Locusts like damp conditions to lay eggs. Heavier rain than usual has caused a boom in the locust population. The swarms are devastating crops across East Africa and the Middle East, threatening the food supplies and livelihoods of millions of people.
Use of pesticides is the only way of controlling the locust outbreak, but current flight restrictions due to coronavirus are impeding supplies to the region.
Waxing moon and Venus.
Not the only one leaving.
View from the M56.
Driving by Frodsham marshes,
Stanlow Oil Refinery in the distance.
A recent commission was to draw this house in Chapel Allerton, Leeds.
It was built 200 years ago, in 1820 – the same year that Anne Brontë was born and HMS Beagle first launched.
Anne Brontë
HMS Beagle in the Strait of Magellan
Click here to find out more about my House Portraits.
Australian bushfires in New South Wales. How long before it’s Wales, UK? When will business giants, fuel companies and world leaders do the right thing?
It’s four in the afternoon, the end of December
I’m painting this now just to make me feel better
North Leeds is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Francis Street all through the evening…
Drawn in about 3°C last weekend. To the north, St Mary’s Lighthouse and wind turbines. Looking south, Cypriot registered cargo ship, Imavere, at anchor.
Another view of the offshore wind farm project on the Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay, at the entrance to the River Mersey. The site was extended in 2017 and there are now a total of 57 turbines.
Burbo Bank Wind Farm is situated in Liverpool Bay, a few kilometers from the coast. This is the view from Crosby beach – tide half in, half out.
