New paintings and regular art updates.
It’s getting colder here and the forecast or Scotland, parts of Wales and the North West is for snow over the next few days. That made me want to draw snowflakes, and that led me to using the sketch app again.
At the moment I’m trying to keep warm and get over the bug I’ve had for a few weeks. The thought of colder weather does not fill me with joy. Just dread!
Still I like my colours that I’ve used on the drawing, a little bit like Wedgwood China.
5pm sky. Less than a month after the shortest day, and this afternoon I noticed there was still light in the sky after 5pm.
Why does it matter? When I was working and doing a 9 to 5 job I hated starting and finishing the day in the dark, particularly in the evening.
There was an experiment in the 1960’s when the UK kept British Summer time throughout the year. It only lasted for about three years, but it was much better to walk home from school in daylight. The Royal Society for the prevention of accidents? (I think), worked out it was safer for children because in the evening people were tired and there were less accidents when children were more visible when walking home.
For me, when it starts to get lighter in the evening I feel less gloomy, my spirits lift. I’m pretty sure I don’t suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. (SAD). I can’t imagine how bad it must be for people that do.
Now I’m looking forward to Spring despite the rest of the winter to come.
Please stop raining? It’s wet and windy, again. Gone are days of snow, I know we still have them, but instead whirling clouds come across the Atlantic and dump rain on mostly the north west of Britain. In fact in the last twenty four days it’s apparently rained on twenty two of them.
And amidst all of this stormy weather something unusual and historical is happening in the South West. At the moment (22.45pm on 9.1.23) a Boeing 747 owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin company is flying into the bad weather off the coast of Cornwall. It has a rocket tucked underneath one wing which is due to be launched from it. The rocket contains some satellites and these will hopefully reach space in the next few hours.
It’s amazing that Britain will have launch capability for the investigation and use of space. And in such a different way, not a huge rocket from the land but a more interesting method. I hope it works.
The sun is actually shining today. But its freezing cold again. Its about 15°C in here. We had a gas engineer out yesterday because one of our radiators isn’t working. He’s a lovely man and comes round every year to service the boiler, which he also did yesterday. He checked the radiator and its actually seized up in the closed position (we probably shut it off one summer), he didn’t dare try and fix it because of the risk the valve might break and leak. So we are going to have to get a new one. Thankfully that’s included in the yearly maintenance contract.
The poor man was rushed off his feet, he’d been working till 8pm the previous night. He said many people don’t get their central heating system serviced until it breaks down. Then they struggle to find a firm that can fix them. Sometimes it’s just a small problem, but it can stop the system working. I know it costs money, but I think it was worth having it regularly checked.
Ice or a plastic star? Just a Christmas decoration…. Its too cold outside to go and take photos, but the frost as sparkling on the pavement earlier this evening. I’d been out to panto rehearsal, and walked across the road to the shops and I had to hold onto a handrail because it was so slippery. There was a report on this evenings TV decrying the poor standard of housing in the UK and the cost for the poorest people to heat their homes. If you want to know its 10% in France and 18% in the UK.
So tonight it’s going to be minus 10°C in places. That’s quite cold for this country.
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We hear snow is coming
It’s wet outside
Falling on frozen ground
One large fluffy snowflake
Fluttered past the kitchen window
A fleet footed hexagonal marvel
Precursor to a flurry?
Who knows
White Christmas?
Too soon to know
Flitting across the sky?
Santa’s sleigh gliding through
White whimseys of snow…
Minus 7.7°C in Shropshire last night, and below freezing locally. My Nasturtiums which were still in flower yesterday have collapsed in little siddy heaps. Their plant cells have all burst as the fluid inside them expanded into ice crystals. I knew it would happen, I was hoping to still have some in flower at Christmas.
The Jet Stream up in the sky has settled below England to our south and low pressure systems are pulling down cold air from the North of Britain. We are expecting freezing conditions for at least up to the weekend. By then the damage to my plants will be done. I haven’t got any garden fleece to protect the plants, I can only hope having plants close together will help some of them survive. X
Snow showers in the North
Will the winter spring forth?
Chilling beasts bones
Ice hardened like stones
Frost and fog lingering cold
Into cracked pavements old
People coughing and spluttering
Runny noses now sniffing.
Sleet and snow are coming near
But only in coastal areas, not here
We will get mist and ice instead..
Well that’s what the weather man said…
I took this photo today because I was amazed at how many flowers were blooming on the fushia bushes outside our local pottery. The leaves have wilted a little and I’m expecting it to be clobbered by the cold because we, are due freezing weather over the next few days. But its December, this is not normal. Its getting dark earlier every day and we have a chilly northerly wind blowing. It’s not proof of global warming, but it makes you think!
Butterflies, summer creatures
Hide in crevices
Overwintering
Blood like antifreeze
Or lay their eggs
Somewhere safe
To form a chrysalis
That will emerge next spring
Or flutter south
To warmer places
Migrating to survive
And moths?
Do they do the same
Flitting to darkened spaces
To wait out the cold?
Mild winters fetch them out early
Cold and hungry
Where can they feed
If plants are dormant
Not in flower
No leaves to eat?
A delicate natural balance
Disrupted
Mallaband-Brown