Man who taught me a lot about patience and making stuff.

 

Front row far left, my Great Uncle Bob, somewhere in Burma World War 11. A bit of a 'handful' but always very kind and nice to me! He featured strongly in many of my best memories from childhood. He had a cellar under his house, an 'Aladdin's Cave' full of tools, nails, screws and bits and bobs. All my sheds have been mini replicas!  He made me stilts and a soapbox cart, which provided me with many adventures. He was a builder and probably kindled my interest in a career in construction. I still remember him  and think of him with love. RIP Uncle Bob and Aunt Alice.

The Beaver Moon

 

The Beaver Moon in November 2024 imaged with a hand held Canon 600d DSLR and a 135mm Samyang fixed lens.

The Southern Pole and Southern Highlands of a waxing gibbous Moon imaged, a few days before full, with a 66mm Altair Astro Lightwave Doublet and QHY5111462c camera on a Star Adventurer EQ mount.

" The Moon is such a beautiful sight, even when wreathed in cloud. It is astronomically so very close to Earth but far too far for us to easily visit. The latter explains why it remains unexploited and uncontaminated by indifferent greed. 

From a distance, whether we view it with the naked eye, through binoculars or a telescope, the Moon never fails to please. Living on the eastern coast of the United Kingdom as we do, we love to watch its phases cycle over the Lunar 28 day month and to observe its affects upon the North Sea tides. Emotionally, 'Moon watching' helps us to achieve equilibrium and ride out the stress of mankind inspired chaos here on Earth. 

Why someone felt empowered to name it The 'Beaver' Moon, God only knows! Thankfully no beavers were killed in its naming and none are kept on its airless surface over night. So, both Moon and beavers have much to be grateful for"

A perfect example of a 'Crepuscular Sky'

 

When our kids were little we used to refer to this as a 'Charlton Heston Sky'. A crepuscular sky is one that features 'crepuscular rays' of sunlight filtered through clouds. This photo was taken with an iPhone from Lidl's carpark Lowestoft. The world around us is a joy to perceive, you just have to look and observe.

Jupiter Rising

 

'Winter is on it's way'
-  arty rendition of the eastern sky over our hedge. The bright planet
Jupiter can be seen centre-right  above the hedge, with the
open star cluster the 'Seven Sisters' just above and to it's right.

'The Plough' asterism
as seen with a painter's eye,
from St Michael's Church graveyard in autumn.

'C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)'
- the last naked eye glimpse from Lowestoft on 18-10-2024

The night sky is a beautiful place to let your mind wander. Celestially, much stays the same in the short context of a single human life. Every now and  then and in the words of Wilkins Micawber - " something will turn up". 

In the night sky, this might be a sudden bright flash of light, witness to the demise of a grain of dust, a pebble or a rock that ventured too close to the Earth and burnt up in our atmosphere as a meteor. It might be the glow from a passing comet, illuminated by the Sun. A cometary visitor to our skies for a few days a few weeks or months but eventually destined to fade as it sails off into the dark cosmos. The planets of the solar system 'wander' across the sky following elliptical orbits around the Sun and move against the backdrop of apparently fixed stars. 

Even the stars, with distances from our planet so great that they are measured in the years it takes for their light to reach us,  move and change. Starlight from some of these remote suns may grow brighter and then fade, either because of the star's intrinsic variability or, after running out of hydrogen to fuse, brighten temporarily in a cataclysmic supernova.  The Universe is truly a dynamic entity but the vast distances and timescales involved render it apparently static within life-span limited perception of us poor mortals. 

Even passing jets and man built satellites can provide a beautiful ballet in the night sky and engage our imagination of their destination and purpose.

All in all, - 'Distance lends enchantment' and this is never more true than when stargazing!

My old iPhone died this week

 

Hugging a tree - you know it makes sense.

Sometimes I become overwhelmed with emotion and perhaps this is not such a bad thing. I guess all of us feel sad at leaving things behind, people leaving us and the inexorable process of moving on. I find that writing words to describe feelings I barely understand helps me to come to terms with life, loss, ageing and death. 

Thankfully, I am not ill or depressed but accommodating a difficult two years on this planet in the best 'creative' way I know how! At the very worst I might get offered a job by Hallmark.

We’ve been to too many funerals lately

The very old and lovers share a secret.

Hands grasp as if lives depend upon the bond, 

holding expectations and memories secure.

Eyes meet and engage for far too long as if focus alone 

might, capture and hold frozen, a moment in space and time.

Ears do not hear and evidential proof is overwhelmed by preferences, 

established in life from birth and every subsequent moment of existence.

If we are lucky, we find at least one absolute love, which lasts forever.

So is there an end to you, me and time?

Are, just days conjoined with us and being here so very important?

When my body fails, as ultimately fail it must, I can only hope:

I am holding another human hand in shared experience and affection,

all my expectations and memories merge in a timeless wrapper of love

and that this is comfort enough for those I leave behind 

and will continue to love literally forever.

George Sept 2024

Wilko Johnson's 'Thames Delta'

 

 A composite of two images, one taken of the 'Forts' from a boat in daylight and the other of the Moon captured in video format from our backyard in Lowestoft.

Whilst visiting my grandchildren in Westcliff-on-Sea, I would often pass Wilko Johnson's house with his 'Observatory' precariously perched on the roof. When trying to get Dr. Feelgood  a record deal and when asked where the band came from, Wilko said "The Thames Delta". Top bloke!

Wilko Johnson 1947-2022 - Rock on Wilko.

Max Off Grid

 

'Max Off Grid' - George Roberts -digital art- 17-08-2024

" I love to make images from mixed media. This image is a blend of fractal-math and photography, which some how creates for me a concrete moment in time art-deco redolent " 

Then again and throughout history even gifted artists, when they stop making art, talk unutterable bollocks!