New paintings and regular art updates.
Don’t plant this thuggish, invasive plant! We planted two of them ten years ago and they can scramble and climb forty feet or more in a season! It dies back and leaves tangled vines in the winter but it can grow tough ropey tendrils in the summer. A true triffid of a plant. Hubby was up a ladder dragging filaments of it out from underneath the shed roof and from the alleyway behind our house. It needs more work but it was exhausting for him. I’m tired and all I did was steady the ladder!
I could add edges to this photo and make a more definite heart shape, but I like it as it is. Late summer fluffy clouds drift in a sky that turned cloudy and grey an hour later. Laurel, Russian vine and Wisteria frame the blue. The vine has been cut back and the flowers are turning brown. The Wisteria needs pruning and the laurel is blocking out most of the light in our sunny patch.
Most of the rest if the garden is covered over with trees. The leaves gather light from every gap. It’s amazing how they space themselves so they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
You look up and try and see dragons or puppies in the sky. Dancing horses, faces, hands, ufo’s, giraffes, teddy bears. It’s all there, up in that heart of sky.
The gap where the Russian vine used to be a few hours hard work helping the builder. Talk about building upper arm strength. We are having some fence replaced tomorrow. Then various other jobs done. I ache all over but I’ve agreed to go for another walk in a few hours. I’m hoping it’s doing me good.
First World countries are mostly too sedentary. Say in front of our screens, forgetting that we are essentially all still cavemen and not really built to be sitting down all the time. I’m almost too old to learn that. But I have. I hope I can keep it up.
Our telephone cable and the neighbours has been tangled up in the Russian vine. They came round yesterday and asked us to remove it as it was affecting their phone line. Luckily we had booked a builder to do some work, so he very kindly got up on the neighbours garage roof to cut it back. Now the question is where to ut the stuff! Three huge loads went into our councils brown bin to be collected next Tuesday. We will have to fill it a few more times before we get rid of it all. What I was worried about was the number of wasps around the vine because its in flower. Off out again in a minute to help clear the mess!
I don’t have a photo, but this afternoon we removed what feels like miles of Russian vine from our hedge. I think it’s also called mile a minute. It’s also growing at the back of our garden, and bits of it have grown up the telephone wires and even into our shed!
It was hot outside, so we worked in the late afternoon as it started to cool down. The Russian vine is wraping itself round a couple of leylandii, up an old willow tree, into our walnut tree, and around the Holly tree. It’s tough stuff. We should dig out the roots, but it’s too entangled. So we are cutting through the largest vines, then you pull at it, and strands of vine twenty foot long come out of the hedge. Each vine splits into branching thinner pieces. The leaves are green and heart shaped. It looks like a nice plant when you get it. With small white bunches of flowers in the summer. The bees like it, but our privet hedge flowers and that is more pleasant than the vine.
Unless you have a massive garden don’t grow it!
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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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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Mallaband-Brown