Five?

Posted on April 12, 2025 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1906, Education, everyday things, Health, Important, Media, Water2 Comments

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Are these everyday things? They are to me…

Art Groups I go to regularly. Being creative keeps my mind calm. When I’m painting or drawing I can put other feelings behind me. An art education improves creativity.

Having clean water to drink and use for washing. I realise many places don’t have the luxury of clean water. Even here there is a problem with some water companies, but at least it is clean and delivered by pipes to almost every dwelling.

Media, again the luxury aspect. TV, radio, Internet. We mainly have all these in the UK although some are more hit and miss in more rural areas where mountains and hills can block transmissions. We possibly take it for granted.

Our health service. Free at the point of use. Yes it is overworked and underfunded. But you don’t have to pay unless you go private and no one goes bankrupt paying exorbitant fees. I hope it survives all the problems going on in the country.

Finally Education. We are lucky that most pupils stay on till senior school and beyond to college and degree level. The pandemic had a detrimental effect on attendance and some children are being home schooled. I think that’s a mistake but as long as they get a good widespread education then hopefully they will be OK.

So this post is a bit random but all these things mean a lot to me. Art is my main one though.

Rain due

Posted on April 12, 2025 Posted in UncategorizedTagged April, Countryside, dry, Fires, global warming, High pressure, Life, March, Poem, Poetry, Rain, Showers, Spring, WaterLeave a comment

Pressure dropping

Rain from the west

Due to fall

Maybe just April showers

We need it

We have fires burning

In the countryside

Dry March and April

And high pressure

Blue skies are lovely

Sunshine is great

But sometimes the rain

Must fall.

Four leaves

Posted on February 1, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged clover, Description, dew, Four, Green, Leaves, Life, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Rain, three, Time, WaterLeave a comment

Four leaf clover,

just green and neat.

Splattered with dew or rain

Contrasted against black

How to describe it more?

Thin stem from its centre

Leaves splayed out lobes.

Striped with thin veins

Each curved gently

Upper surface dips downward

Four fan shaped

Instead of the usual three

Lucky?

Memory of the one I found….

Longshore drift…

Posted on January 8, 2025 Posted in MemoriesTagged Beach, boards, Coast, groynes, Life, Longshore drift, Memory, Posts, Sand, Sea, Seaside, Tides, WaterLeave a comment

Someone asked a question on Facebook about posts sticking up through a beach in lines.

I have a relative at the coast and had wondered the same thing myself. I asked and found out that they were used to slow something called longshore drift. It’s where over time tides moving along the coast shift sands sideways. Groynes (boards) between the posts held the sand back and stopped the beach being washed away.

Canada geese mural

Posted on December 15, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Canada geese, Design, Five years ago, Lake, Life, Memories, mural painting, Reeds, Water, Water fowlLeave a comment

From about 5 years ago, a mural I painted in a friends downstairs cloakroom. I remember it took me several days and I was driving home quite a distance each evening. I wish I could still do this sort of thing. I’d previously done murals for my friends in their old house. They included the words life, love, laugh in their living room, Mr incredible, batman, superman and spiderman in their sons bedroom and a Laura Ashley floral pattern blown up and painted in pale green on their bathroom wall. I’m glad the geese turned up on my Facebook memories, it reminded me of all the lovely things I painted for my friends.

Reflected memory

Posted on December 8, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged 2018, Art, Blossom, Collage, Facebook, Horizon, Memory, Pastels, reflecting, WaterLeave a comment

From 2018, I don’t remember making this collage of blossom against a pastel sky, but thanks to Facebook it just popped up.

I like it, but it feels a bit too diffuse and fuzzy. Maybe the horizon between the two miffored images could have been placed higher or lower so that it became more defined. But it certainly feels watery. I do have fun doing these.

Wet Wales

Posted on September 23, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Clouds, Grey, Poem, Poetry, Rain, Sea, trickle, Very short poem, Visit, Water, WetLeave a comment

It rained in Wales:

Water fell on land and sea.

Pebbles rattled in the tide

As the water came to me.

On my head, trickling down.

Back of my neck? Very wet!

Water storage

Posted on August 22, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Building, City, Climate change, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2038, flowing, Life, sewage, Thinking, WaterLeave a comment

How would you design the city of the future?

Cities are working out how to store water and prevent flooding, with massive tunnels below them to allow water to flow away. Storage spaces to trap water then release it slowly as the waters receded. Having beavers upstream in rivers to dam and slow the flow of water downstream. And also reinstating rush beds or filter beds to hold onto the fluid and clean any sewage that has leaked into waterways. You could also build buildings up on higher ground or stilts. Or raise buildings in heavy rain or storm conditions. There is still a lot we can do to combat climate change.

Did you know?

Posted on August 8, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bacon, brown sauce, Cheese, fillings, Food, Jam, Life, oat flour, Oatcake, Oats, sausage, Tomatoes, Water, YeastLeave a comment

Credit Moorlands eater photo of a Staffordshire Oatcake.

Today is Staffordshire Oatcake day. According to Google:

“Oatcake Day is celebrated annually on August 8th to honor Staffordshire and its famous oatcake. The day began in 2010. Some people celebrate by visiting Staffordshire Oatcakes in Hanley to learn how the Potteries staple is made. Others share their oatcake creations on social media using the hashtag #StaffordshireDay.”

Basically the Staffordshire Oatcake is a thin pancake style flat tasty disk made of oatmeal flour, yeast, water and possibly other ingredients. It is cooked on a hot griddle in a thin layer so it ends up looking a bit like a lace doily but with fewer holes. You can buy a dozen or half a dozen to take home, or if you get them from an oatcake shop you can have them with various toppings. Mostly cheese and bacon, or bacon and mushroom. My favourite is sausage, cheese and tinned tomatoes. Sometimes with a bit of brown sauce. You can also eat them hot with butter and jam, but that’s probably not acceptable behaviour! And rolled or folded? That’s your choice!

Definitely a Staffordshire specialty. Not to be confused with Scottish oatcakes which are smaller and thicker.

Local artist, poet and author, Arthur Berry wrote “Ode to the Oatcake”…