Floating in the sky
A pigeon
on a chimney
High.
Floating on a breeze
Greenery and trees.
Floating up above
Roof and gutter
I hear you mutter….
Floating up and up…
Floating chimneys
Tag: World
I took these to a friend….
She was going to put them on chains for me, then covid19 happened and she got a protected job so I couldn’t visit. Finally it looks like I might be able to get them back? And what happens, the infection rate is going up again!
I hope things improve soon for everyone.
I see bats 🦇 or 🐲 dragons!
Two llots of clouds mashed together, whispy and white, plus a bit of hedge round the back of the house, and you end up with something quite bizarre. An up sweep of wings, black, furry paws and legs. White contrails from aircraft. The sky is my canvas, I even see moths on either side. An Ariel rorschach test…. I see so much…
How big is Earth
How big is Earth’s diameter? Just under 8,000 miles. How big is its circumference? Just under 25,000 miles. That’s not very big really. There are statistics saying how many Earth’s fit into Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System, or even how many Earth’s would fit into the size of the Sun.
What I’m trying to say is, this is the third planet from the Sun, in the habitable region of the system (not too hot or too cold) and we need to look after it. We are using up its resources at an alarming rate, polluting our home world with plastics and toxic waste, killing off the insects including bees with insecticides and heating it up till the North and South polar icecaps are severely effected and melting rapidly. Why are we doing this? Are we, like Covid19, like a virus, impacting on our host, the Earth.
Discuss…….
Cloud bird?
It was high up in the sky, a cloud shaped like a bird? No shaped like a white dove. A dove of peace.
All around the world people looked up and saw it. The symbol of peace.
We saw it one evening, then again the next day. It was happening everywhere. People were posting images on the Web. On visage journal and quick telegraph!
The government’s didn’t like it. They asked their troops and scientists to investigate. Look at the occurrences. Telescopes were trained on each cloud. Radar and radio telescopes. No sign of a reason. It was a mystery.
A week after it started it ended. People saw Elephants and crocodiles in the clouds, turtles and Teddy bears. But no mote of dust or speck of mist became a dove of peace. People started to miss them. Fights broke out between neighbours, children cried. The world had lost magic. Sadness flew round the world. Maybe one day there woukd be an answer.
Bees…
Apparently they are more and more at risk. Bees pollenate the vast majority of flowering plants on the Earth, and their counterparts including hoverflies are also under threat.
What with? Insecticides, that are used to control insect pests. These include Neonicotinoids that have been found to disorientated bees (as well as killing them) so they cannot find food. Without them we would not have fruit and vegetables. But unfortunately big pharmaceutical companies keep wanting to sell insecticides. There have been court cases that stopped their use. But they fight back.
If only we could use non invasive alternatives. Biological treatments that would eat pests. Like nematode worms, for instance. The problem is humans need quick solutions to save crops from things like locusts. But I think we should use these things sparingly. There are many ecological and moral questions and problems. I hope we can sort it out.
Unexpected
When Sam woke he didn’t know where he was. He was lying on a couch with a cushion shaped like a cat, and a knitted owl staring at him. His head felt groggy and he was thirsty.
He stood up and stretched. He quietly looked round the room. There were two plush armchairs and lots of clutter stacked about the place. Mainly books on shelves built into the alcoves on either side of the chimney. There were pictures all over the walls and an easle in one corner.
There was a smell of cooking wafting from the kitchen. It smelt like chicken. Suddenly his taste buds were jumping. He strolled towards the cooker. ‘Well hello boy’ said the woman standing by it stirring the food. ‘you hungry?’ ‘would you like a drink?’ He looked up at her, she was very tall.
‘Miarow’ a strange sound came out of his mouth, boy she was Very Tall. He tried again ‘miaow, murrp’. WHAT THE HELL?
He suddenly realised, his tail swishing from side to side. He was now a cat!
The end of the World as we know it?
A spiky plant in our garden, a bit like the shape of a virus.
This virus though? I was just thinking this is like a zombie apocalypse movie- except there are no zombies (and no apocalypse)! I didn’t think the survivalists were right, and I still don’t. This is not the end of ‘Independence day’, or ‘Deep Impact’, or even ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ No president ‘hero’ is going to save the day. No bulldog like prime minister will defeat the army of viruses, its just not like that,
Blame them, if you need to, for that old cliche, of shutting the door after the horse has bolted. All of us, the whole world, is affected by this. But there are no zombie dead walking the streets, but a mass of our loved ones, gone before their time.
I hope I don’t sound flippant. I don’t want to. I DO NOT think this is the end of the world, although some people will be wishing it is. There are too many things that can destroy this world, with bombs and bullets, starvation and lack of clean water. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think mans damage of the Earth is going away, we have had a brief respite, but that does not solve climate change.
So there you are, that is what I think the real problem is, mans inhumanity to man and our planet. Scientists are calling this era the ‘Anthropocene’ where the impact of billions of humans on the Earth is visibly changing things. Remember the hole in the ozone layer? The massive oil spills over the last century, glaciers and Ice floes melting. Oceans full of plastic, the air so polluted in some places that their populations have been in their own lock-downs to survive them.
Mankind fights wars over so many things, religion, resources, rights to water and food. There is no ‘sharing’ with the other people on the other side of the mountain. Mankind ( and womankind) would rather be selfish and keep everything for themselves. Survival of the fittest? or greediest? Maybe we can’t work together?
But we can TRY. When people say we are all in this together, they need to realise we actually are.
When I was a child, there were probably about four billion people on the Earth, I learnt a fact that if you took every person alive they would fit on the Isle of Wight. (Look it up, its a small island off the south coast of Britain, separated from the mainland by the Solent). Even now you could probably fit most of them on the island when the tide is out….
I often think that the Earth is the host and we ( the human race) are the virus or bacteria attacking it, making its glaciers run, clogging up its pores with plastic, making it cough with pollution and greenhouse gases. Its time for us all to be the good, health giving bacteria, the pro and prebiotics that add health to the world, not something that is trying to kill it off.
No doubt that when this is over there will be calls to push ahead with growth, to make up for lost time. But can we in all conscience accept that? Maybe we should choose our leaders wisely, give them the task of sorting it out? But I think it is in our own hands. We have to say something, not accept the status quo.
Tomorrow is another day
I will wait for the sun to rise and try and think of tomorrow as a new day, a different day.
I’m thinking about what I need to do, trying not to prevaricate, not to stick my head in the sand. In this time of lockdown it’s almost too easy to turn and face the wall and not let the world invade. So I shall sleep and try not to wake too early.
I hope that everyone out there in the big world is OK. Safe, as happy as they can be. Look after yourselves.
X
Poppy
A poppy painting I did a while ago.
This recent warm sunshine is bringing all the poppies out into flower. We walked into town, and where the pathways have not been sprayed with weed killer, all sorts of plants, including oriental poppies, are springing up. Mother nature is taking over.
But… In places where people have been allowed to meet up, the beaches, and parks, the main growth is in litter. People do not take their rubbish home with them. Why are humans such a filthy, messy, species. I thought we were giving the earth breathing space. But people’s ethos seems to be having what they want, and ignoring the damage they create.
I don’t think humans deserve this wonderful world. Really.
