Dappled light

Posted on September 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aart, Acers, Acrylic on canvas, Arboretum, Gardening, Jodrell bank, Radio telescope, Trees2 Comments

Under acer trees at Jodrell Bank radio telescope observatory a couple of years ago. The place now has an arboretum with many species of trees, and various features including the solar system laid out at distances and sizes in scale to it.

There are new attractions there if you haven’t been there for a few years and if you have been it’s still worth a visit. (You may have to book at the moment).

The radio telescopecitselfvis a massive structure supporting a huge dish. The supports it tips up on come from a ship. It is very impressive.

Yellow flower

Posted on September 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colour, Daisy, Dying, Flower, Gardening, Glowing, Grass, Photo, Plants, Poem, Poetry, Seed head, Yellow2 Comments

Yellow petals

Flag in grass

Filigree of leaves

A spidery web of filaments.

Daisy reflections

Crumpled and dying

Leaving the world

With less colour

Seed head to come

Holding yellow inside it

Hoping to grow

And glow

Year.

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!

Two old codgers

Posted on September 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Allotment, apples, Clearing ground, Codgers, Gardening, Life, Nature, Plants, Poppies, Tired but happy, Weeds4 Comments

Hubby and I, helping in the local allotment. We are helping a community project clear a couple of old allotments of weeds so they can be used for growing produce. It is slow going to get rid of so many weeds. We are trying to take out the cooch grass and convolvulus (bind weed). However we are leaving some flowers like poppies in situ. I wasn’t feeling well today so I only managed a bit of work. Its going to take a while to get on top of it. Hopefully by next spring it will be planted up and ready for a good summer of growth. One thing that is already there are apple trees with masses of apples on them. We were allowed to take a few home with us.

Back yard work

Posted on September 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Back yard, Colour, Floral, Flowers, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Life, Microclimate, Nature, Plants, Summer, SunnyLeave a comment

Today we had the task of replacing the plants, hanging baskets and pots in the back yard that we had taken down to have a new fence put in. The next door neighbour had allowed us in to get at his side of the wall so we’ve helped him by clearing back the brambles and Ivy and cleared his path so he can get to the back gate.

Now the pots are back I can see which ones have suffered from drought and the cold. They were all crammed together in our garden (on the other side of the house) but it was cold last night so some things have wilted. We have a real microclimate in the yard and it’s always a bit warmer there. Hopefully they will bounce back in the coming days.

Prompt ‘wood’

Posted on September 10, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Band of sketchers, Buddliea, Drawing, Gardening, Green, Life, Pear tree, Pine, Sketch, Sketching, TreesLeave a comment

Our prompt from band of sketchers today was wood, so instead of drawing some brown furniture I decide to draw the trees outside including a pear tree, buddliea, pine tree and other trees, lots of wood. Our garden is a thicket! I hope you can see it OK, lots of leaves. The pears on the tree are growing larger every day. X

Hard work!

Posted on September 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Aches and pains, Blogging, Cutting down, Exercise, Fun, Gap, Gardening, Hard work, Letting light in, Life, Russian vine, VineLeave a comment

The gap where the Russian vine used to be a few hours hard work helping the builder. Talk about building upper arm strength. We are having some fence replaced tomorrow. Then various other jobs done. I ache all over but I’ve agreed to go for another walk in a few hours. I’m hoping it’s doing me good.

First World countries are mostly too sedentary. Say in front of our screens, forgetting that we are essentially all still cavemen and not really built to be sitting down all the time. I’m almost too old to learn that. But I have. I hope I can keep it up.

Removing Russian vine

Posted on September 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cutting back, Exercise, Gardening, Life, Nature, Russian vine, Tidying, TiredLeave a comment

Our telephone cable and the neighbours has been tangled up in the Russian vine. They came round yesterday and asked us to remove it as it was affecting their phone line. Luckily we had booked a builder to do some work, so he very kindly got up on the neighbours garage roof to cut it back. Now the question is where to ut the stuff! Three huge loads went into our councils brown bin to be collected next Tuesday. We will have to fill it a few more times before we get rid of it all. What I was worried about was the number of wasps around the vine because its in flower. Off out again in a minute to help clear the mess!

Firey flowers…

Posted on September 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Begonia, Dark, Firework, Flowers, Gardening, Hanging basket, Life, Night, Photo, YardLeave a comment

Just Begonias in the dark, taken last night through the window, the light on them is from the standard lamp we have in the living room. I thought it looked like a firework going off in the dark, cool, night.

Fern fronds

Posted on September 4, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Carboniferous, Environment, Evolution, Ferns, Gardening, Life, Nature, Random, Silica, ToxicLeave a comment

Ferns are ancient plants. They predate flowering plants. You can find fossils of them in the carboniferous era. They propagate, not by seed, but by spores which are held on the underside of the leaves. In sporediea. They are discharged into the air and are blown away by the wind. From there they create tiny ferns, I can’t remember the exact details because its over forty years since I learnt about them. All I can say is I must look it up. I do know they have silica in their cells and can be toxic to cattle and sheep.

Ferns are beautiful, they have lovely spiral fronds which then unfurl. There are different colours shapes and sizes. I know that some people have gardens full of ferns. I obviously need to find out more.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Gardening