New paintings and regular art updates.
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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I want green, spirals, like pangolin scales. Cactus or succulent, indoor beauty. I wish I could get some more plants. One of ours on the upstairs window sill has sent out a flower spike. If it doesn’t get broken by the cats I will take a photo of it.
I have lots of baby money plants, and the one outside has survived the winter. But I’d like something more exciting.
I’m tending my orchids. One regularly flowers, the middle one got a flower spike on it for about three weeks, and the last one has tiny green leaves which were hiding under a couple of dead leaves.
Then my four amaryllis plants had only one flower this winter.
I love growing greenery inside and outside the house.
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This image was something I did last year. We had some pure white tulips in the garden.
This year we have had less tulips. I think because our squirrel has taken to digging them up in the winter. We are going past the tulip season now. Instead we have Spanish and English bluebells, aqualegia starting to flower and wild garlic and lesser celandine adding splashes of colour to the garden.
Today we were pulling out hunks of ivy from the ground and from trees where its thick stems have scrambled up. We will fill our recycling bin completely over a couple of days. I was also pulling more pieces of Russian vine out of the trees at the front of the garden, it’s amazing how quickly it grows.
Tired and achy. But it’s good exercise.
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These were growing in our garden six years ago. The garden is more overgrown now and we didn’t put in as many tulips this year. I will have to put in more next year. Part of the problem is also the squirrels digging them up. I think they eat them in the winter.
Tulips were precious plants in centuries gone by. Some were more expensive than gold. I can remember the details, but they are beautiful plants. I’m afraid this post is a little lacking in detail. I shall try and add more to it.
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Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent new challenge, a task you love.
I am trying to plant up hanging baskets, but I only have a few plug plants, and a bit of compost to put them in.
Luckily some of my plants overwintered and are regrowing, so I have a few fushia plants, a lobelia, and some trailing plants with pale purple flowers that is in this basket. I’ve put a few begonias in the pot hanging below it.
I put one basket under another to get a tiered effect. Usually these are full of plants, now I’ve done two with tumbler tomatoes which you put in baskets and as they grow they hang down for picking.
Yes these are tasks I love. X
The world is growing fast
But I ache
More things to do,
I ache..
Plants to tend and pot up.
I hurt.
Too much tending,
Too much weeding,
Too much trimming and pruning.
Using sinews I forgot I had.
Back aches,
Shoulder aches.
Hands hurt.
Don’t overdo things?
After years of neglect
My garden is being manicured,
And I ache.
Playing with pattern again, took a photo of the garden on manual exposure and the sky and blossom on the trees was very over exposed, but the darker areas were more defined.
I then did my usual thing of multiplying the image onto four, then turning each square so it lined up into a pattern.
I get a great enjoyment out of creating these semi abstract images. The final result is interesting because of how soe of the foliage seems to float in the centre of the picture.
The sky, bright blue.
Clouds of cherry blossom
float above the ground,
tied down to branches,
so they don’t soar up,
creating pink and white billows,
high up in the cerulean sky.
Blossoming petals,
snowing down in the breeze,
landing on soil and paths,
scattered by the breeze.
Cotton candy flowers,
nourishing the bees.
As I sit quietly at home I’ve realised how good the weather has been, and how much blossom is on the cherry and pear trees. And then, my friends have all been posting photos of blossom near them. Clouds of pink and white.
I will try and get a photo against a blue sky, but I just wanted to share this. The bees have been buzzing so they are happy.
I was thinking how the blossom comes out before the leaves. Is that to make it easier for insects to pollinate the flowers?
Now we need rain, it’s been dry for most of the month. Without it the farmers, who are struggling with lack of workers, will struggle even more. Time will tell…. Cherry’s and pears will ripen, hopefully.
In the meantime the Russian vine we planted a few years ago has started taking over a couple of parts of the garden. It ‘rushes’ along, growing fast, and wrapping itself around everything. My arms hurt after spending a couple of hours trying to cut it back.
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Sketch of new cherry blossom and old Ivy. It was black and white, drawn in uni pin 0.1,0.5, and 0.8 fine line black ink pens ( made by mitsubishi). On A4 paper. USK Stoke-on-Trent 30 day challenge. Day 27…. ! Really? Where has that gone?
Once I’d finished I decided to use a couple of green permanent markers to define where the ivy and other vegetation was. This had the effect of making the blossom more visible.
I’m pleased with the result. I hope the blossom all turns into cherries. We get them from the bottom half of the tree, the birds get the top half!
Mallaband-Brown