New paintings and regular art updates.
Looking out of a window of a restaurant looking at the trunk of a tree covered in moss. The trunk was cracked and split. It might have been diseased. It was just interesting to see. It made an odd thing to photograph.
Its outside the Red Cow pub up in Werrington. There are views out into the countryside there and the food is really good (if its being served still).
Beware Ents!
Don’t look now
You’re being followed
By a tree
Walking backwards.
Don’t stand on me
Old Ent,
My life is not yet spent.
Go chase the breeze
Attract the bees
Leave me alone,
Please.
Hooked on a tree
In the shade,
With no way of knowing
What time it is?
Weird place to be
Up in a tree.
Did it climb up
Like the kitty
It depicts?
Need to be rescued,
Bought down to the ground.
Into the sunlight?
Yes definitely!
This year we have a good crop of pears on the tree again, the tree almost fell over last year because of the weight of the crop. It now has a post unfer the trunk to support it. The pear cro is already ripening with the skin turning slightly yellow.
Our pears are usually quite big, we collect them in September generally, but they might be ready earlier than that.
With pears they are generally unripe, unripe, unripe, unripe, ripe, mushy. They go from being hard to soft virtually overnight. I’m thinking of poaching some of them. Should be nice.
Strong tree,
tall tree
Sycamore.
Standing proud in the park.
Green tree,
branches waving,
fluttering.
Never still.
Giving shade,
cooling air,
softening the edges.
Buildings round
have pleasant views.
Park trees,
pleasant days
sunshine and showers.
Well that was a busy day. I didn’t sleep because my female cat was having an inoculation this morning and I’d got to get up early. She’s sneaky, she doesn’t like cat carriers so we have a soft big bag that I can put the cats in. I had to hold her by the scuff of the neck while my hubby zipped the bag up. She yowled a lot on the way to the vets, but then settled down as I spoke to her quietly.
All was fine, she was inoculated and I bought her home. She was relieved and so was I!
Later when I went to do some college work she snuck behind me on the chair and went to sleep so I think I was forgiven.
We had an interesting talk about illustration online for a couple of hours. Looking at the use of collage and text in illustrations. Then later I met up with my two friends in the park. I sat and drew a tree and calmed down. I was so tired I could have fallen asleep in the sun. Sitting two meters apart on a roundabout. We gave it a few spins but I’m getting too old for things like that. Dizzy!
Then shopping, home, a bit of tidying and cooking. I have got a few more things to do. Not much of a diary entry. But it was at least busier than normal.
X
The blackbirds sing,
The thrushes too
The robins nest,
Their fledglings new.
A magpie there
And pigeons too?
They congregate
And feed on seed.
Blue tits
and house sparrows,
All had their nests.
Feeding them all
Is our happy chore.
Yes eat your fill,
Of cherries ripe.
We’ve had ours now
The rest, enjoy.
Used a hoe to pull the branches down and caught all these cherries in a brolly today. It was sunny for a couple of hours and the wind had dropped so we took the chance and dodged the rain showers. Picked loads, but there are loads left on the tree.
Now I’ve got to decide what to do with them. I might add them to some gin. Or I could make cherry pancakes.
This is a glut of cherries. If we were not in lockdown I would be sharing them with friends. It’s the biggest crop we have ever had from the cherry tree. If I could freeze them I would but I think they would spoil.
X
Got to try and harvest some more cherries between the thunderstorms.
We got a lot off the lower branches. We need a rake or something to grab some of the other branches. We have almost eaten the other ones we picked. I’m jealous of the birds that can get at the ones on the top branches. It’s great to have fresh fruit grown in your own garden. My friend bought a cherry tree but hers was a sour type. Ours is sweet. It’s worth checking and this tree is self fertile which means it sets fruit without the need of a companion tree.
Happy gardening.
X
From a friend’s photo,
At Astbury just off the A34 near Stoke on Trent and Congelton. I can’t remember the church grounds it is in. The trunk is hollow. It goes to show that it is only the outer layers of plants that are really alive. Water and nutrients are drawn up the trunk by transpiration. The trunk is propped up with timbers.
I once saw an experiment on the TV when scientists cut through a mature tree, they placed the trunk into a container full of water. The tree continued to suck up the water despite being cut, this was because of capillary action. There are tiny tubes in plants called phloem and xylem which are there to take up water and also transport sugars and starches from the leaves into the body of the plant. These are the building blocks of the grass, shrub, flowering plant or tree. I don’t know much more about plant biology though. I’m searching round in my mind for facts from biology classes over forty years ago!
Mallaband-Brown