New paintings and regular art updates.
Wildflowers, on the pavement, Stoke. I can almost see green men in this duplicated image.
There are wildflowers springing up everywhere on pavements. I guess the local council aren’t spraying weeds like they used to. Hopefully the bees are enjoying these bonus flowers.
When you make a collage of a photo you never know what you are going to get. This one seems to have animal faces at the centre, but it’s only fallen leaves on pavement. The effect of seeing things that are made up like this, or animals in clouds, faces in buildings, is called Pareidolia.
The joy of tulips. Now a normal spring flower, but a couple of centuries ago they were wildly expensive in the Netherlands. Tulip mania or fever took over and single bulbs went for sale for thousands of guilders. Tulips were getting a virus that made their flowers ‘break’ or go from plain colours to striped ones. Probably a bit like the red and white striped ones above.
I’m loving the wrinkled flower buds that are slightly green but have slight red markings. As they grow and open the colours can change and develop.
These are outside our house, on the pavement. I’m so pleased no one has touched them, some years we have had all of our daffodil flower heads broken off so I feel luck the display has been left alone. Now I’ve got to find new plants to create a succession of blooms later in the year.
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was railings. It was posted on Wednesday night before Thursdays news. I ignored the prompt yesterday, but it became obvious what I would sketch. This is not based on reality but taken from my imagination.
They grew, but haven’t ripened yet. I was hoping the hot sunshine would help turn them blue.
In other news we had to move all our plants off the pavement in front of out house. Workmen are putting in fibre optic cables and will be digging in front of our house tomorrow. So the poppies, festuca grass, nasturtiums, passion flower and honeysuckle and ivy all had to be moved. We could see mats of roots under where the pots had been. I hope they all survive and we can put them back.
When I come home it’s lovely to see the Lilac in flower, it’s turned from a bush to a tree. I think the Latin name is Syringa? The white is unusual and we have a white buddliea behind it that comes out a little later. The bees and butterflies love it. Then in front of the house on the pavement we have an assortment of yellow and purple flowers including the aqualegia and Welsh poppies. There are also pansies and other plants. Later on the year there will be nasturtiums. I’m surprised we’ve only had one pot taken in all the years that my hubbies been doing this. It cheers me up.
The door is a mouth, the eyes could be the windows or the lamps on either side of the door… The cross above the door could be a nose. Pareidolia, the phenomenon of seeing faces, figures or animals in other images, be it a building or a mark on a pavement…
For instance I can see the shape of a lion or a cat profile here in this spilt liquid on the pavement….
A half mile from home along slippery, icy streets. The air was getting colder, falling below zero, ice crystals making Frost on the road surface. Not enough gritting? They were out later.
When you walk with someone with long strides and you only have little legs you have to move faster to keep up. That’s OK in normal weather, but in snow and ice its difficult. I got over it by holding hands and telling him not to pull me over! We got home safely.
Nasturtium with varigated leaves and other plants that are in front of the house. The only problem is the litter that blows about outside. Now I wear gloves or pick it up in a plastic bag to dispose of it.
Today I saw several discarded marks just lying on the pavement mixed with the fallen leaves. How horrible that people won’t take care of the place they live in. I hate the way they take no responsibility for their environment.
Our plants out the front are doing well although I’ve seen people through the front window, stopping when walking their dogs, no doubt to pee on the plants! Still I’m glad we grow them…
Took a few photos of wild flowers (or weeds) this morning. Things for bees to feed on. But I didn’t see any bees.
The city seems to be full of plants pushing themselves up through cracks in the pavement and along the kerbs of roads. I also saw that green areas which were once lawns now covered in wild grasses and flowers with just a meter round the edge cut back. I did notice that the local main road that was covered in wild flowers a couple of weeks ago have now been weedkiller. The worry is that any bees that sipped from them when they were sprayed will have been poisoned. Madness. I’d rather have weeds than dead bees.
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Mallaband-Brown