Hedgehog photos

Posted on September 27, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Abandoned cat, Catfood, Environment, Evening, Feeding, Food, Garden, Hedgehog, Life, Mammal, Nature, Night, PhotosLeave a comment

The hedgehogs are about tonight eating catfood again. I quietly opened the back door and saw one of them eating the catfood I’d left out for the abandoned cat. When it realised I was there it slowly scuttled off up the yard. When I looked again later all the cat food had gone. When the abandoned cat arrived I gave him a couple of pouches of wet cat food to make up for him missing supper.

I love out hedgehogs, I’m hoping they will weigh enough to survive winter. I think they are living in the back of the shed. My hubby says he hears snuffling in there late at night.

Face over the gate……

Posted on September 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Garden, Gate, Intruder, Motor scooter, Suspicious, View, Window, Young man, YouthLeave a comment

A few minutes ago a young man looked over our gate. He had dark hair and had a scarf or mask on covering the lower half of his face. As he looked over my hubby and I saw him and he say us. He turned away and walked up the hill. Hubby went to the front door and shouted, asking what was he doing and then shouted that he should sod off. The youth ignored him and walked away.

Why were we bothered? Because hubby’s motor scooter is locked just inside the gate. It’s attached to a ground anchor with a strong chain. That’s because it was stolen before but we got it back. It was stolen during a snow storm late at night but my hubby was able to follow the tracks to where it had been hidden! Is it any wonder that we are suspicious of people looking into the garden.

Morning glory

Posted on September 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Buds, Flower, Garden, Life, Morning glory, Photo, Plant, Purple, Tendrils, Yard2 Comments

Several plants and one flower later! The other morning glory plants have buds on them. But the weather is set to be cold and wet from tomorrow, so they might all wilt! Anyway here is a tiny flower, I’m please it’s come out!

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.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Garden