Bright poppies shine,
Glow with sun
Grow so red,
Buds stretch and burst.
Dehissance it might be called?
Or is that leaf fall?
Something like that,
There is a word…..
Turgid petals push out and open,
Colour shoots out
Shocks
Surprises
Cheers!
Tag: Gardening
Spiders webs….
Now the winter is starting there are less of these about. Spiders are probably finding quiet corners to hibernate. So what to do….? Spiders catch all sorts of creepy crawlies, keeping pests down without using pesticides and insecticides. Hopefully your garden finds a balance.
Recently we found frogs in the garden. They eat slugs and insects.
The only other incomers are a couple of squirrels but they do like digging up spring bulbs and planting walnuts and pinching bird food. But they are lovely so I wouldn’t do anything about them!
Hanging basket in November
I’m looking out at this today…. 
My hanging baskets are still in flower on 4th November! My Christmas cactus is coming into flower on the window ledge, global warming certainly is having an effect on plant life.
The baskets were planted up at a nursery in May and we have had them ever since. They have done really well. The plants are begonias I think, but there are other flowers in there still including fushias. I’m not emptying them till the frosts get them. It’s so nice to look out the window at some colour at this time of year.
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Succulents
I love house leeks, a type of succulent that makes a rosette of leaves. They are often found growing on walls and sometimes even roofs. They are called succulents because their leaves are swollen with moisture, a bit like a cactus…. Some have weblike coverings, as if a spider had spun a web across the top of them. These plants look good on old fashioned rockeries. Stones and rocks with succulents peeping through the gaps.
This photo has been manipulated to duplicate the pattern. I like doing this and seeing what comes out of it….
Pears
People who read my blog a few weeks ago know that our pear tree had blown over, leaving the branches only about eight feet above the ground. We have had to prop it up with large pieces of wood. I have almost collected what was left on the tree and the ones we have are criss crossed with scars and dents. But once you peel the skin off they are juicy and sweet to eat. This photo was taken last year and I like it because the warm light is shining horizontally and turning the pears into almost liquid gold colours?
Waiting for Spring.
It’s Autumn and I’m already waiting for Spring! I need to work on the garden, cut shrubs back, plant tulip bulbs, plant snowdrops, then… Wait, wait, wait… Through the cold and rain, through the shirt dates and long nights.
I want to see the baby birds, the squirrel and its kits, the tadpoles in the pond (if we have frogs we must have tadpoles). I look forward to warmer, not too hot, days. Life returns.
In the winter here it usually does not get too cold. But it can be grey, wet and windy.
The clocks go back at the end of October, then the sun will go down an hour earlier, I hate sitting in the dark in the winter, trying to keep warm. Looking forward to the winter solstice when the sun starts coming back a little more every day.
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Sitting listening…
It’s quite cool today, so after going out for lunch, then coming back and doing a bit of gardening I’ve come into the relative warm (about 18.5°C) and I’m sitting listening to the Radio.
I’ve decided to try and keep the heating off as much as I can. It’s getting expensive and it’s not that cold yet.
It’s grey and showery outside. We had to cut the hedge back because our neighbours need access on the path round to their back yard and it runs past our garden. The trouble is one set of shears handle is coming loose and is held on with gaffer tape! When you cut branches with them they bend inwards so you can’t always get a good purchase on the twigs.
So anyway, the hat in the drawing was given to me by a friend when it was raining last week. I meant to take it back but forgot. Just dumped it on the pile of books by the front door.
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Drawing challenge
Today is day 8 of the October 1″ drawing challenge. This is just a quick sketch of our hanging baskets outside the window. Because they are in the back yard they are a bit walmer than in the main garden so although it’s got chilly there has not been a frost to kill them off. If I remember I will take a few photos tomorrow. I also coloured the picture in with a sketching app.
The flowers are Begonias, Fushias, Lobelia and others I don’t remember.
Pear tree collapse
A shout from outside. My hubby had gone outside to feed the stray cat….
There’s a problem, a catastrophe.. The pear tree had blown over in the heavy rain and wind we have been having…
The tree has been gradually leaning more over the last couple of years, and each crop of pears has grown. Till this year we counted over fifty pears. But that of course pulls on the top of the tree.
We had propped it up with some wood, but that had snapped in half. What to do? We tried using an old exercise bike near the roots…
We also tried to pull as many pears off the tree as possible as they were now in reach. My hubby normally shakes the pears down which may be why it’s leaning!
Finally we used the step ladder to prop it up a bit more. I don’t know if it’s salvageable, the trunk is split. It’s a shame if it has to go as the pears are very tasty. They were just starting to ripen, but the weather has been mad. We weighed the good pears (disposed of the split one’s). 11.7 kilos. Not sure what that is in pounds but I think it’s around 24 pounds.
I’m going to share some of the crop with friends….
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Random poem
About a random photo…
Yellow gold,
Spun sunshine
Fresh greens
Like limes
Flowers like crumpled paper.
Lemon yellow
Papaver Hibernica?
Welsh poppy
Red drained to orange and yellow.
High in windblown meadows,
Summer in your petals
Giving your celtic roots
Room to roam.
Mallaband-Brown 