Boat Band live!

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, Art, Boatband, Books, Careful, Design, Drink, Environment, Fun, Gin and tonic, Life, Music, Pub, Science, Socially distant, SpaceLeave a comment

I went out for a walk today up our steep hill and then called into the local pub to see our friends in the Boatband who were playing outside in the beer garden. We stayed to listen to the music, it was the first time we had been there since March. Everything was socially distanced with a one way system in the pub so you could use the facilities. The music was cajun. You can find them on YouTube. We had an excellent socially distanced afternoon although I drank far to much gin and tonic! (it’s taken me three goes to type something coherent here).

White lily

Posted on July 30, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Environment, Garden, Gardening, Life, Lily, Nature, Plant, Random, Thinking, Walk, Walking, What is it?Leave a comment

Another one has flowered, sitting in among the nettles and the convolvulus. There’s monbretia in there too.. What’s its newer name? Crocosmia I think. Its like when Fushias suddenly became Surfinias and Geraniums started being called Pelagoniums to differentiate them from the perennial ones.

I went on a walk on Tuesday and found myself pointing out the names of garden plants to my hubby. I don’t know why. I saw a couple of plants that I didn’t recognise.

What is this. From a distance I thought it was a fushia?

Green man?

Posted on July 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Environment, Flowers, Green man, Life, Living, Nature, Plants, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

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I create, then wither

I grow and then die.

You breathe my air,

you eat my leaves

you take my fruit.

I let you…

But I am green,

I am life

Chlorophyll,

Xanthophyll,

Phloem,

Xylem,

I nourish.

You damage me at your peril.

I am the green man.

Back yard view

Posted on July 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Blogging, Cat, Environment, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Nature, Plants, Summer, Terraced house2 Comments

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Doing what we always do this time of year. Cram the back yard full of flowers. We have a big patch of land next to the house, but it’s full of trees and shrubs and fruit trees and a couple of small plastic greenhouses with tomatoes. But the back yard is visible from the kitchen and living room and I love a riot of colour. The baskets are mainly from a nursery, but some managed to survive the winter. My hubby even planted an iris in one of the baskets. We’ve put a couple of lilies in the far end so the cat can’t get near them (poisonous to cats).

They will grow and get blousier. It’s amazing that the brackets can hold three baskets in one go. Water the top one and the lower ones get watered too.

I will post more images as they grow.

Two frogs

Posted on July 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Amphibians, Environment, Fish, Frogs, Fun, Garden, Humour, Life, Nature, Pond, Wild life garden2 Comments

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Hubby often goes down to the pond at night to look at the fish and feed them. The pond is deep so you can’t see them easily in the daylight. He has got a few minnows and goldfish in there. But over the last couple of nights he’s disturbed a frog that plopped into the centre of the pond. Tonight when he went out two matching frogs were looking back at him from either side of the pool.

So I asked him which one he’d kissed?

Lol.

For the birds

Posted on July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Blogging, Cherries, Environment, Fledglings, Food, Fun, Garden, Nature, Seeds, Species, TreeLeave a comment

The blackbirds sing,

The thrushes too

The robins nest,

Their fledglings new.

A magpie there

And pigeons too?

They congregate

And feed on seed.

Blue tits

and house sparrows,

All had their nests.

Feeding them all

Is our happy chore.

Yes eat your fill,

Of cherries ripe.

We’ve had ours now

The rest, enjoy.

Hedgehog dining.

Posted on June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Blurred, China bowl, Eating, Environment, Feeding, Food, Food bowl, Fun, Garden, Glad to help, Hedgehog, Humour, Nature, Photos, Poem, Poetry, Random, Rattle a bowl, WordPress2 Comments

A shady, spikey creature

Banging bowls together.

Clattering crockery,

Hog food left out for him.

Gobbling and scoffing quickly.

I opened the back door.

A glint in his eye and..

He scuttled off into the dark…

I imagined him saying

“I’ll be back……..”

Shock!

Posted on June 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cat Food, Eating, Environment, Fun, Hedgehog, Life, Nature, Night, Shock, Wild gardenLeave a comment

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My hubby just opened the back door and started shouting ‘come here quick’, I rushed over, expecting to see the stray cat we feed by the back door. Instead there was a huge 🦔 Hedgehog. It was scoffing the cat food we had put out for the stray! It’s as big as a small cat. It rushed off into the night when it was disturbed. I know we haven’t had many slugs and snails lately despite the wet weather. Now I think I know why! Still a bit of a shock to see it in the middle of a city. As long as it keeps away from roads it should be OK.

Releasing my mind

Posted on June 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Doodle, Drawing, Environment, Illustration, Learning, Memory, Playing, Shibui, Sketch, Thinking, Time2 Comments

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I tried to draw a ‘real’ shibui. I’m not sure I’ve actually got the right idea, but anyway I started with an ink pen held lightly between thumb and forefinger. As I breathed I let the lines wander across the page. These are the purple marks. I even rested he pen on my hand and let it slide down in a wide, slightly jerky, motion…. Then I found ideas coming into my mind, faces, eyes, animals, a skull. Icecream, figures standing and crouching. I decided to add colour. I hope the drawing expresses emotion, and thought. I realised this morning that I had drawn environmental themes. These include a polar bear on cracking ice and a tree dying in the heat. A possible wolf skull and a blazing sun setting fire to the world… Its called Releasing my mind.
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Noctilucent clouds.

Posted on June 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Astronomy, Atmosphere, Environment, High in the atmosphere, Life, Meteor dust, Meteor smoke, Noctilucent clouds, Reflected, Science, Space, SunlightLeave a comment

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High up in the atmosphere, close to space, Noctilucent clouds start to appear in the summer months. They glow an almost electric blue and are caused by sunlight reflecting off gas particles from meteors that have broken and burned up as they strike the earth’s atmosphere at high speeds. Over the last few years these clouds have become more common and scientists are investigating why.

I see information about these and other atmospheric and astronomical phenomena at Spaceweather.com a fascinating Web page.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Environment