New paintings and regular art updates.
We had a few yellow flowers last year. Now they are mounds! I think it’s lesser celandine. Apparently they are grown from little bulbules? They can get on your shoes and get transferred around the garden. I used to be on a natural history website where you recorded the date when the flowers come out. It’s clear that spring is getting earlier each year even though it is only changing slowly. Anyway I like these plants. Our garden is quite wild and it’s good to add different wild flowers.
We were going out yesterday when a car pulled up outside the house. Is that your garden? The driver asked us. Yes we said. Oh great. Can we buy it? No, I said. It’s not for sale! The man looked disappointed. Why do you want it my hubby asked. We are thinking of buying the old pub across the road to turn into apartments. We would use it as a car park. A car park alongside our house? No way. People coming and going at all times of the day and night. Destroying our wildlife garden. Also we would need a large fence to keep people out who could just walk onto the carpark…? NO! I was polite but said no.
Yellow and orange. Large flower heds. In front of the house. Cheerful and bright. They delight me when I come home. Signs of spring are showing everywhere now. The trees are starting to blossom, buds are swelling on the branches in my garden. I’ve seen blossom on the trees along the canal. But it’s been dry and sunny, it’s been exceptionally warm for this time in March. I worry because the temperatures are due to fall next week and frost might nip at the buds. But if it stays dry they might be OK. What we need now is rain to swell the buds and start the growth process. Cells expand when they absorb water, the become turgid and then, they start to photosynthesise. We are at the turn of the year.
I can’t change things
But I can remember
I can think
Help where I can.
I might be safe
But people from other countries
Are they going to survive?
Can they sleep at night?
Amidst the bombs.
Remember Blue and Yellow
I know it’s almost spring because the grape hyacinths come out in the pots at the front of the house. We are the only house with plants growing on the pavement. When I come home it cheers me up. They really do look like little bunches of grapes, don’t they? The blue colour reminds me of bluebells but they don’t emerge until April or May. X
This morning I saw the sun shining through the petals of my orchid flowers. I have four plants and they flower for ages, but this is the only one in flower at the moment. I decided to mirror it to create a more abstract, alien image, perhaps a real alien! I adjusted the colour to a more blue grey tone. It was very yellow because of the morning sunlight.
I didn’t know what this bush was but it has a lovely scent and was growing in places around the grounds of Rode Hall.
I has to ask one of the gardeners there what it was. She was very helpful in explaining what it was. When I got home I looked it up online: Daphne odora, winter daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to China, later spread to Japan and Korea. It is an evergreen shrub, grown for its very fragrant, fleshy, pale-pink, tubular flowers, each with four spreading lobes, and for its glossy foliage. Wikipedia
Please note. I’ve been told they are extremely poisonous.
Actually it was probably September or October when I took this. Now the leaves have withered, just a few cling on to life. But come the spring I hope to transplant some of these plants into pots. I think the fushias will have survived because they have woody stems. Then the hanging baskets will go to the local nursery to have them filled for the next season. It’s always at this time of year that I start to think about spring. That is until we get to the cold blast of January to March. That’s when hubby gets enthusiastic and plants all the seeds we bought and collected in Autumn. Sadly the plants either don’t emerge or die off because they are too cold. Or he puts a whole packet of seed in one small pot! It’s amazing we get anything to grow!
Tulips bloomed
Scent filled the air
Warm breezes
Touched my hair.
purple flowers
Proud and bright
Give enjoyment
To my sight.
May was gentle
Soft and true
Forget-me-nots
Bloomed in blue.
Fine flowers
Grown up tall.
Magic bower
Soft waters fall.
Memory of
a lovely day.
Gives my heart
Delight today.
What is going on? Begonias and Lobelia in November! I know some gardeners cut everything back and compost things after the summer. But I can’t do it. I love seeing things grow. The baskets will eventually die back. The tops of them are already looking a bit scrappy, but any sleepy and cold bee or hover fly can maybe sneak a sip of nectar. Our back yard is sheltered by the house, large bushes and a fence, I suppose the plants huddle together forming a microclimate. We also live towards the bottom of the hill so we don’t get hit by winds sweeping down from the north. It’s a haven. Looking forward to next summer. X
Mallaband-Brown