Six years ago…

Posted on September 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bright, Colour, Dorothy Clive garden, Garden, Life, Orange, Photo, Plants, Rhododendrons, Spring /summer2 Comments

Bright flowers, photo taken six years ago. I think it’s a rhododendron, glowing like an orange sun. Talk about flower power. I’m not going to try and duplicate or mirror this photo because it’s really stand alone.

This would have been taken at the Dorothy Clive Garden on the Shropshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire border. It has a quarry garden at the top of its slope which is full of beautiful rhododendrons in late spring and early summer. Do visit if you can. Visiting has been limited due to the virus but I do know they are open and you can find out more from their website.

Favourite chair

Posted on September 17, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Band of sketchers, Chair, Comfortable, Drawing, Favourite chair, Garden, Garden chairs, Geraniums, Late summer, Life, Pears, Sketch, Urban sketching2 Comments

Favourite chair in the garden, but gradually getting submerged into the garden….I’ve got a bit of concern because although these are really comfortable one has a slightly broken arm and the other one is a bit rusty in laces. I guess they will need oiling before the autumn rains set in.

This prompt was from the Band of sketchers group I’m in. I decided to add colour to the picture after drawing with black ink. It meant that I could add to the shadows and increase the contrast. I used some purple to intensify the shadow as my green permanent markers are drying up and I don’t have anything darker than a mid green/turquoise.

The shape of the chair is picked up with the angle of the branches beyond it. The branches curve up to where the pears hang down from the branches. They are still green but I added yellow and orange to make them show up better. The flowers at the bottom are mid purple Geraniums but again I didn’t have the right colour.

I’m pleased with the drawing. I might try something different soon though. I seem to be stuck in one style……

Pears

Posted on September 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baby courgette, Broken branch, Garden, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Pears, Plants, Ripening, Sunny, TreesLeave a comment

Views of the pear tree. They are getting bigger and a small branch has broken off. The sun was out again today although the wind is coming from the north and cooling things down. My hanging baskets have just started to wilt a bit since we hot this dry spell. I’m watering them, but the coll nights and the big gaps in the new fence are making the yard a bit cooler. The time will come when everything dies back. I’m pleased though that I’ve found a small courgette on one of my plants!

Night flowers

Posted on September 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colour, Flowers, Garden, Hanging basket, Happy, Life, Light, Night, Shining, Solar lightLeave a comment

This hanging basket had a solar light shining over it. With the sunshine we had today its really bright. The colours stand out well in the night against a dark sky. Perhaps we will add more over the other baskets.

In hedgehog news….

Posted on September 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Fun, Garden, Growing, Hedgehogs, Life, Nature, News, Nighttime, Visitors, Wildlife4 Comments

We have been seeing our hedgehogs for about a month and a half now. They either feed by the back door or in our shed late at night. My hubby goes out most nights to look for them and they will be on the aths round the garden eating worms they have grubbed up or in the shed. We’ve got sand on the shed floor so we’ve seen their paw prints. They were using it as a latrine but that seems to have stopped. When they eat and drink they often knock the bowls over. We put out hedgehog food but they much prefer the dry and wet cat food that the stray/abandoned cat has. (we are still trying to get him in the house). There was one big and one small hedgehog, but after over a month of nightly visits they are both big now! It’s great to have wildlife in the garden.

Old bench

Posted on September 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bench rescue, Blogging, Cast iron, Garden, Life, Old bench, Poem, Poetry, Random, Worn out, YardLeave a comment

Oh dear, this bench is falling apart

Sat on for years

Worn away

Crumbling and split,

No resort

But to buy new slats.

Cast iron still strong.

Hold together

And you will be new….

To be our support again.

Hubby digging

Posted on September 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Etruria Artists, Friends, Garden, Life, Meeting people, Nervous, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Portuguese cafe, Sketching, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Urban sketchingLeave a comment

Fork in hand, pulling up weeds, tweed overcoat on, wearing a deerstalker hat, and enjoying a showery morning at Shelton allotments. No sketching challenge today, but we later met with some friends at a social distance so I got my sketch pad out again while enjoying a pleasant coffee in a Portuguese cafe. My nerves were a bit jangly after two seperate meetings with people so I wore a mask on both occasions and gloves when I was weeding. It’s hard to think the world might be going back to normal even though covid 19 is still here.

Acorns

Posted on August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acorns, apples, Bushes, Collections, Garden, Gardening, Life, Photo, Plants, Seeds, Trees4 Comments

My hubby keeps collecting seeds and nuts at the moment. His plan is to put them in pots and try and grow them, then pass them on to friends? But what if no-one wants them? I do not need any more trees in our garden. We have two oak saplings already, a twenty five year old walnut tree which is sixty foot high, a willow tree, a pear, two or three apples, a sycamore, a mountain Ash, an Ash tree. Also a eucalyptus, three leylandii, plus others and lots of bushes. But no, he’s not satisfied. The garden is where two houses used to stand, there isn’t enough space for more plants.

Ladybird poppies

Posted on August 20, 2020August 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Black, Colour, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Poems, Poetry, Poppies, Red2 Comments

Beautiful

Red andcblack

Flowering

Like a ladybird.

Unfurled petals

Paper thin

Rouched and rouged

Strong red

Fluffy centres

Waiting for a bee

Or a hover fly.

You are beautiful x

Green man?

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Ceramic, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Green man head, Life, Morning glory plants, Nature, Plant, PotteryLeave a comment

IMG_20200814_225909_711

My morning glory plants are doing well. Not flowering yet though. They are in lots of places, but I particularly like the ones in this ceramic head I made years ago. It’s survived for about twenty or thirty years as has the female one further on up the yard… I’m not sure what colours will be on the plant. Looking forward to it.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Garden