Paintings delivered

Posted on April 21, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Etruria Industrial museum, Gardening, Litter, Paintings, Poppies, Wildflowers2 Comments

I’ve previously exhibited these at Arts and Minds in Harper Street, Middleport and I’m having a swap round. So I’ve taken these to Etruria Industrial museum today. (I have more work up at Harper Street.) The lower two photos are my painting of the governor on the Princess beam engine at Etruria. The poppies and wildflowers represent the summer and poppies are hopefully going to grow there as the museum has initiated a wild flower garden to support bees and other pollenating insects. The idea is to stop mowing the grass lawns around the site and reintroduce more of a natural habitat.

One thing that upset me was seeing litter and rubbish in the grounds and in the canal which the museum volunteers deal with by litter picking. They have a long pole with a net and one of the volunteers fished a plastic cup and other litter out of the canal while we watched.

The museum is part of Stoke on Trents heritage and I’m pleased to have my art displayed there. X

Pompom dahlia

Posted on April 17, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Biddulph grange garden, Dahlia, Day trip, Gardening, Life, National Trust, Plants, themes, Time2 Comments

Dad used to grow these. You can see why they are called pompom dahlias. He had a whole patch of them in the back garden. I found some in the local garden centre so I have bought a packet of tubers just to see if I can grow them.

The best place to see dahlias in the area is the dahlia walk at the Biddulph Grange garden in Biddulph, Staffordshire. The National Trust owns the house and gardens. The building is only accessible in a few rooms, but the gardens are magnificent. Part classic gardening, part themed garden it is worth visiting and you have to see the Dahlia Walk in late summer. Sections separated by hedges on either side of a central pathway are filled with all sorts of Dahlia plants in all sorts of colours, for example red Bishop of Llandaff ones. Other sections in the garden have various themes, a Swiss cottage next to an Egyptian tomb, grottos and stepping stones and a Chinese temple and giant stone frog and golden calf!

Worth a visit if you are in the area.

Gone

Posted on April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Frogs, Gardening, Hedgehog, Landscape, Life, Nature, Outside, Pond, PoolLeave a comment

Snowdrops gone, daffodils fading, tulips opening… Winter is over and Spring has sprung. I hope for warm spring days and new flowers opening. Blossom on the boughs of the cherry and pear trees, open already on the old plum tree and the walnut tree is starting to transform.

There are strong gusts and April Showers. Heavy rain and lightning, but we await the warmth of the sun. Not too hot. But the garden is growing and buds are breaking. I hope the hedgehogs and frogs reappear. It’s an effort to maintain things like the pond which needs a new liner. I must take some photos soon.

Favourite blossom

Posted on April 7, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Expensive, Garden Centre, Gardening, Life, Magnolia, Photo, Pink, Plants, Purple, TreesLeave a comment

Magnolia blossom about to open, the ones with the dark pink/purple outer petals and pale pink insides. They are expensive to buy, so this one stayed at the garden centre last weekend. We do have a small magnolia stellata in the garden, but as its been cold here it is yet to flower.

Lemon tree

Posted on April 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cool, Drink, Food, Gardening, Green, Ice, Indoor plant, Lemon, lemon tree, Sunlight, Warmth2 Comments

The fruit hanging at the bottom of this little tree is a lemon. Hubby bought the plant at the weekend because our lemon tree died a few years ago. This is sitting on top of our cat tree by the radiator so it can get full sun and warmth. Ii would have put it on the window ledge but I think it would be too hot directly above the radiator. I hope that this lemon and another one which is higher up the tree will ripen. If it does we will have it sliced with ice in a cool drink this summer. X

Planning

Posted on April 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Design, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Life, outdoor gardening, Planning, Plants, Spectrum, Spring, SummerLeave a comment

Now’s the time to order our hanging baskets for the year. The lady that puts them together asks me what colours I would like. Usually I don’t specify what theme I want but I’m definitely going for a rainbow theme this year. I think because there are so many different flowers and shapes and colours that would really brighten the yard. Last year was mainly red white and green so I bought in other flowers to broaden the spectrum.

Going out of the back door and seeing all this colour lifts my spirits. I usually order them and then collect them 6 to 8 weeks later. It’s a bit expensive but I have never been able to grow baskets as beautiful as hers. The summer arrives and I bring the baskets home. Then we have a riot of colour until late Autumn.

Looking forward

Posted on March 26, 2023March 26, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Environment, Gardening, hanging baskets life, Nature, Plants, Poem, Poetry, SummerLeave a comment

To flowers

And plants

Geranium, poppy, fushias

Petunias and surfinias

Mounds of green leaves

Hidden tomato plants

Surrounded by scent

Wild and cultivated

Hanging baskets blooming

Like overflowing fountains

I hope summer is here soon.

Lesser Celandine

Posted on March 22, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged daisy like, Environment, Gardening, Lesser celandine, Nature, Plants, Spring, YellowLeave a comment

One of the plants that appears in Spring, this is lesser Celandine. It has mid green shiny leaves and yellow and white daisy like flowers. This plant is one of the things that used to be on a website where people recorded when things appeared in the Spring, like butterflies, moths, flowers, tree blossom for example. It was a citizen science project. I don’t remember what it was called.

Lesser Celandine spreads by little bulbs (bulbils) that can stick to shoes or animals feet. It’s pretty, but if you get it in your garden it can spread like mad. I’m not sure if animals van eat it, it just looks cheery in Spring.

Buds on the willow tree

Posted on March 20, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Blue tits, Buddlea, Buds, fuzzy catkins, Gardening, Growing, Life, old willow, WillowLeave a comment

Ooo the fuzzy buds are opening on the old willow tree in the garden. Once they fully open the blue tits will start pulling at them, I don’t know if they get the fluff out of them to use in their nests or if they are eating insects on them?

I’m not sure what type of willow tree it is, I think it’s a wild type, one that floats in on a seed and grows, a bit like a buddlea Bush, we have them too. They sneak in, but the butterflies love them. Which reminds me, I need to prune the buddleas, you have to cut them back by two thirds before they start growing in the spring, so that’s a job to do. Spring is on the way! Gardening begins.

What first?

Posted on March 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Flower, Gardening, Green, Life, Photo, Purple, scrambling, Shady, spiralling, Spring, Vinca9 Comments

Do you post a picture or the title first? I generally choose a picture to write about then decide on the title. Sometimes there is an ambiguity because my image may have nothing to do with the title or the actual wording of the post.

So why Vinca? It’s a cheery little flower, nice colour, it scrambles over the ground in a green mass and then in spring these lovely, twirly flowers pop up. I just wish I could get it to grow better, but I think our garden is too shady. Also if you look closely the five petals of the flower spiral inwards in a whorl.

As to the question ‘what first?’ it all depends on how I’m feeling, how inspired (or uninspired) I feel.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Gardening