
A year ago I was at home
A year ago I wasn’t by the sea.
Eighteen months ago
I was home…
I wasn’t by the sea.
No storms, no showers
No tides, no beaches
No lapping waters.
Bereft of waves
Tide out
Gone.
New paintings and regular art updates.

A year ago I was at home
A year ago I wasn’t by the sea.
Eighteen months ago
I was home…
I wasn’t by the sea.
No storms, no showers
No tides, no beaches
No lapping waters.
Bereft of waves
Tide out
Gone.



The Croft is a local piece of land the that was threatened with having houses built on it. But it is a green lung of the city, giving a recreation area for local people and for local wildlife.
The sky was covered in mackerel clouds indicating it might be raining tomorrow. I sometimes think the clouds look like a flock of sheep!
The fox is carved into the tree of a neighbouring garden. I did find out who the sculpture was done by. I woukd like one doing on a tree stump in my garden. X
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And humid
Watering the yard

The moisture level outside is about 85%, I’ve got the fan on and the windows closed to keep the heat out. All my hanging baskets had wilted this afternoon despite heavy rain a couple of days ago. Sorry to go on about my garden but I enjoy showing it off. It does need work though. X
We don’t have droughts like other countries but we do sometimes have heathland fires occasionally. We are more prone to flooding. Apparently we have tornadoes but I’ve never seen one and they’re only small scale here.
Weather, what the British talk about. X

Sadly today we just have a few green cherries on our tree. They are not ripening because of the cool wet weather. Apparently we are on the north side of the jet stream and so low pressure systems are being drawn down from scandanavia towards the UK.
So we sit and wait. If I manage to pick any of this years crop I will post pictures of it. At the moment I’m using our umbrella for its correct use. Not for catching cherries.

By duplicating and flipping one side of the couple of photos I ended up with an interesting structure (in reality next doors small extension bathroom). The hanging baskets and pots pop with green and bright flowers. As they grow and bloom I will post more pictures (and include more if the rain stops!). Summer is here so they should take up more space. Gardening and rain, a typical British summer.

Tonights sunset. We walked up our steep hill then took a slightly longer route home. At the bottom of the road back to home I saw this sunset and cloudy sky lightening the sky that had been dark and moody all evening.
I’m looking for faces in the clouds but all I can see a profile of a mouse with large ears, it has its front paws lifted up and large wings on its back. I used to think I had no imagination…

As I walk I’m looking at trees, I’m waiting for the buds to burst, the leaves to stretch and expand. But we need some rain now to get the buds to swell. Then I will have more idea of what these trees are.
Oak before Ash,
In for a Splash.
Ash before Oak,
In for a soak….
The old rhyme of what to expect from the weather this Spring…
Also the weather has been very windy after a quiet start to March.
The saying for that is :
In like a Lamb
Out like a Lion.
(it can be vice versa), old weather saws that my grandma told me…

I could crop this photo to tidy it up…but the bits of blue sky reflected off the sink and the red bowl, top left, seem to add interest. I have windows on both sides of the kitchen, dual aspect I think they call it? So I get lots of light in the kitchen on sunny days as the sun climbs higher in the sky.
Spring is coming, I can feel the warmth in the sunshine. The trees are about to come into leaf, buds of blossom will be bursting, pink and white clouds. I will have to get out and prune things like our buddliea bushes. They are thugs! And the pears? They remind me we should get our crop from our pear tree later in the year….



I love using mirroring to change how a photo looks. You can do it vertically (top), horizontally (middle) or both (bottom).
I called them ‘Westport mirrored’, ‘I see frogs’ and ‘stained glass westport’.
I used the layout app which can be used to post images to both Facebook and Instagram. I’m on Instagram @mallabandbrown or #mallabandbrown (I never know which it is!) if you want to see more of my art.
X


Three miles walked today round the village in a city of Penkhull. Part of Stoke on Trent. To reach the village centre we decided to walk up a hill called Honeywall, past the Beehive public house and this sign erected in 2011 by the Penkhull Residents Association. Instead of continuing straight up the hill we walked down an interesting side road and then right an up to the Church of St Thomas which stands on the village green. As we walked past a flower bed we spotted these bottles decorated as bottle ovens with a top hatted figure standing next to them. Then we walked down and around Thistley Hough and finally by circuitous routes home to make sure the walk was long enough. I’ve only walked about 22 miles this week, a bit down on last week, but the weather has been wet and windy, and my hubby doesn’t want to walk to far, but I feel fitter (and tired). Day 42!