I know you have all been wondering Well, actually quite a lot of people on social media seem to think they know already, and what's more regularly tell me, exactly what they think I am 🤣 So here it is ! Courtesy of politicalcompass.org Go on, take the test yourself ...

John Salminen American leading Watercolours artist Urban Landscapes created with skill. Atmospheric work

One storm. One fallen tree. One field in the Lake District. ✏️ The entire global pencil industry. There is a field in the Lake District. Nothing remarkable about it. Fell sheep, grey sky, Cumbrian rain. Until one day a storm came through. It uprooted a tree and underneath the roots was something nobody had ever seen before. A black substance. Soft, dark, left a mark on everything it touched. The shepherds didn't know what it was, but they used it to mark their sheep. That was 1565. It was the purest deposit of graphite ever found on earth. The only one like it. Ever. 🌍 Word spread fast. The Crown seized the mine, put armed guards on the fell and flooded it between diggings to keep the price high. Stealing graphite became a criminal offence. Punishable by transportation to Australia. Because this wasn't just for marking sheep. It was perfect for lining cannonball moulds. It made England's cannonballs rounder. Faster. More deadly. ⚔️ England had a pencil monopoly for nearly a century. Every artist, every cartographer, every engineer in Europe. All of them wanted what was in that one Cumbrian field. Slowly, workshops appeared in nearby Keswick. Cottage industries. Families cutting graphite into sticks. Wrapping them in string. Then sheepskin. Then wood. The pencil was born. ✏️ In a Cumbrian field. Because a storm uprooted a tree. There is still a pencil factory in Keswick today. On the same site it has always been. Did you know that? These islands have thousands of stories the world has forgotten. We find them. We tell them. We put them in front of millions. You help us make that possible. Be Part Of Us. Be Proud Of Us. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 proudofus.co.uk

Mark Grantham (Canadian, b.1966) A Time for Reflection, 2017.

I was quite pleased with this photo. I’ve walked along the river Thames here a million times, but each time it’s different. The weather, the light, the sky and so much else. St Paul’s cathedral on the right and those wonderful lamps on Southwark bridge. From here they look like Poseidon’s three pronged spear. I don’t know if that’s what the idea behind their design was. Anyway, I waited for a bus to appear from the left and there was the shot. Taken on Fujifilm XPro3

'Cheyne Walk, spring afternoon light' (2024) by Daisy Sims Hilditch daisysimshilditch.com

Fred Cecil Jones ‘ Chimney Stacks and Winding Ways’ Pencil and black chalk tinted with Watercolour

🚨BREAKING: The Fire Horse solar eclipse ring of fire path is over Antarctica.

Incredibly rare crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter (along with its Galilean moons) rising over Stonehenge 🌙🗿

That fresh smell after rain is called petrichor. When raindrops hit dry soil, they release plant oils and geosmin from bacteria, creating that rich, earthy scent.

"Art is the whisper of history, which overcomes the noise of time." Julian Barnes Photo, net

"We are fighting against three giants, my dear Sancho: injustice, fear and ignorance." Miguel de Cervantes Art, Picasso

These 'Beach Animals' were created by Theo Jansen as a fusion of art and engineering. The kinetic structures walk on their own and get all their energy from the wind.

"There is a deep human need for beauty, and if you ignore that need in architecture, your buildings will not last, since people will never feel at home in them." — Sir Roger Scruton

Mike Hall’s work appears on my site quite a lot ! Another piece which shows how talented he is. The shadow work abs the colour of the water. I haven’t seen this one before

'Lina Stores Ltd, Brewer St. London' by Steven P Smith artiststevenpsmith.com

The Male Choir from Treorchy, Wales, singing Myfanwy in a pub on a 1986 TV show called Corau Mawr and reenacting their origins when the choir formed in 1883. Myfanwy" is a secular love song, specifically a "saddest love song" or lament, popular with Welsh male voice choirs. ⏳️🤝🍻

England in 1963.

Mark Grantham (Canadian Artist, born 1966) "The Snow", 2017. Acrylic on Wood Panel, 24" × 18". Private Collection.

'London, Houses in Snow' (1920s) by Janet Cumbrae Stewart (National Gallery of Victoria)

Not the final one today but in the middle of the pack ‘Violet Moon and Estuary’ One of my favourite artists John McKinstry. And with a readable signature that’s rare.