To flowers
And plants
Geranium, poppy, fushias
Petunias and surfinias
Mounds of green leaves
Hidden tomato plants
Surrounded by scent
Wild and cultivated
Hanging baskets blooming
Like overflowing fountains
I hope summer is here soon.
Looking forward
Tag: Environment
Bumblebee
The wind is howling and making the window in the kitchen buzz… But I heard a different buzzing this morning, and not from the window. I looked and in amongst the foliage and there was a large bumblebee trying to get out. I grabbed a cup and some paper.. But I just could not reach and the bee kept falling down. Then. I remembered, I’ve had this bug catcher for years. It still took a few goes, you have to place the catcher over the creature with the sliding door below it then swivel it so the door is above. You give the trap a little shake and the door should slide down. In this case the door stopped part way so I had to get a knife and tap the top of the door so it closed. Then I released the bee outside (you turn the trap round so the door opens up again), so happy to let it go safely. Glad I remembered the bug trap, now back under the sink.
Lesser Celandine
One of the plants that appears in Spring, this is lesser Celandine. It has mid green shiny leaves and yellow and white daisy like flowers. This plant is one of the things that used to be on a website where people recorded when things appeared in the Spring, like butterflies, moths, flowers, tree blossom for example. It was a citizen science project. I don’t remember what it was called.
Lesser Celandine spreads by little bulbs (bulbils) that can stick to shoes or animals feet. It’s pretty, but if you get it in your garden it can spread like mad. I’m not sure if animals van eat it, it just looks cheery in Spring.
New ideas?
I’ve just been to the gallery where II have some of my paintings today. I thought they would be asking me to take some of my paintings away because they have been up too long, but they only wanted me to take one of a poppy field. But I do need to do some new paintings, to swap out with the ones I currently have there. I’m trying to think of spring images, maybe flowers? This is a Vinca. I was also thinking of doing a painting of a Blue himalayan poppy (mecanopsis) or other similar ones like Helibores. Also maybe snowdrops or daffodils. We will see.
Temperature
Here’s a bit of blank verse,
We are lucky not to be too cold.
It’s nineteen point two
A slight chill in here
Two small lights on
Saving energy?
So I have a dressing gown
Or a cardigan
To wear.
I will buy a hot water bottle.
No gas fire this autumn or winter
Central Heating?
When it’s too cold.
An electric heater otherwise.
Gas costs more than electricity here
I can’t afford double what we paid
Last year.
Well at least I’m not heating up
The environment, too much.
New Prime minister
Our new Prime minister is a woman. She is choosing her cabinet at the moment which is very diverse. That’s great, but most of them are her supporters. Where are the people to quietly tell her that her ideas may be wrong? Sycophantic behaviour is not good for running a country. There are dictators who have yes men telling them their ideas are wonderful. But at this time of crisis we need people who are serious about changing things, taking sensible decisions rather than populist policies that grab headlines. I know I’m being political, but sometimes you have to say something.
Things she needs to deal with: inflation, cost of living, the environment, national health service, climate change, social care, crime. Who would want the job?
Speckled Wood butterfly
We just saw this butterfly on the buddlea in our garden. It was feeding on the nectar from the flowers of the bush I think.
It seems appropriate to have a name with wood in it as our garden is very woody now. I guess we will have to try and cut things back a bit because it’s very overgrown, but I’m glad we have made room for nature, and by planting trees we are helping reduce our carbon footprint.
Don’t flytip!
Dumped
Tyre quoits
Don’t do it!
Dispose of correctly
Care for the world
It doesn’t need our rubbish
Encompassing the world
With our rubber and plastic
Destroying nature
With our excrement.
😞
One more for tonight
A doodle based on the previous post about the environment. They say allergies are caused by being bought up in conditions that are too clean so the body does not learn how to react normally to its surroundings.
Feeling stressed
Thinking of nature
But suffering hay-fever!
Eyes water
When I try and commune
With the outside world
The pollen
So tiny
Can keep me trapped.
Sneezing
Enclosed
Removed from nature!
Green and pleasant
For mist of our existence humans lived outside or in caves or huts. It is only within the last few thousand years that we started to live in villages, then towns and finally cities. With each increase in population we have moved away from greenery and plant life. The movement into flats and apartments has imprisoned us in concrete even more.
Humans need shelter from the elements, either the cold of the winter, the heat of the summer and the changes in wind and rain. So buildings are needed, but perhaps we should include more greenery in these places. Not just lawns or neat hedges, but more green walls or indoor planting.
It’s good for our mental health, a connection to our historical past. If it could also be used to clean the air, or add a layer of cool air to our streets surely it is worth pursuing?
Instead I see stories in the press of trees being cut down, ancient ones, to make way for railways, or being blamed for damaging buildings, instead of reversing the engineering and not building next to ancient trees. Let’s have an intelligent discussion about this. Green in important to out health and our planet.
Mallaband-Brown 