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.
I think Hooley is a phrase meaning a gale or stormy. It’s a more picturesque word, probably quite old.
Despite our double glazing I can hear the wind soughing around the house, the vuuumming noise through the gap around the kitchen window. The cat flap opening and closing as if a fat, invisible cat was coming in and going out of the door. The overgrown bushes by the side of the house sometimes scrape along the wall. I’m used to it now but it used to be quite creepy when I first heard it. And of course it’s dark outside, dead leaves scatter and blow about on the wind, and litter scurries along the gutter on the road, picked up by the wind and dumped damply in heaps.
In amongst all these noises the cats use the cat flap, coming in and purring at me, purr-miaow? Where’s my tea? It’s not the wind this time, it’s me
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 wind was blowing as we walked round Trentham lake today. That was fine, the weather was cool and cloudy but dry. We walked past the reopened miniature railway which had a diesel train running on it with happy children and adults riding on it. We did think about taking a ride but decided to head towards the end of the lake to the cafe to get an ice cream. We noticed strong gusts of wind and the clouds darkening but it wasn’t bad and I had a large umbrella that I was using ad a walking stick.
We sat and had an icecream but felt the patter of rain. So we decided to walk back the way we had came. Then we fought a head on blast of wind and rain! The brolly was being buffeted, twisting in the air. Its handle and stem were bending in the strong gusts of wind. Suddenly it turned inside out! We both fought it back into a sort of shape because it was still raining, but a couple of spokes are hanging down and the cover has pulled away and is sagging. Sadly it was disposed of when we came home… Mm
Wind blows
and cat knows
Which way the wind is blowing.
Bird flies
And follows
The wind southwards
To find a home to brood
It’s young chicks.
Cat looks North
Bird comes South
May they miss each other
In the windy sky.
Like a stone hung from a chain, I can tell the weather by our cat.
Wet cat, it’s raining
Cat looks white, snowing
Cat covered in white dots? Hailing
Cat hot to the touch? Sunny
Cat in a cloud? Foggy
Cat with hair on end? Windy or angry!
OK, silly post! I wrote it because the cat just came in and he’s as wet as an otter in a stream (exaggeration)! ❤️
The wind blows
Catkins shiver
On the boughs
Blackbirds sing
Here is spring?
But we need rain
Not late March winds!
April showers
Would water the flowers
But their roots
Stay dry
Meanwhile
Sun shines.
Trees leaning over a lake. Perhaps they will fall if the ground becomes too wet or the wind blows too strongly. With global warming making the weather worse you can see how damage can increase.
Some efforts are being made to reduce the damage. In a few places there has been a reintroduction of beavers to lakes and rivers. It seems strange that an animal that actually fells trees could reduce flooding. But by building lodges (dams woven from tree branches that they live in) beavers slow the flow of water in rivers. The water pools behind them and so less water is released downstream. This can reduce the speed of water rising and so stop flooding.
So in some ways it’s good that the trees have been felled. But I guess the reintroduction has to be in a controlled way.
Two lone geese
Sitting in a lake
Cold wet feet
But they look sweet.
Ripples in the water
Dancing on the lake
Geese are very calm
Not leaving a wake.
Twigs and branches fall
Whipped by the wind.
Soon the geese may fly
Then see them on the wing.
A short story…
A cold wind blew across the lake, finding gaps in my coat and blowing my hair around. The branches and fronds of the willow trees streamed like ribbons on a kite, lifting and waving. The ducks ruffled up their feathers against the cold. We had walked out of sunshine into shade and the temperature had dropped noticeably.
The man and his dog walked towards us. It was muzzled with a band of leather round it’s mouth, but it still pulled the man along. It was a big dog. A hound of some sort. It was difficult to see in the gloom. As we came level with them the dog jumped up. It’s paws landing on my shoulders. I was knocked over by its weight. I sat down hard in a puddle. The weight of the dog pushing against me.
The man looked alarmed. Shocked. He tugged the dog away. All he said was ‘sorry’ and walked off! I sat there freezing and wet….. What a day!
Mallaband-Brown