New paintings and regular art updates.
Like a lockdown hair style
The garden grows
Longer, taller
Tangled locks,
Like sleeping beauty’s garden
The plants expand.
Ivy clambers
Holly spikes outward.
Buddliea twists and turns
Cut me!
It calls out.
Trim me!
Give me a hedge cut!
But I wait
When the ground is dry
I will fight through it.
I see things in patterns and these mirrored tree trunks made me smile when I played with them…. Down turned mouths and big noses!
For daffodils
For tulips
For helibores
And hyacynths
Start with snowdrops
And irises.
Crocuses
And primrose.
Pushing up through
Bare. Cold ground
Warmth arrived
Each. Flower head
Brings. Spring
Closer.
We bought the pear tree as a small sapling from Woolworths about twenty years ago. It’s grown since then and every year it has had a bigger crop of pears on it. This year there must have been fifty. The tree has tipped over because of their weight and possibly the wind, so we’ve had to prop it up. The bark is cracked and coming off in places, and it suffers from black spot, but the pears are delicious. Some of them rotted on the tree, possibly from being pecked by birds. We’ve got most of them off the tree now and are sharing some with friends.
Even iin the cracks of windowledges or steps. This was growing at Spode last year. Not pretty, but green, seed heads developing, waiting to be dandelion clocks.
Next year there might be ten new plants, then a hundred the year after. Not exponential, but a creaping greening. A creating of new life, roots diving deep, breaking up the earth. If only we could embrace nature more? Not kill it but give it a helping hand. We know its wrong to harm the planet. Why do we persist.
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.
