other summers
Long gone.
Stately homes visited
Capability in gardens.
Four sketches I did at the Dorothy Clive Garden. The view from the hill it’s on over to Shropshire and Cheshire. The Quarry garden with the waterfall. Sculpted woodpecker in the bark of a tree stump and my hubby sitting in the cafe garden.
Mallaband-Brown