Peace

I think it is important to start at yourself and work outwards for peace. Make peace with yourself, with your nearest companions, and so on, as the circle gets wider. Wish for world peace and promote that by the example you set. That is what I would like to be like and I try to be although I don't always manage it.

I know today is one of those days when minds turn to war, and peace, and hopefully wish for the latter.

I was a little worried to write about such a big and important subject, but actually this is how I feel so that is all there is for me to say.

I looked for a little help with this by googling Poems for Peace. That led me to this beautiful site, with poems for peace from children around the world. To state the obvious, they are the ones who are the most important in this, as they are in charge soon!

I loved this poem, it is just so beautiful.

THE WORLD IS AT PEACE

Grown up people

scurry here and there

upon the crust of the earth

cursing each bump, grudging dis n' dat

like a garden full of bitter weeds.

I am a child

filled with salt from the sea mist

and the smell of green

that rides the air and feeds me

as I breath in and out.

A cooling breeze strokes musical notes

as it brushes the leaves

of the banana and breadfruit trees.

John crows jabber, parrots gossip and

Hummingbirds delight in the suckle of

the limebush flower.

The warmth of the sun wraps me

as I journey through each day.

The light of the moon guides me

as I find my bed and pray

for my family, my country,

all people to notice,

that the world itself is at peace.

This poem is by a 14 year old girl called Tanika Stewart from Jamaica. She must be a lovely, wise girl, judging by her poem.

I have loved rock week-so thank you Graciel for hosting such a great thing!

Have a peaceful weekend.

x

Flint

Houses in Pegwell Bay in Kent. Chalk cliffs are just down the road.

Living in London, the beaches we go to the most are the ones in Kent and Sussex. Flint is the prevalant pebble on these beaches. Flint is found wherever there is chalk-it forms layers between the chalk layers-don't ask me why-but do read this fascinating article if you are at all interested in flint! I found out many interesting facts from it. Here are a few snippets:-

"Lumpy, rounded and often bone like, they inspired Henry Moore"

"Flints can reach the size of a cat and may have a coat of white or brown."

(Like a cat!)

Colours range through

yellows and reds,

browns

and

whorls of pale grey"

"Jet black flint is the most pure

and white is only found in parts

of Lincolnshire."

I have a number of flints, as if that is any surprise! I like the ones with holes-they are meant to ward off evil I think and they hang on a string to make a good light switch handle. (Though they do not last forever-there is a broken one in the group photo!)

I googled pebbles with holes, and this is the first thing I found. Have a look-do you think they ever sell any? A pebble with a hole bought on a website would have little meaning to me! My Dad always finds these and has contributed to my collection. There is a little explanation of the folklore associated with these stones here-I like the idea that they are a gateway to a fairy kingdom! Tomorrow is peace rock day-for obvious reasons. Visit Graciel to read more rocky tales. She has beautiful pictures today of somewhere called Murder Creek.

Rock Week, Day Three

Welcome to today's rock stories. This is the rock that inspired my screen printing. I find the shape and construction fascinating. If anyone can shed any light on what kind it is or how it was formed, I would be grateful! It is in three sections with joins between, and is amber coloured in the middle and grey on either end. What is it?!

This is a little wooden filing cabinet-40cm high-that I rescued from the bins at work years ago. I have another one that is decorated with graffiti designs. This one has my favourite type of pebble-those ones with the little white lines criss-crossing them. These are all portraits of actual pebbles-I think mainly lost by now. I had to strip the little cabinet of its weird snakeskin imitation paper covering before painting it. The little drawer label holders are metal.

This pebble is chalk-it is light and very open in texture, and floated in the bath. I found it, and the little blue foam ball near to each other on a beach in Suffolk. We were staying on Shingle Street-a street of higgledy piggledy houses on the beach. There was a Martello tower just down the path and the house we were in was something to do with the lifeboats I think. We were staying with our friends Philip and Wendy. It was a lovely weekend-and good beach combing-everything was very bleached looking. There was the possibility of finding pieces of amber too as an artist that had lived there for years and had collected pieces of it, had recently put them all back into the sea (a bit like you Allegra!)

When we were sitting by the campfire in the evening, I made this little sculpture by carving a little hole and fitting the foam into it. I still like this as it has such lovely memories attached.

H.'s rock.

Last year I had a little boy called H. in my class. He is a little rough and tumble sort of boy, really energetic and excitable and very enthusiastic about everything. One day he came to school with this, rushing to show me his rock! I was so pleased to find a fellow rock enthusiast!

Somehow it ended up on my desk as a very effective paper weight-so it is going back to school with me tomorrow.

These last two photos are of a piece of white quartz which has a layer of pyrites (spelling?!) either side. When I saw the photo, the way the light caught the gold coloured metalic parts made me think of galaxies. So I cropped them to see the effect, and like it!
Last of all, I was doing some planning today, for the next two weeks and I wanted to find some circle songs from around the world (I do get so bored of ring-roses!-and I am sure the children do too!) I found a site with songs from all over the world-Mama Lisa's. I had a look at the songs from Ghana and the first song I found was about rocks! It was fate. I am doing the song next week. Some of the songs on the site have tunes-this one does, I want to investigate further as there seemed to be loads.

Here is the song for any other singers out there!

Obwisana sa nana The rock has crushed my hand Grandma

Obwisana sa The rock has crushed my hand

Obwisana sa nana The rock has crushed my hand Grandma

Obwisana sa The rock has crushed my hand

You pass a stone around, singing and tapping it in time.

See you tomorrow. Visit Graciel to see more rocks!

Intermittent Post

Hi!
I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments and visits over the last few days-they have all made me think/laugh/ponder/smile/feel happy and more. I have been a bit busy to say the least back at work-it always comes as a bit of a shock! I have not had the time to visit and comment as I would like so am looking forward to catching up at the weekend.
Back tonight with another rock post.
(I am at work on lunch break-then off to do interviews and planning-have never blogged from work before. How exciting!-but no pictures)
x

Rock Week, Day Two

Rock week part two is very late today-due to other unforeseen tasks and lots of foreseen ones. And all I wanted to do was rock related research.Today's rock stories have come about by chance. I was going to show you a rock I have had for a very long time. I can't remember where I got it from, but I remember how I used it, as inspiration for my one and only go at screen printing. This was when I was still at school-I think in the sixth form. All I did was to draw the rock, and reflect it or rotate it-one or the other! I remember the colours-ice cream yellow and blusher pink-quite horrible really. I thought I had the fabric in my old portfolio-kept in the under stairs cupboard, behind my bike-you get the picture. I don't have the fabric. It is somewhere-possibly even at my Mum's house. However, I did find two other rock related works (to give them too grand a title!)-a drawing with my ramblings around the edge, and a scrawled painting with the words rocks, and its reverse skcor. What I was thinking with either one I have no idea, but they are rock related and are from at least ten years ago, showing my history of rock. That was chance find number two.

Chance find number one, came earlier in the day. I was tidying my books at school, getting rid of a few very old, tatty ones, and rearranging the others in a much more attractive way. I happened across "The Pebble In My Pocket" by Meredith Hooper, illustrated by Chris Coady. Immediately, ROCK WEEK came to mind, so I put it in my bag ready to look at later. It is a really lovely book-which I had no idea was on my shelves! It summarizes, in simple terms, geological history starting from 480 million years ago until today. I love this paragraph near the end.

"Every pebble in the world is different from every other pebble. Every pebble has its own story. Pick up a pebble and you are holding a little piece of the history of our planet."

I also like this explanation of how geological changes occur, over "staggeringly huge" periods of time.

"They are caused by constant tiny events, difficult to see"

There is something lovely about that, and the way it could be applied to changes we want to make in our lives or in the world.

Oh dear, I have rambled on for what seems like 480 million years.

I will stop now, and go to visit other rock people (and other people too!) Visit Graciel here to see more rock stories.

See you tomorrow!

Rock Week

Graciel, of Evenstar Art, and her friend Don, of Unconventional Questions, had the brilliant idea to have a rock week. I love rocks, I need some sort of distraction from the already mounting pressure of work and so I thought I would love to join in! Having done the work I had to do when I got home, I went into the bathroom, intending to run a bath, and vaguely thinking about which rock to feature first from the ones I collected from around the place last night. It struck me (not a rock luckily) that most of the stones I pick up are from beaches, and the first sight of them is when they are wet and glistening. So you can guess what I did next. Some or all of these rocks will have their moment of glory this week in ROCK WEEK! If anyone fancies joining in then just pop over to Graciel and sign up.

Right, I must go and take the rocks out of the bath now!

Playing With Light

Light played with me first of all, when it showed itself through my bottle of Ecover. It suddenly lit up so brightly, in contrast to the gloom all around it, that I just had to take a photo.

Later I was trying out ideas for projects looming and had fun with silhouettes and with my lightbox. An hour playing with tissue paper on a Sunday afternoon was fun. I was going to just try out the colours against the light and then I found the leopard spot paper. It might be a Jaguar-I thought this later when watching Joanna Lumley searching for them in Mexico. They have a hide, stalk and pounce method of hunting, just like a domestic cat. The cats are very sensitive to tv programmes about animals and quite often stop to watch. Tiger was the viewer today! Lily prefers bird programmes. The paper doll is from last year-made when we were on holiday in Scotland, before I had a blog. She has been shoved in a bag in the back room for a while now so must have been pleased to have a trip out!

Lily just walked past the lightbox for the first time and did that funny creeping walk whilst moving her head up and down-she thought a big cat had invaded.