Rhododendrons

Posted on June 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Forests, Gardening, Growing, invasive species, Life, plant pests, Plants, RhododendronsLeave a comment

Rhododendrons look lovely, but they can be an invasive species. They shade out smaller plants and the ground around them becomes bare. I know in some places they are removed. Rhododendrons are native to Asia but were imported by plant collectors in the Victorian era. They ‘layer’ themselves to spread, a branch can touch the ground and where it rubs against the soil it will send out roots (or layer). This also happens with other plants. Forest and parkland have to be managed to protect it from invasive species like this and others such as Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed.

Robin Hoods Bay

Posted on June 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 8 years ago, grooves and chimneys, Holiday, Life, North Yorkshire coast, Photograph, Robin hoods Bay, View, YorkshireLeave a comment

When we stayed at Robin Hoods Bay and I came home with Shingles!

This was eight years ago, time goes so fast! We stayed in an upside down house with the lounge on the top floor so you could see the sea view. There was a very steep staircase and the hill the village is built on is very steep too. There is no parking on the main road through the village down to the sea so you have to park at the top and walk up and down to get to the house down a little side lane. I painted the view while I was there, sitting in sunshine looking out, enjoying the view…

Hydrangea

Posted on June 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged acidity, alkalinity, Blue, Gardening, Hydrangea, Life, Pink, Plant, Purple, shrub2 Comments

Little buds into purple flowers or bracts. The flowers on our new hydrangea are coming out. They were a surprise. Hydrangea usually have blue or pink flowers depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. I’ve heard of people putting copper nails in the soil with them to change their colour. I don’t know if it works as its probaby a old wives tale? A good garden plant and can grow into a small shrub.

A Tagline?

Posted on June 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1964, Design, Enjoyment, Life, Pattern, tagline2 Comments

If humans had taglines, what would yours be?

I had to look this up:

“In entertainment, a tagline is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, social group, or product. Wikipedia”

I would say I’m a “pattern loving gal”? Does that work as a tagline for me? I add patterns to most of my art, and the older I get the more I seem to do it. The three words explain my feelings about art. My genuine enjoyment of entanglements and textures. My enjoyment of and involvement with pattern in my art and designs.

I cannot think of any better description.

The thunder missed us

Posted on June 11, 2023June 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blitzortung.org, Clouds, flash, Life, Lightning, live lightning maps, Sound, Thunder2 Comments

There is a website called blitzortung.org you can open up, and if you look at the live maps you can see lightning strikes as they happen. The site covers the whole world but you can zoom in on it.

Tonight it got very dark and cloudy and we had a few flashes of lightning with rumbles of thunder about 5 to 3 miles away (10 and 6 seconds), Light travels fast, sound follows, so 2 seconds equals a mile away.

We just had some heavyish rain but the storm petered out. Looking at the lightning map, the storm split up into two. The storm stopped about three miles away from here

, but a branch of it was heading towards Crewe. There were over 5 thousand strikes in an hour!

I’ve been interested about lightening since I was talking to an elderly lady about 25 years ago. She said she was in her house several years before that. She had the window open because it was so hot, suddenly a ball of lightening came in through the window and bounced off the floor. She didn’t explain what happened afterwards, whether it just dissipated. But clearly it was not too traumatic. I have heard of ball lightning, so it might have been true….

Monkey and bug hotel sculptures

Posted on June 11, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, bug hotel, Life, Macaque Monkeys, Sculpture, Trentham Monkey Forest, willow weavingLeave a comment

Monkey made by willow weaving, tree trunk carving, bottle kiln shaped bug hotel and a large house shaped bug hotel. These are in the entrance compound of the Monkey Forest before you actually walk around the money enclosure. It’s interesting to see the different ideas that the sculptors have come up with.

Poppy

Posted on June 9, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged four years ago, Gardening, Growing, Hanging baskets, Life, Plants, Poppy, Time3 Comments

We used to buy more plants in the summer, this is a poppy from four years ago. I loved buying plants, but apart from ordering some hanging baskets for my birthday I don’t think we will have as much on show this year. But the trees are growing up and so are bushes. I might try and get some foxgloves…

Growing

Posted on June 9, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Alien, Green, Growing, Horror, Life, nutrients, Pink, Plant, Red, Sci fi, Stairs, stems, Very short storyLeave a comment

It’s still growing, she shouted…

He stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up.

Oh, it’s pushed the top off the jar!

She ran down the stairs….

What have you been feeding it? She asked him.

Just nutrients, he said.

As he spoke, the stems pulsed and coiled. Pink and red cells seemed to glow. Each second the plant or creature was getting larger. Then like a coiled spring toy, a slinky, it tumbled down the stairs…

Run she said. As trailing vines skittered across the floor… But he was rooted to the spot, a tendril found his ankle.

She ran and slammed the door behind her….

Glass paperweights

Posted on June 9, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art glass, Glass, Glimmer, globes, Life, paperweights, Poem, Poetry, SunshineLeave a comment

I love these glass globes

Decorative and pretty

Curved beauty

Colours shimmer

Light refracts

Sunlight glints

And summer

Warms

My tribute

Posted on June 9, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, at peace, Fine Art, Finished, Life, Portrait, Sister, Small painting, Twin4 Comments

Tribute to my lost sister, as a young woman. I promised it but it’s taken months to finish. Perhaps I can finally move on? It sat half done, staring at me. But I feel she is at rest. Art has always been my freedom. I can work through my feelings when I do it. Life has to go on, even though its sometimes really tough.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life