New paintings and regular art updates.
This brilliant red flower spike broke off a gladiolus that was growing in the yard (there are all sorts of plants out there) decided to bring it into the kitchen o we can enjoy it for a fee more days. It’s also an opportunity to consider painting it. I think I might paint it with texture and in close up. Flowers are amazing aren’t they?
View out of a side window, heavy with pears the branches are bending down on our pear tree. The trunk is propped up because its gone over to about a forty five degree angle partly caused by strong winds and partly just from the weight of pears on the branches. This from a tree bought from Woolworths twenty five years ago as a small sapling. Every year I marvel at the productivity of the plant. And looking out the window at them? Makes me proud of what you can do if you let nature take over.
Basically windfalls, five rough pears, two apples, three green walnuts and a single green tomato. The wind must have been blowing.
For the first time we have a good crop of apples on the main tree, the pear tree is bent over with pears that are growing slowly larger. The walnuts are being stolen by squirrels who bury them and the tomatoes are growing in a hanging basket and in a grow bag surrounded by other plants. They are all having to take their chances while there is less rain, but they are well established plants and I think the fruit trees have deep roots. We plan to do some pruning of the garden. The blueberries are gradually ripening, the gooseberries have all been eaten as have the raspberries. I saw no strawberries this year, but I think they have been shaded out by other plants. We even have redcurrants although I misidentified them as woody nightshade (not a good idea). Earlier in the year we had a small crop of cherries and we might get a few elderberries. So all in all not a bad year of fruit and veg.
Hundreds of flowers. Some fruit, tomatoes, ground to fence. We go mad every year, but this year has been spectacular. We have, I must admit, been using the hose, but will have to use a watering can if they bring in the ban. The heat today was difficult to cope with. When you have humidity caused by the water it seems even hotter. The blueberries are suddenly ripening and we have had a windfall apple. Hopefully the tomatoes will ripen soon. Its crammed with plants and is my happy place in summer.
Tonight we had a visitor flying fast and silently above the yard. It was a bat catching moths and insects. I think the flowers attract them and the bat’s come to feed.
I posted this photo on Facebook last week and someone wrote ‘Feed me Seymour!’
I guess it does look a bit like the plant in the film ‘Little Shop of Horrors’! It’s strange how life imitates art, or vice versa. Photo of teasel, taken outside the forge at Etruria Industrial Museum on the Trent and Mersey canal in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.
We’ve had a little rain and the begonias and petunias have gone mad. The fushias have dried out a bit. I found out what a long, tall leafed plant was that hubby had planted a hanging basket… A purple Gladioli flower! Apples are also growing bigger and pears are starting to get bigger too!
Our apple trees have got a lot of fruit for a change. I think they are finally maturing and as they have had their branches trained along the fence they are bearing more fruit than if they were growing straight up, some of them are already ripening and turning red. I don’t know their variety but they are tasty.
I bought this beautiful cat plant support today from my friend that runs #Sculptedsteel (on Instagram). I already have a larger cat sculpture from her but I think this is really elegant especially with the curl at the end of its tail. It’s about a meter tall and ideal for a climbing plant to support it as it grows. I will find something to train up it.
We just saw this butterfly on the buddlea in our garden. It was feeding on the nectar from the flowers of the bush I think.
It seems appropriate to have a name with wood in it as our garden is very woody now. I guess we will have to try and cut things back a bit because it’s very overgrown, but I’m glad we have made room for nature, and by planting trees we are helping reduce our carbon footprint.
They grew, but haven’t ripened yet. I was hoping the hot sunshine would help turn them blue.
In other news we had to move all our plants off the pavement in front of out house. Workmen are putting in fibre optic cables and will be digging in front of our house tomorrow. So the poppies, festuca grass, nasturtiums, passion flower and honeysuckle and ivy all had to be moved. We could see mats of roots under where the pots had been. I hope they all survive and we can put them back.
Mallaband-Brown