New paintings and regular art updates.
My orchid plant is growing fast. Ariel roots are growing out of the pot.
The flowers have been there for a few weeks now. I don’t know what species it is, just that it’s quite pink!
Stoke Urban Sketchers challenge, day 23. Black ink pen and permanent marker pens.
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A fellow blogger asked if I used permaculture in the garden, I actually don’t know what that is? We’ve been here about twenty five years and when we moved in the garden was a patch of land fenced off by the woman who used to own the house. It had three lilac bushes a patch of what turned out to be Japanese knotweed and lawn. We rented it off the old owner of our house for twenty years then bought it. I only used weedkiller at the start because of the knotweed. Since then we put in a pond, planted all sorts of trees. Some of its too shady. The walnut tree must be forty foot high. Just put a bit of fertiliser on occasionally. There is rubble and broken pottery under the soil. You get archaeology when you dig it.
I did not believe that we could get mature trees in a little over twenty five years. Some of them seem to grow like weeds. The back of the garden has had a shed and a summerhouse put on it. I’m hoping to do some art in there. We are trying to get perennial plants to grow. I have lots of geraniums but most of all we have a lot of ivy growing everywhere.
It is good to sit in the garden, but I feel sorry for people who don’t have anywhere green to sit.
Stay safe,
Keep well.
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Sharp Green buds against brick
Cold clay and icy air
Embrace growth
Shelter root and branch
warming earth holds moisture
Fresh leaves are waiting
Ready to burst
Spring is round the corner
Sprouting
Soon.
He sneaked in an acorn into one of my indoor plant pots, and now its growing into a tiny oak tree. Leaves growing despite the winter frosts.
My other plants are thriving, mainly Christmas cactus. A few other succulents.
On the other hand succulents are being ripped out of their natural habitats because they have become fashionable. The environment they are from are being trashed by greedy humans.
So I don’t buy them, I propagate them from cuttings. And the oak? I hope I can find it a good home so it grows into a huge old tree in time.
Two of my orchid plants have thrown out new flower spikes and the ariel roots of one are going off in all directions. I’m hoping they flower for Christmas. My only worry is that it might get too cold in the house for them. Meanwhile two of my Christmas cactii are flowering and two others are getting tiny flower buds. I guess I must be doing something right. In the next few weeks I will start watering my amaryllis bulbs, so they should start growing soon.
Tearing down the walls,
pulling at the gutter
Growing through the roof.
The ivy strangles our house
Squeezing the mortar
Heaving up tiles
Tangling the phone wires
Pulling at my heart strings,
I’m excited! One of the little citrus plants my partner bought a few weeks ago has produced flowers. We knew it could generate fruit as it has already got some. But I wasn’t expecting it to flower. As soon as I can I want to put it outside in the sun, we are getting a summerhouse so it can go in there and stay walm. At the moment it’s next to a sunny windowledge but I want the flowers to be pollenated.
Does anyone have any knowledge about keeping citrus? We did grow a plant from a pip once. It grew to 2 foot high but only ever had leaves and eventually died. Thanks in advance for any info.
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I’ve done some more to this acrylic on canvas. I have added more definition around the leaves but tried to leave some of the subtlety of colour in other places. It has some sparkle in the paints to give it a slightly frosted appearance as if leaves have piled up, but the face of the druid is emerging from it.
About 16″ by 12″ this is one of my more abstract pieces based on the green man theme.
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Growth and growing are part of life and economics, but maybe we don’t need growth as much? The world does not have infinite resources and the population keeps rising. Perhaps we need to seek a balance and an ability for renewal instead of just consuming everything in sight.
We need to use less plastic and less energy. To save resources for the people that come after us. Maybe buy one less peice of clothing or fill up a water bottle again instead of buying a new bottle.
I sometimes think that people are like a virus, growing exponentially. Covering the world with our rubbish and disease.
We need to be able to eat, drink and find shelter. Why don’t we try and care for everyone? I can probably remember back to when there were only 5 billion on the planet, now its over 7 billion and rising. And yet we are still growing? Is it any wonder that there are wars? I think we should share technologies so everyone can have better lives and education… .
