Nasturtiums like poor soil. They have large seeds about the size of a pea. I think they would be great for children to grow. You can plant them in succession over a few weeks and they first put out tendrils with umbrella shaped leaves. When it rains droplets gather on their leaves. Then in late summer, or early autumn the flowers appear. Trumpet shaped, the flower from pale yellow to deep red, with diffeepatterns and stripes as well as full colour ones. You can eat the spicy leaves and flowers in salads or on cold soups. I think the victorians used to use them as food decorations.
Finished at 23.05 today! I’ve done two others and I have one more to do. I’m getting tired. I decided to make the flower quite tight but the wheat and background much more impressionistic. I hope it’s subtle and not weak looking. X
Aren’t plants amazing? So many ways of spreading seeds around the world. From coconuts, to tiny seeds, and ones that have their own parachutes attached so that they can fly miles. Some plants have built in springs, like himalayan balsam. The seed pods pop when they are touched casting the seeds around all over the place. Obviously some plants don’t use seeds, they can create new roots just by touching the ground. It’s called ‘layering’, basically the new plant is a copy or clone of the original.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Rustic. What to draw for this? I looked up milk churn and tractor tyre on the Internet. I have drawn a churn based on one of the images, but not a direct copy and a part of a tractor wheel from another picture. The vegetation is imagined. Felt pen drawing.
Light and shadow become a mask. Eyes in shadow, high cheekbones. Flight of fancy? Do you see it? The light was cast onto the wall and the green and brown strands are the stems and leaves of a spider plant. The image has been mirrored so that there is vertical symmetry. It feels like a view of a cinema screen and could be a super hero or villa. I think it looks like a cross between spiderman and batman!
Sunlight through leaves, making patterns on the kitchen wall. It would be brighter but the wall is painted a pale apple green. When there was a partial eclipse a few years ago the light hitting the wall turned into increasing crescent moon shapes as the Moon passed in front of the Sun. This time of year, before the autumn sets in, there is a lot of shade from the trees in the garden. The pear tree is casting most of the shade on the wall, and a few pears have started to fall as the morning temperature reduces. I can almost feel a chill in the air this morning.
Soon it will be the vernal? Equinox, when the day and night time are in balance in the Northern (and also Southern) Hemispheres of the Earth. That is when both day and night are exactly 12 hours long. Soon the days here will shorten, whilst they grow longer in the south. I hope the nights are not too cold, I would like the leaves to stay on the trees as long as possible. I always feel sad when they become skeletal in the winter and the long wait till spring comes round again drags on. I miss my flowers as they wilt and fade, and I find it harder to motivate myself in the dark days of winter. But that is a while away yet, so I will enjoy what is left of the summer while I can.
I just optimised about 100 photos on my phone, but as usual it’s mixed everything up now. Photos I took yesterday are right down my camera roll and this picture I created digitally is now number 1.
There must be a logical explanation for what happens but I don’t know why. I’m not a computer expert so I don’t understand the ins and outs of what is going on. Still it’s interesting to see old photos popping up again. Mostly ones I have made into patterns.
A less blurry shot of the yard. People asked me why its not as dried out? I think we have a microclimate. The yard is enclosed by bushes and the houses. The sun comes round in the afternoon but doesn’t stay on it for too long because we are on the ‘wrong’ side of the hill so it gets shady at East an hour before sunset. I also think because there’s a wall and we cram plants together everything stays moist. I have trouble drying my washing because it gets quite humid. Also because I put one hanging basket under another when one gets watered it flows through to the bottom one. And as they are underneath they are a bit more protected from the hot sunshine. Each pot has a bowl or a saucer underneath to catch and keep the water and I make sure each pot has crocks or broken polystyrene in them so the roots don’t get swamped.
Cherry tomatoes from a little hanging basket in the yard. They ripened over the last few days. Each one is a little burst of flavour. Sunshine in a red, shiny, tiny globe. Held in a yellow bowl. Delicious in today’s salad. We don’t grow much of our own produce but it is great to harvest things like this.
Mad back yard. The heavy rain has pepped up all the plants. You have to avoid the baskets. I want to put some washing on the line but it’s clouded over again. I’m tired and hot. A friend came round and after a cup of tea helped cut back part of a large bush that had layered itself (spread outwards with side shoots). Of course I stayed inside for most of the time, but decided to say hi after a rest and ended up helping a bit by cutting off small twigs. By the time I came back in I was exhausted and tired out, hence the shaking. But looking at this really cheered me up. A real plethora and pleasure of flora!
Mallaband-Brown 