Spode

Our writing group visited Spode Rose garden this afternoon. The sun was beating down so we took to the shade of the huge old willow tree near the “China” and “1770” end of the China halls. This is on the Kingsway car park side of Spode Site in Stoke-upon – Trent, one of the six towns in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The flowers were past their best because they usually flower earlier in the season. White, Lavender and Blue are the theme colours of the garden because the factory produced the famous Spode “Willow pattern” that mimic Chinese ceramics that were imported into Britain a few centuries ago. Local potteries soon started copying Spode designs but the pots from Spode are some of the best known.

The willow tree had many coins pushed inro it’s bark over the years, but sadly these have been removed by person or persons unknown. The garden has had a bit of damage through vandalism but there is a strong group of volunteers to care for, and recently extend it. More planting can be found around the side of the building and fresh vegetables are being grown in raised beds.

Rose

Soon I’ll know if the roses I planted last year have survived the winter. I put in five of them. Climbers and ramblers. I wanted them to grow on the remains of the hedge our neighbour (a builder) had torn out and made our garden vulnerable to being burgled two October ago. I’m hoping they will make a prickly, but beautiful barrier. I love scented roses and I might try putting a few more in this spring. You can get bare rooted ones that you just use a slit trench (push the spade into the soil and make a slit) to plant. Fingers crossed.

Added shade

I added shading to a rose painting I started a couple of weeks ago to give it more depth. It is one of those blush roses, with pink and red on the edges of the petals and some yellow further down. Roses are beautiful flowers, but the simplest of them, like wild roses, Rosa rugosa, are better for insects to pollenate and collect nectar. That is because the petals are open and the central part of the flower is easily accessible.

Unfortunately a lot of flowers are now being bred to have twice the petals (doubles). They look beautiful and interesting, but they make it hard to pollenate by insects like bees and they are frequently infertile so they don’t produce viable seeds.

Look for bee friendly plants if you are looking for flowers for your garden.

Digital rose drawing

I used to draw at a website called Sketchfu before it closed. It had simple tools to draw with, no complicated applets, and consequently it was open to a large number of people.

Eventually it became a massive site and the owners lost interest in it. I was a moderator and had to deal with a lot of problems over the years I was there. I won’t go into details but it included bullying and inappropriate language and messages. There were a few of us that were allowed to remove inappropriate content but it was hard work. (I also moderated another site but did not disclose my role). When someone draws the same rude or racist image over, and over again for hours, but you are there deleting them as they appear, they eventually get fed up and stop. But if you admit you are a moderator you get a lot of stick, so I kept quiet. At one stage I was working in a full time job and coming home and doing four or five hours moderating!

Anyway I loved creating digital drawings, including portraits. I loved doing challenges. Someone would post a photo and we had to try and copy it. I’ve just found some of my old pieces so I might post a few of them over the next few days.

Rose doodle

Gold felt pen doodle coloured in with more pens then filtered through photodirector. Made up of dashes, squiggles and dots. I do like playing with images. I tend to use the same filters quite frequently. I may try variations on a theme. I added the thorns afterwards. I decided to leave a white background rather than adding another colour to it. Felt pen sketch.