Author: Chris Jefferies

I live in the west of England, worked in IT, and previously in biological science.

Where is the sea-ice going?

The time to begin thinking about consequences and mitigation is now, not in ten or twenty years time.

Antarctic sea-ice

Larger view
(Wikimedia)

The news headlines are covering all kinds of world issues – the Russo-Ukrainian war, the revolution in Syria, Donald Trump’s coming second term in the White House, world economics, and more.

But there’s an event going on of far greater importance than any of those other issues, and that concerns the latest results of research into Antarctic sea-ice.

The problem? It’s melting much faster than we thought.

And why is that such a big deal? Because of the implications that global warming is progressing so much faster than we realised, combined with the potential loss of ice shelves, one and a half metres of sea-level rise far sooner than we expected, and the further potential for catastrophic sea level rises much, much greater than that.

That’s alarming in anyone’s book. But it’s not alarmist, it’s just stating an unpalatable truth. The time to begin thinking about consequences and mitigation is now, not in ten or twenty years time. And it’s most certainly way past time to deny that climate change is a thing at all.

I urge you to listen to the New Scientist podcast on this, episode 279 released on 6th December 2024. It has all the details.

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Lariana’s art

I really like Lariana’s drawings and paintings, as time has passed, they’ve reached a very professional level. All are good, many are outstanding.

Lariana’s drawings and paintings

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Today I want to write a little about a gifted artist I know. I first saw some of Lariana’s work when she and one of my friends, Kevin, met and later married. Kevin and I go back a number of years as good friends so my wife and I were delighted to get to know Lariana too.

I really like Lariana’s drawings and paintings, as time has passed they’ve reached a very professional level. All are good, many are outstanding. She covers a range of subjects including amusing, playful, cartoonish images that stretch the imagination, pictures connected with following Jesus, pets (Lariana is happy to work from photos of dogs or cats), wild animals (especially African big cats), and portraits (again, she will work from photos).

Lariana is willing to discuss commissions, but she also works on her own ideas and subjects. If you’d like to talk with her about a project you have in mind, or just browse some items she has produced in the past, please contact her on her Facebook page.

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

The lion roars

I made a tracing using a soft grade of pencil, then turned the tracing paper over on top of a dull yellow sheet of art-grade paper, and rubbed down the traced lines.

A lion in three colours

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Image 101 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

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Meet Leo! I’m going to share the story behind this image.

This image of a lion first appeared printed on paper carrier bags from a British menswear chain in the 1960s. The chain was Foster Brothers, and I had bought something there and was given the paper carrier. I was impressed with the picture on the bag, it was in white, grey (not yellow), and black and I was fascinated at the way it had been rendered in three brightness levels. These days it would be dead easy with image manipulation software, but in the 1960s it must have involved clever photographic printing at high contrast levels and then some work by an artist.

I was so impressed by the image that I decided to make a copy of it for my girlfriend, Judy (later my wife). I made a tracing using a soft grade of pencil, then turned the tracing paper over on top of a dull yellow sheet of art-grade paper, and rubbed down the traced lines to leave an impression on the yellow paper. (For a lion, dull yellow seemed far more suitable than grey.)

Then, using white and black Indian inks, I filled in the traced areas using the carrier bag for guidance. The carrier had a cut-out to act as a handle, so I had to make up the missing area. It took a long time, but the final result is what you see here, and I was pleased with it. I also made a wooden frame for the picture and used a scrap piece of greenhouse glass salvaged from the family’s nursery business, suitably cut to size.

Judy was surprised as she didn’t know I’d been working on it. And she was delighted with it too. It hung on her bedroom wall at her parent’s house, and then after we were married, in our bedsit, then our flat, and finally our house in Yatton. After Judy died in 1995, and Donna and I married, Leo came too and still hangs on the wall in our dining room. I was about 18 when I made the picture, now I’m 76 and I still have it.

That’s the story of how Leo came to be. But I have more to say, not about the picture but about the nature of a lion. I might get to that tomorrow, but if not, then certainly within the next week or two.

When: Summer 1966
Where: Cirencester, Gloucestershire

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Latest news on the Lion

Old man’s beard

The seeds are not released until spring, and all winter long, these white ‘beards’ can be seen in Cotswold hedges, adding a touch of interest in an otherwise rather drab time of year.

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Image 100 – What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every day or so.

Click to enlarge

These are the seeds of Clematis vitalba or ‘Old Man’s Beard’. This plant grows abundantly in Cotswold hedgerows, tolerating the limey soils in the region. In the summertime it doesn’t stand out, but if you know what to look for you can see its characteristic leaves and its stems winding through hedgerow plants and the lower branches of trees. The flowers are quite insignificant too, unlike the Clematis in garden centres, bred for large and showy flowers.

But wild Clematis comes into its own in the autumn; the seeds are hairy, as you can see, enabling them to blow away in the wind. If they land in a suitable spot they will germinate, put out a shoot with leaves, and try to find some support to climb up. But the seeds are not released until spring, and all winter long, these white ‘beards’ can be seen in Cotswold hedges, adding a touch of interest in an otherwise rather drab time of year.

The colourful garden Clematis cultivars were once propagated by grafting onto the wild seedlings as they were not easy to root as cuttings. But these days cuttings are the norm; with modern rooting hormones and high humidity conditions they root and grow very well indeed.

See also:

When: 19th January 2024
Where: Near Stratton, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Favourites

For convenience, here’s a list of my favourite images:

Anemone, Cloud, Honeybee, Hydrangea, Kiftsgate1, Kiftsgate2, Large White, Mugshot, Nelson, Robin, Rose, Spilhaus, Sunset1, Weston beach

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Unlike the normal multicopter drones we’re all familiar with, this one has some mobility on the ground.

Legs and feet are important

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it’s RAVEN – the Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments.

Larger view
(Wikimedia)

What will they think of next? The Scientific Journal Nature published an article about this amazing contraption, a fixed wing drone with legs. Like a bird it can walk, hop, and launch itself into the air with a jump. Legs and feet are important.

Unlike the normal multicopter drones we’re all familiar with, this one has some mobility on the ground and, like all fixed wing vehicles, is more energy-efficient in the air. It can’t hover, at least not yet. Hummingbirds and kestrels can hover though, so who knows what some future development of RAVEN might manage?

Visit Nature to sign up for alerts, and watch the video in their article or below.

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!