New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m doing a few more pictures now. The yellow Bee on a yellow flower needs refining, I might make the centre of the flower a bit more orange or gold. The Holly was a bit of an experiment. The background is quite abstract. I might paint a banner across it saying Holly and Ivy, and add some Ivy scrambling up through the Holly plant. Or I might just brighten the Holly berries. Not sure…. More to follow.
I know the plants at the back but what are they at the front? Spikey little rosettes with little red flowers. Like little hens hiding in grass! I know a lot of things but not this and didn’t see a label to explain what they are. Seen at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales last Thursday.
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Daliah with hover flies. Another form of pollinator. They are so similar looking to bees with yellow and black stripes although they are quite a bit smaller. They really do hover almost like humming birds.
I like these daliahs, I like the simplicity and bright colours and because they are not double flowers the insects can get at the pollen easily.
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Why are people so destructive?
The waiting room gallery looks after a part of Longport Station and is trying to restore part of it. They have also planted shrubs and plants to improve the site. But they caught someone pulling up plants. Stealing them! This shrub was rescued and put in the sink to stop it drying out. It’s going to be replanted. But I can’t get over how mean people are. We also saw some broken windows. Can’t people leave things alone?!
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.
Never seen so many pears on our pear tree! This year there are over fifty. Sometimes the flowers don’t get pollinated, get caught by a late frost. Or it’s to hot and dry in the summer for them to grow. Sometimes we get too much rain and they swell up too quickly and split. Last year a lot got blown off in June. The tree leans over so we propped it up this year to stop it getting twisted by the wind. Perhaps that’s why we have a bigger crop. Anyway fingers crossed for a bumper harvest. X
It’s all berries, flowers, and spider webs.
The temperature is rising again and the fruit is ripening. The spiders in the garden are busy catching pests, and flowers continue to emerge.
Watering plants is important, especially in hanging baskets, I’m afraid mine have started to wilt.
My hubby has counted about fifty small pears on the pear tree, which is growing at an angle because it’s top heavy. We have used a piece of timber to prop it up. We also have quite a few green tomatoes, basically because they are in too much shade so are not ripening quickly.
Life continues, cats mooch round the garden trying to pounce on the odd wood pigeon. I keep our cats in but can’t shoo the neighbouring ones away easily.
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We planted lots of cucumber and squash plants this year. But this was all I managed to grow.
It’s about 7 or 8 centimetres long and curled round with a thin stalk end and a bulbous end where the initial flower grew.
What to do? It’s come loose from the stem so it’s now in the fridge. I’m going to peel off the rough bits and chop it up finely. I might add it to some spicy tomato chutney I’ve got in. Then I will add that as an accompaniment to some cheese sandwiches on fresh brown bread. I hope that is a suitable use of my little friend.
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PS… It was very tasty!
We have two small blueberry bushes on loan from a friend. They sit either side of the back door. One bush is sad and half died off. The other is healthy.
But it’s the blueberries on the tatty bush that are starting to ripen. As you can see they start out green, gradually swell and then the blue works it’s way over the fruit from the top to the base where it is attached to a stalk. I think they will get darker blue than this.
I haven’t been on line much today because I’ve been tidying up the jungle if a garden we have. Deadheading my hanging baskets. Watering the plants and tidying up the shed. I’m pooped! 
Here are a couple of the baskets I’ve been working on. I like the multilayer look. There is ivy growing up the wall so it looks quite nice.
The crop! These are off one scraggy bush in the garden that was surrounded by stinging nettles. There is one red one somewhere in the jug from another bush but that one didn’t fruit well and we only found the one. I’m thinking if making a gooseberry and apple pie or cake. I think I’ve got the ingredients in to make one.
Gooseberries are not that popular and have a distinct taste. I can’t explain it, sour, green and fresh? I don’t know if you can buy them from a shop or supermarket, because they are a bit unusual. If I make something I might post a photo.
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Mallaband-Brown