Personal Blogs

The rainbow's like

The work of a mad painter.

Who always gets it right.

He penn'd.

Entering an old house,

Cobwebs tug at you.

Like memories.

This blogging platform is very limited and that's an irritation quite often.

But some of my favorite watercolorists used a basic palette and working within those constraints made the artists concerned more creative.

While I think of it:

"Of course I won't marry you!", she bridled unengagingly.

Tom Swifties are a form of humorous wordplay. For example:

Go to the rear of the ship at once", said Tom sternly.

"Who left the toilet seat down?", asked Tom peevishly.

Here's a few I came up with:

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti

Refused to use his potty.

When he began scribbling on the ceiling

His parents considered that more appealing.

On a hot day, the door being open

A Robin flew briefly into my kitchen.

Perched on the back of a chair.

I froze. From where I sat its legs were so slender

That I wondered how they could support even that tiny weight.

When my Robin glanced around, I even (stupidly),

Thought it might see me as a friend.

And not be afraid as it flew away.

Recently I've had a bad spell of Meralgia paresthetica (from? Greek meros=thigh + algos=pain + para=around + aistheme=I feel. I guessed some bits but that's the idea.)

It's a very strange and uncomfortable sensation on the outside of the thigh. For me, it's like having something very heavy and clunky in your pocket, always weighing on the thigh, not exactly hurting -- but sort of -- even though the pocket is completely empty.

It's caused by a particular nerve being pinched as it radiates from the spinal chord to the thigh itself. I've had this from time to time since the 70s but it flares up now and then.

Poor me. But then I read that Sigmund Freud had the same condition, so I am in illustrious company.

Munchday
Cheeseday
Wafflesday
Thirsty
Friesday
Snacksday
Bunday

This poem brings together the dream marriage scene from Roy Andersson's "You, the Living" and an ancient legend and ballad "Thomas the Rhymer".

Last night at sunset I saw a beautiful iridescent cloud, the best example I have ever witnessed.

The photo was taken from my mobile phone and gives no idea at all really, but I hope you can just about see that the shiny cloud in the middle displays a range of bright pastel colours, rather like mother-of-pearl.

These clouds are quite rare. They are caused by sunlight shining through clouds whose water droplets (or ice crystals) are all the same size in any small part of the cloud but vary in size between one part of the cloud and another. They act a bit like an oil-slick on a puddle.

Atmospheric optics are an interest of mine. The most familiar example is a rainbow, but there are many others. Sun dogs are commoner than rainbows, but less conspicuous so many people have never noticed one. But as soon as you become aware of them, perhaps just from a single example, you learn to recognize the cloud conditions when it's worth trying to spot a sun dog.

Here is a gallery of remarkable photos of iridescent clouds.