New paintings and regular art updates.
One of my photos that I got in a local calendar for this year. There was a photographic competition in the summer. People were asked to submit pictures of our local village of Penkhull for it to raise funds for the village hall.
In the end three of my pictures were chosen, that’s a quarter of the twelve monthly images! There was also a thirteenth one that was chosen for the front of the calendar. I’m so proud to have had my work included for 2025.
Someone sent me this photo of lentil soup and suggested I try it but I wasn’t up to following the recipe. But I did like their photo. Apologies if it is copyright but I don’t think so? The table was visible in the original and the dinner mat was twisted but I straightened it up a bit and cropped it to lose the table. I just like the orange bowl and the thin blue line round the edge. It just seperates the bowl from the white and yellow of the mat.
My hanging baskets are surviving cold conditions. I thought I would play with a photo to make an interesting pattern. I didn’t realise it would end up so complex.
Sport in Botany defined by Wikipedia :
In botany, a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus,[2] is a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant. Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure. The cause is generally thought to be a chance genetic mutation.[3]
I saw a sport once. Eight or nine twigs on a forsythia bush, each fused to the next, like a pan pipe. It still had leaves and flowers. I was reading sci-fi books at the time, I was only young and found the strange formation almost creepy. I cut the sport off the bush and it never grew back. But I always remembered this sporting image!
There’s not enough space
I can’t get past!
I have to hop over the hose
Skip over the empty pots
Jump into the back door
When I’ve watered it all.
I’m watching the Olympics
Thinking could this be
A new green event?
Red and green begonia. The flowers were blooming in the pots at Dorothy Clive garden this weekend. I was amazed at how many had proliferated in numerous containers around the garden. There were other lovely plants but these were the most noticeable.
Describe one habit that brings you joy.
For years I have filled the back yard with hanging baskets and flowers. This year I had to get help from my sister to hang the baskets as I can’t climb ladders. Then I got plants from a wellness group I visit every week. Some of the plants were going over so I got them for a small amount of money.
I love this habit, but it has its dangers. I use a hose to water the plants as I can’t lift my watering can up. But it’s a trip hazard! I have to be very careful not to fall, luckily I have a grab handle by the back door. But sometimes things get very precarious!
I have a huge buddliea bush that has grown upwards and has reached outside the upstairs landing window. The bush hasn’t been pruned as it grows huge bracts of white flowers which butterflies love. The flowers are pressing against the window pane, starting to go over now. I really need to get it cut back. My garden is full of big plants that have overgrown too much. I guess my green fingers must be working too well? I hope it means my carbon footprint is quite low.
Flowers everywhere. I love these deep pink petunias. It’s a close up of one of my hanging baskets. When the sun shines they seem to glow.
The head in the background is a ceramic one I made about 30 years ago. It’s got a few flowers trailing from it that managed to survive the winter.
There is an ancient song from the 14th century I think?
Sumer is icumen in,
Loude sing cuckou!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed,
And springth the wode now.
Sing cuckou!
Ewe bleteth after lamb,
Loweth after calve cow,
Bulloc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Merye sing cuckou!
Cuckou, cuckou,
Wel singest thou cuckou:
Ne swik thou never now!
We sing this at choir practice (with slightly less difficult wording).
A small space crammed with flowers. My sister and a friend helped me hang the baskets and cut back a lot of overhanging ivy that was shading the yard.
The main garden is quite overgrown with trees, but this is overgrown with an abundance of flowers. My plants have not needed to be watered too much because of all the rain, but now the sun’s arrived it’s glorious out there. No room for me. I keep tripping up on pots and the watering can, I admit I have to water with a hose as I cannot lift the weight of the can. I’m glad I’ve got a stick.
I often see mad gardens on TV shows so I like to try and emulate them.
And my apple tree which was behind me when I took these photos? It’s covered in big apples!
Mallaband-Brown