Back yard work

Posted on September 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Back yard, Colour, Floral, Flowers, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Life, Microclimate, Nature, Plants, Summer, SunnyLeave a comment

Today we had the task of replacing the plants, hanging baskets and pots in the back yard that we had taken down to have a new fence put in. The next door neighbour had allowed us in to get at his side of the wall so we’ve helped him by clearing back the brambles and Ivy and cleared his path so he can get to the back gate.

Now the pots are back I can see which ones have suffered from drought and the cold. They were all crammed together in our garden (on the other side of the house) but it was cold last night so some things have wilted. We have a real microclimate in the yard and it’s always a bit warmer there. Hopefully they will bounce back in the coming days.

Hanging baskets

Posted on August 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bright, Colour, Environment, Flowers, Fun, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Nature, Plants, Summer, WeatherLeave a comment

Looking great now they have been well watered. The hot weather is really hard on them. If you look at them they wilt. But it’s worth the effort. Lots of colour and different plants. There are lobelia, petunias, begonias, pelargonium and other flowers in them.

It’s spectacular at this time of year.

Fresh blackberries with chocolate icecream

Posted on July 31, 2020July 31, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blackberries, Blogging, Chocolate icecream, Dessert, Eating, Fruit, Gardening, Icecream, Pear tree, Plum tree, Random, Summer, Sweet4 Comments

Ice cold from the fridge, picked half an hour before and rinsed under the cold tap. Fresh from the garden fence (growing through from the neighbours garden), we had a bit of chocolate icecream in the freezer so we added that to the berries. Lots of our fruit plants have been profligate this year. Except for the plum trees? I think the blossom might have got blown off because they are not in a sheltered part of the garden.

The pear tree is almost horizontal, held up with a piece of wood. There are lots of pears set. Maybe I could make a Perry? I could do with a recipe. Mmm getting ideas…

The wooded glade

Posted on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Garden, Hedgehog home, Photos, Pond, Setting sun, Summer, Trees, Water plant, Wooded glade4 Comments

Our garden has paths through it now, down to the pond at the bottom. We also seem to have a spring coming up in it. The trees have grown massively because they are so well watered. I Saw a couple of house sparrows picking up bird food on the ground this evening after a long cold day of rain. I went out when it brightened up and took some photos. So good to have a woodland glade in the middle of a city!

Back yard view

Posted on July 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Blogging, Cat, Environment, Flowers, Fun, Garden, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Nature, Plants, Summer, Terraced house2 Comments

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Doing what we always do this time of year. Cram the back yard full of flowers. We have a big patch of land next to the house, but it’s full of trees and shrubs and fruit trees and a couple of small plastic greenhouses with tomatoes. But the back yard is visible from the kitchen and living room and I love a riot of colour. The baskets are mainly from a nursery, but some managed to survive the winter. My hubby even planted an iris in one of the baskets. We’ve put a couple of lilies in the far end so the cat can’t get near them (poisonous to cats).

They will grow and get blousier. It’s amazing that the brackets can hold three baskets in one go. Water the top one and the lower ones get watered too.

I will post more images as they grow.

My own flowers

Posted on June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bright, Colours, Flowers, Gardening, Heat, Morning glory, Nasturtium, Poppies, Rain, Summer, susunshine, Torrential thunder storms, Water, Weather2 Comments

Last year, painting of morning glory flowers and some poppies. I haven’t grown much from seeds this year. We do have some lettuce plants, but they have probably been drowned by the amount of torrential rain we’ve been having over the past few days. Some places have had a months rain in a day! That compared with six weeks of sunshine in April and May. As usual our weather is topsy-turvy. Basically because of where the United Kingdom is positioned. We get weather from every direction, the Atlantic, the Arctic, Siberia, even dust dragged up from the Sahara. We are a weather magnet!

I want to go and get some seeds and see if I can grow some nasturtiums for late summer bedding, and the butterfly caterpillars love them. They are a nice, spicy, bitter and peppery orange flavour when added to salads and cold soups.

Remember snow?

Posted on June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherry tree, Garden, Leaves, Life, Memories, Rhythm of life, Six months, Snow, Summer, Thoughts, Time, WinterLeave a comment

Six months after this image was taken, and the garden is in full growth. The cherries on the tree are swelling and lichen is growing on the tree.

Life runs in cycles. Soon the height of summer will be with with us. I hope it isn’t too hot. I don’t do heat. Maybe lockdown will end. Hopefully the virus will be bought under control. Only a small percentage of people have died out of earth’s massive population, but that doesn’t make the pandemic any less devastating. Maybe it’s time to think back and remember all those people who have died. Stay safe.

Solstice

Posted on May 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Hemispheres, Life, Light, Moon, Poem, Poetry, Solstice, Space, Summer, Sun, Thinking, Time, WinterLeave a comment

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As the year waxes and wanes,

as time passes,

light rises and falls.

Life comes and goes,

hearing bird song, then silence.

Summer solstice,

the world is warm,

but days will shrink and shrivel.

Winter solstice,

the promise of warmth,

locked in ice,

day lengthens, nights slowly shrink.

North and South

seasons, polar opposites.

Hot in one hemisphere,

cold in the other.

Unless, near the equator,

seasons are less obvious,

No frozen wastes here.

World floating in space,

around Sol, the Sun, our star,

Earth tipped at an angle,

anchored by moon,

held in mutual gravity

Eternal?

Remembering

Posted on May 5, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Beech, Bovisand Bay, Devon, From life, Landscape, Painting, Plein air, Poem, Poetry, Sea, Seaside, SummerLeave a comment

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Bovisand Bay, painted from life several years ago. Acrylic on canvas. This is what I remember…

The beach at Bovisand.

Warm sand beneath my feet.

Gritty rock, specks sparkle in the sun.

Water laps my feet.

Feet sink into soft sand…

Cove enclosed by cliffs.

Blue sky and tiny clouds.

Close growing plants are sheltered.

Back of the bay, a valley nestles in the hills.

A golden grass snake basks in the heat.

I remember.

I remember the thunder storm.

Lightening strikes in dark night.

Watching flashes over the sea.

Awesome beauty.

Remembered.

Morning glory plants

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Blue, Flowers, Gardening, Green, Hanging basket, Landscape, Morning glory, Painting, Plants, Summer2 Comments

A few years ago painted this morning glory as it flowered. I’d nurtured the plant on a windowledge, carefully watered it. Put it outside when the summer was warm enough so it would stay alive.

It was in a hanging basket outside in the garden when I decided to paint it in situ. As I painted the flower opened and then at the end of the day closed and wilted (the same thing happened with the following days flowers). Hard to capture but beautiful. I might do a copy or similar painting.

Acrylic on canvas. Small flowers are lobelia, and the cream ones are surfinias.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Summer