Tag: Writing

Don’t stare at me. .

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Instead of poetry a few words……

Large green eyes, look out of a dark green face. Paper thin skin, layers of chlorophyll ? What are you,  green, sap green, olive green, hookers green, lime green, a green apparition. Staring eyes that cast a spell over my mind. A sneer on your lips, worldly thoughts cascade in your brain.

What are you? Again, I think. Some mammalian plant? A simulacrum of humanity?

Leaves break out through your skin, vines, ivy, convolulus. Grow longer, twisting violently across your face. Your hair is fern fronds, feathery, tiny leaves on twining stems….

Your body is green as grass, a cauliflower and cabbage mass of leaves, courgette fingers, marrow thighs, feet stretching into the mud, but mobile like a human woman.

Veins like phloem and xylem gather fluids, rise up your trunk. Transpiration instead of breath. Are you deciduous or evergreen? Do you have an autumn season and wither into winter? Or are you still young in the cold months? Red berries blossoming on your lips? Heart of Oak or Yew?

You stand and stare at me. Looking into my room, glass holding back your strength. Your witch like hands or twigs beat on the widow pane. You cannot enter. But I cannot leave. Trapped by your tangled leaves. Tendrils fight their way in through the letter box. Green woman, earth, Gaia ….

 

 

Feathers

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I guess you can make a bit of art out of anything. This was an attempt to draw a peacock feather. I thought of how feathers have been used for centuries to make quill pens?

How many million words were created and written from ink and a feathered quill?

Then I thought about what ink is made of. I used to use something called quink ink. When you use it with water it splits from black into blue and brown colours. I would paint pictures with it. This was years ago, it may have changed now. Ink used to be made of  things like oak galls. It is interesting that before paper was used in the west vellum was the surface people wrote on. Many of the laws set down in this country’s parliament was written down with quill pens onto vellum. Other countries used ink and brushes, and I think you can see the different characteristics of the shape of letters depending on what mark making tool was used.

Feathers have been used for so many things. Pillows, duvets, feathered dusters, cushions, even burnt under peoples noses to revive them when they fainted.

It is interesting that dinosaurs sometimes had feathers and birds evolved from them, so feathers have been around for millions of years.

 

 

Finished painting?

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I’m calling this finished…for the moment, its a question of how much detail I can add….

I enjoyed painting him, but there is such a lot of fur, of different shades, tones and colours, that its hard to get it right. I hope his owner will like him.

I met a lady yesterday who happened to come in to the warehouse at Etruria where we are holding an exhibition and hands on workshops at the weekend at Etruria Industrial Museum – (see my previous blog). She showed me photos of her son’s work, it was stunning! He does paintings of horses, and the attention to detail reminded me of the work of George Stubbs, whose equine paintings are remarkable. We both agreed that Stubbs painting of the horse Whistlejacket is one of our favourite paintings.

So this little fellow will be off to his home soon. I enjoy painting pet portraits, its a challenge to get an accurate image the owner will approve of. There is something about portraits of people and animals that appeals to me.

Ways to prove the Earth is not flat!

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I keep hearing about people who think the Earth is flat so I decided to do a thought experiment to see if it is possible…

• If the Earth was flat it would be daytime all over the world at the same time, or night time all over the world.

• The sun would rise at the same time everywhere and set at the same time.

• There would be no equator, and all parts of the world would be at the same temperature.

• There would be no north and south poles and no northern or southern lights.

• There would be no need for time zones.

• Flat earthers say the horizon is flat, but that is because the globe of the Earth has a very large circumference.

• If the Earth was flat boats would not go over the horizon.

• If the Earth was flat you would be able to see all the way to the other side using a powerful telescope on top of a big building.

• If the Earth was flat we would be able to travel to the edge.

• A flat Earth would cast a flat shadow on the moon during an eclipse of the moon. (this is because the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon when it happens and if the Flat side was facing the Sun if would be overhead and you would not see the moon, but it would cast a circular shadow).

•  Finally….If the Earth is flat….what’s on the other side? Is it Elephants and Turtles all the way down? ( according to Terry Pratchett)

The live and dead tree

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The live and dead tree sits hard on the ground.

One twist of bark still attached…

Like Ivy clinging to the trunk,

Twisted knotted rope like round and taut.

 

Green leaves, large and serrated, sprout out,

Twigs and branches caught in the embrace,

Dead wood holds up life to the sun,

Wise, wide trunk so aged.

 

How did you die?

We’re you struck, hit, broken, by wind or storm?

Did you find disease in your skin?

Is the clinging umbilicus of your wooden baby your clone?

 

Your age is ancient, your body skeletal.

Your upper limbs and branches peeled of all skin.

But still you sit hard on the ground,

Immortal, in a way reborn.

Premonitions

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What makes the world go round? How do we experience time? What is a premonition?

Some people pretend to prognosticate, be aware of portentous events before they happen. Other people do not give these ideas credence, or use logic to work out what is actually happening.

On a few occassions something will happen that I thought of the day, hour or minute before. For instance yesterday I remembered hearing a radio play with a particular character in several months ago. Today another play with the same character was on the radio….it made me quite confused. Could it be I had had a premonition? When I look back on my life I can remember other instances when I knew something was going to happen. Almost as if Time was playing in reverse, so I knew because it had already happened?

Then the sceptic in me woke up. Perhaps I had heard a trailer for the play on the radio yesterday but only on a subconscious level? Maybe other premonitions were coincidences. Although I can’t explain when I dreamt that I would meet some friends on a cycle ride and have to take shelter from a storm in a bus shelter? That actually did happen!

Weird, maybe something to do with quantum entanglement. But thats another story. This thing has never allowed me to predict lottery numbers or winners of horse races. Although I do win more than my fair share of raffle prizes!

Thunder

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If you search blitzortung on the internet you get taken to a site en.blitzortung.org

This is a real time lightning display around the world.

There are several maps, so you can hone down the areas you want to see, for instance to North or South America, or Asia. Then you can refine your search even more, down to particular countries or States.

The site shows you where lightening has struck over the last couple of hours, the colours of the strikes changes from white (within the last 20 minutes) to deep red for one’s that happened a couple of hours before. You can choose to see where the detectors are which are picking up the lightening signals, and also include sound, so you hear a click for every strike. Its almost as if the thunder is happening in sequence sometimes, as if one strike cascades to another strike over vast distances…

I like this site because its free, you can see if storms are coming your way. You can also see storm fronts developing and moving over countries. It’s just interesting!

My only quibble is that only capital cities or state capitals are marked on the maps. I’ve looked at another web page that does pretty much the same thing but the maps have more info. But when I realised they were getting their information from this site I just reverted back to blitzortung…

Insomnia

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Insomnia bites at my mind.

Makes sleep impossible,

Hides the remote to my dreams,

It gives no respite to my need to rest,

I am a prisoner held in its bright grasp.

Sleep, eludes, escapes, disappears.

5am ..the sun is rising on another day….

Shall I try again for a brief nap?

The click clack of the clock invades my ears,

Makes me hear the dawn chorus….

The radio susserating quietly by my bed…will I drift on …

Onto a narcoleptic ocean, softly, softly, gently falling…

AWAKE!

I ♡ vegetables

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I’m trying to be a bit healthier so I decided to sautee some vegetables, (mangetout, carrot, onion, orange pepper, mushrooms). …added Brown rice and some tomato pasta sauce at the end.

I like this sort of simple cooking, not too much oil, a bit of water, to keep the fat levels down….not too much pasta sauce, save the rest for tomorrow.

I’m so lucky to have these things available to me. Most of the world does not have a selection of fresh vegetables and meat you can buy all year round. People lack fresh water and sanitation. Life can be hard and harsh. It’s only when you think about others that you realise how well off you are.

I wonder how I would manage if I was put in the situation, the life, of someone living on under a dollar a day? I can’t imagine the hardships. I don’t know enough about it to comment so I will leave the thought in my mind and try and find out more.

Is it wrong to say our way of life is superior anyway? The busy urban life we lead in western cities and towns robs us of contact with nature. The 24 hour a day culture that had grown up around us keeps us from sunlight and air. We are cocooned in our glass plated homes. A chrysalis waiting to emerge? Or to die because we overheated?

Perhaps it would be better if the world shared and pooled its resources, a bit less for the rich, a bit more for the poor. Yes I admit I am an idealist. I want the best for all humanity. If I could share this meal I would,

X.