Remembering spring

Posted on November 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, Fun, Life, Pantomime, Spring, Theatre, Warmth, Weather, WinterLeave a comment

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As we sink slowly into Northern Winter, I thought I would post a picture of the spring earlier this year. The buds were starting to burst, the flowers were opening on rhododendrons. The sky was a warm blue, not the cold, grey, scudding clouds of today.

Warmer evenings, longer days… I can’t wait! I don’t want to make time rush by, but please, don’t let it be a long, cold, harsh winter. We already have flooding in South Yorkshire and parts of the South Midlands where towns like Fishlake have been inundated.

Our local pantomime is on in February, just when winter is starting to get really annoying. We are doing Aladdin this time. I’ve got a small part in it. Hopefully I won’t be falling over while I try to dance!

Waiting for Spring.

Posted on October 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Autumn, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Life, Spring, Sun, WarmthLeave a comment

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It’s Autumn and I’m already waiting for Spring! I need to work on the garden, cut shrubs back, plant tulip bulbs, plant snowdrops, then… Wait, wait, wait… Through the cold and rain, through the shirt dates and long nights.

I want to see the baby birds, the squirrel and its kits, the tadpoles in the pond (if we have frogs we must have tadpoles). I look forward to warmer, not too hot, days. Life returns.

In the winter here it usually does not get too cold. But it can be grey, wet and windy.

The clocks go back at the end of October, then the sun will go down an hour earlier, I hate sitting in the dark in the winter, trying to keep warm. Looking forward to the winter solstice when the sun starts coming back a little more every day.

☓

Spring is here

Posted on May 18, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Garden, Gardening, Inspiration, Leaves, Plants, Shaded garden, Spring, Trees, Wild garlicLeave a comment

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Rain, it makes buds swell and leaves unfurl in the spring. We had to wait for it to rain this year. The trees took a while to come into leaf, and although most of the trees in the garden are covered some are just coming out.

I don’t know what to do though, we have a lot of trees in the garden. If you Google map us you can’t see the ground. It does make for a lot of shade! DSC_2003_optimized (2)

But that doesn’t mean you can’t grow interesting plants. The ones in the foreground are wild garlic. We also have some new Zealand plants from a plant fair, and tomorrow we should be getting a few Woad plants!

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The only unshaded part is South at the back of the garden. Apart from a massive laurel Bush that has turned into a bit of a thug of a tree. Sadly it needs cutting back. I’ve got someone coming to do it just not sure when. What I don’t want to do is disturb any nesting birds.

I will take some photos when it’s tidy? Which might be by autumn!

Keeping warm

Posted on April 26, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged April, Black and White cats, Cat, Cat tree, Life, Rain, Shower, Spring, WeatherLeave a comment

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My cats on their cat tree. Keeping warm. The weather is a lot colder now than it was last week. I gave up and put the central heating on. We were out in the rain earlier and I got soaked. We are having hefty April showers. The sky turns dark grey and then hail and rain pour down. The temperature is about 10 centigrade lower than it was a week ago… Typical British weather.

Blossom and pigeons

Posted on April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Blossom, Colour, Fun, Life, Photo bombed, Photography, Pigeons, Pink, Pink blossom, SpringLeave a comment

My picture of pink blossom today, photo bombed by pigeons! I might turn the top half of the photo into a painting, the pigeons just add some movement to it. This year the blossom has been amazing. My cherry blossom is starting to fade and blow off the tree. I don’t know if that’s due to cold nights or drought as the weather has been very dry. There are thunder storms due later in the week. I guess that will remove the blossom.

Butterfly

Posted on April 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Butterfly, Environment, Garden, Ivy, Life, Organic garden, Shrubs, SpringLeave a comment

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Look closely and you should be able to see a tiny brown speckled butterfly on the ivy. I don’t know what species it is but it’s good to see it fluttering around.

It means that spring is really here and that our garden is working. It might look like shrub land but it’s all organic, it’s meant to be a wildlife garden. We even had a hedgehog in autumn. Anyway must get on.

Druid revisited

Posted on April 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Druid, Green man, Growth, Leaves, Life, Painting, Spring2 Comments

I’ve done some more to this acrylic on canvas. I have added more definition around the leaves but tried to leave some of the subtlety of colour in other places. It has some sparkle in the paints to give it a slightly frosted appearance as if leaves have piled up, but the face of the druid is emerging from it.

About 16″ by 12″ this is one of my more abstract pieces based on the green man theme.

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Tag: Spring