New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m craving bright plants and flowers,
Summer sun and bright blue skies,
Hanging baskets
Piled up with blousy flowers
Swiss chard and marigolds
Poppies and antirrhinums
Names that scramble on the tongue
But bloom on the ground.
Days to sit on the patio getting hot,
Or in the summerhouse keeping cool
……. Instead? Rain and wind!
I realise why poppies don’t flower in our garden. It’s too shady. I’ve been out and looking at people’s gardens and the ones in full sun are resplendent with poppies, ours are short weedy things. I’m going to have to have some of the overgrowth cut back a bit. I do not want to make it tidy or remove stuff for the birds but I’m growing a wood or forest in the garden. Bearing in mind it’s the area where two terraced houses were and their yards we have three cherry trees two apple trees, a walnut, two or three Ash trees, two baby oak trees, a sycamore, an acer, a mountain Ash tree, a pear tree, a eucalyptus, a willow tree, a laurel Bush a couple of Holly bushes and elderberry that are taking on tree like proportions. The walnut is raided by a squirrel which plants them so we have baby walnuts growing. Plus there is a lot if ground cover ivy and geraniums. It’s a jungle out there. I feel very lucky to have the land but I think I will contact our local wildlife Trust to see if they can help.
Most weekends I’ve been busy recently with other things, but I decided to get out and plant up tomatoes in the grow bags and added some pepper plants ( which had sadly been partly munched by slugs). We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides so everything just keeps growing and we seem to have lots of bees round the cotoneaster flowers. We saw a couple of butterflies too. There is a bare patch where we are having a summer house put in soon. Then I can get some clematis growing over the fence.
Blurry shot of a bee on the cotoneaster plant. Its covered in tiny flowers so very attractive to them.
Rode Hall is a beautiful place and the gardens are blooming with bluebells. The last day of the bluebell walks is today. 8th May 2019.
There are other plants on display including rhododendron, campion, tulips, and even some narcissi that are still flowering.
The hall is open on Wednesdays and Weekends. They have a farmers market which I think is on the first Saturday of the month? They have a good tea room that offers hot food, cake and drinks. They are having a plant collectors fair on 27th May. (Bank Holiday).
Rode hall is off the A34 North of Stoke-on-Trent at Rode Heath. It is along a road on the left hand side and is signposted.
I’ve not had much time in the garden recently and missed most of the daffodils and tulips so here are some tulips from last year. Things have also got a bit squashed by some building and gardening work, I want to get back out there and tidy things up.
There are a few patterns created by duplicating the photos using the layout app on my phone. I hope you like these.
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I’m excited! One of the little citrus plants my partner bought a few weeks ago has produced flowers. We knew it could generate fruit as it has already got some. But I wasn’t expecting it to flower. As soon as I can I want to put it outside in the sun, we are getting a summerhouse so it can go in there and stay walm. At the moment it’s next to a sunny windowledge but I want the flowers to be pollenated.
Does anyone have any knowledge about keeping citrus? We did grow a plant from a pip once. It grew to 2 foot high but only ever had leaves and eventually died. Thanks in advance for any info.
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Flowers and old wood
Blocked up windows and peeling paint.
Dasies and dianthus.
A history in brick and slate.
Clay and pottery.
Caged in but released,
Renewed and Revivified.
Pansies and wallflowers shining,
their sunlit faces turned to a bright, chilled sky.
Crumbling with asbestos innards,
But able to be proud again.
I keep finding drawings that I did at sketchfu all those years ago that are popping up on my memories page. I just want to share them because I’m quite proud of them considering it was just a site with basic tools. I’m posting a different set in a minute. I did do drawings of more people but they haven’t emerged from the depths of FB yet.
Another plant I love in the spring are Helibores. The flowers range from bright white, pale green, pink and green and deeper pink. Sometimes the flowers are upright and you can get double species, but mainly their flower heads droop down and you need to lift up the flower to see its true beauty. There are sometimes dappled patterns and flecks of darker colours. The centre of the flower is quite prominent, backed by a slightly darker centre.
The leaves are deep green and shiny, sometimes five lobed. The borders are sometimes slightly serrated. I don’t know all the types of Hellibores there are but if you want an unusual plant that flowers early in the year and keeps flowering into April then they are worth getting. They offer some food for early insects. If you like your tulips and daffodils you could also try these. They are easy to keep and I grow mine with pulmonaria which come up a little bit later.
I took this today and noticed how much bright red was in it and subtle greens to compliment it. Even the plant food and bits of the labels on the washing up liquid are red. Splashes of colour lift this photo, making it zing. I was going to crop it, but I also like the door handle on the left side mimicking the curve of the tulip stems. The green leaves and sponge and washing up liquid are complementary. Even the cloth on the cupboard helps to hold it together. More if a still life than a photo. Objects can just spring out at you. Especially when you get a bit of sunshine to enhance the shapes of the vase and tulip flowers.
Mallaband-Brown