Ivy grows

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As she sat on the ground by the house she felt the warmth of the sun calming her and relaxing her. It had been a long morning gardening. Now she had sat down with a cup of tea and a biscuit.

The ground she was sitting on was laid to lawn. Behind her the bare brick was partly covered with a few strands of ivy.

As she dozed in the sun next doors ginger cat came and sat on her lap. She dreamt of a perfect cottage garden, she would lift up the lawn and plant a bank of crocosmia and ox eye daisies. On the wall behind her she would remove the ivy and plant clematis and wisteria. Maybe a peach with branches strung out along the wall.

She gradually fell into a deeper sleep. The scents of the roses wafted across the garden. Time crept by. If you had watched a time lapse film of the day you would have seen the ivy seem to pulse, and grow….. Tendrils of green stretching. Ariel roots burrowing, not just into mortar but flesh. No way was the ivy going to be removed. Around the body of the woman the branches grew.

Finally all the moisture in it was sucked out, there was just a dried husk left. Tearing through eye sockets. From the mouth. The ivy created tiny berries. Dust fell to the ground, what was left? A mug and a plate. The wall was covered.

Twig owl

A process of cropping, mirroring and flipping images to create interesting patterns. I think the final result looks like a little owl reflected in water. I’ve changed the tones and hues slightly in the image to enhance the shadows in the cloudscape. The idea has always been to have abstract shapes apparently floating in the sky. It’s a recurring theme of mine.

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Helibores are flowering

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Helibores are flowering,

Snowdrops soon will bloom,

Then will follow crocuses

With the light of the moon.

Daffodils and Tulips, all in a row, 

Then come the wind flowers,

Wood anemone,

Finally in sunshine

Bluebells, for to see….

Spring will alive

With flowers for you and me.

 

Slugs must have some use?

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You know how it is..

You go into the garden

When it rains

And there are slugs.

What are they for?

They munch your broccoli,

Eat the hearts of your lettuce,

Nip the buds off peonies,

And eat your ripe tomatoes.

But they also eat old and diseased vegetables.

They help clear up leaves

In the autumn,

And they are food for blackbirds and frogs.

So not all bad then…?

Morning cat.

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About 7.50 this morning. The cat was on the window ledge looking out over the garden. Standing sentinel. Approving the occupants of the green place outside. Birds fly or scurry across the land, feeding on wild bird seed. Other cats stalk through the plants and drink the pond water. None miss my cats gaze. He also seems to protect us. Standing guard against interlopers. I feel secure seeing him sitting statue like. Patient, watching over us.

Holly

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Variegated Holly, a view of winter plants. When desiduous leaves have fallen, Ivy and Holly add green to the garden. We have three Holly bushes. This one, a tall spikey one with fully green leaves and one with pale green edges instead if yellow. The fully green one is the most robust. It is growing in a shady part of the garden and making even denser shade. The other two are in more open areas. We cut off lower branches to let more light into the lower layers of the garden so summer flowering plants are not completely shaded out. I can’t wait for the spring bulbs to come up, although the local squirrel population seems to like digging them up. There will be narcissi and crocus around the Holly in spring.

Green view

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Cold, wet and windy, but still a bit green where the ivy is growing up trees in the garden. Really it needs cutting back. I don’t want it strangling them. There are bird feeders out there, but there seem to be less birds than normal. Perhaps they have enough food, we haven’t seen evidence of them being predated by cats thankfully. I want to get out there and cut back the buddliea bushes. They need pruning.

The pond is OK, it’s hidden below the cherry tree. It has only frozen a couple of times and only thinly this autumn / winter. We hope to have tadpoles in the spring.

This is Woody, the abandoned cat.

 

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This is Woody, that’s what we’ve christened him. He’s been hanging round our garden for a year, eating food, and he’s gradually settled in our summerhouse. But it’s not ideal. I’d invite him in but my two rescue cats are timid, and I never got them their booster inoculations because they won’t get in the cat carriers. Anyway they are indoor cats so as long as Woody doesn’t come in they are safe.

But (and you knew this was coming, didn’t you?) I feel sorry for Woody and so I got someone to come round and check if he’s microchipped. Turns out he is but the phone number is dead and although we have been told he’s from a few streets away, they won’t tell us where because of Data protection.

No one has put missing posters up so I guess he is abandoned.

He’s a lovely friendly cat but after a year of being semi feral it’s going to be hard to get him rehomed. He doesn’t like being inside (we tried to get him in out of the rain), but I’d love him to be loved and snuggled down somewhere. Maybe on his own with a big garden to roam around, but also more cuddles than we can give.

If you live in Staffordshire maybe get in touch?

Acorns

DSC_2469My hubby collected these from under a huge Oak tree about a month ago and he’s planted them in pots in the garden! About fifty of them. I’m not sure if they will germinate, if they do we will need to find a very large field to plant them in. They can grow with the Walnut saplings that the squirrel has planted in the garden, and the Ash tree saplings, and sycamore saplings that have self seeded. Our garden is turning into a wood. X