Day: November 15, 2019

Fossil Raindrops

raindrop fossils

These fossil raindrops are preserved in flagstones in the courtyard of the Stable Block at Nostell Priory near Wakefield.

It looks to me as if the flow of the river that laid down the sandy sediment was flowing diagonally, depositing platy minerals such as mica as the flow of the water slackened. Masons can easily split the stone into flat slabs by splitting it along these laminations.

This second slab was laid down on top of a rain-spattered slab, filling the indentations with sediment, a similar process to taking a plaster cast of a footprint. As in the previous photograph, the light is coming from the top of the picture, so these are dimples rising above the surface.

I’ve taken these photographs for my latest FutureLearn course, the Open University’s Earth in my Pocket: an Introduction to Geology. Our assignment this week is to look at building stones.

Link

Earth in my Pocket: an Introduction to Geology

Sainsburys Shoppers

shoppers

The silhouette of the woman in headscarf and long coat made a welcome contrast to the men in jacket & jeans and anorak & cords that I’d just drawn. A woman walked briskly by, clutching a cake box, mug and a potted artificial succulent, adding a touch of drama in comparison with most of the shoppers who went for the easier options of a trolley or a basket.

I drew in pen, making brief notes about colour, which I added later when we stopped for a cup of coffee and a Debenhams’ orange and cranberry scone.

Twenty Twenty

WordPress themes ‘Twenty Nineteen’ and ‘Twenty Twenty’.

I’ve just updated my blog to the latest version of WordPress and couldn’t resist trying out their latest theme, Twenty Twenty. It’s a contrast to all the themes that I’ve tried previously as it’s got a tinted background – a neutral creamy shade – instead of the pure white that I’ve always used, but I like the way this sets off the watercolour in my drawings.

It’s easy to read too. I like the variable typeface Inter, designed by Rasmus Andersson.

The drawback of the Twenty Twenty theme for me is that by default it shows a reduced version of images, so I’ve soon gone back to the Twenty Nineteen theme.