Silver birches in front of the chimney at Jessie Shirley’s bone and flint mill in Etruria, Stoke on Trent today. It was very grey and overcast, but the silver white bark of the trees shone out like exclamation marks against the industrial museum background. It’s funny how your eyes accommodate and let more light in than the camera does. To me they really stood out. But they photo is really dull, maybe I should edit it?
I’m thinking of doing some volunteering in the near future to get out and about more, Etruria seems like somewhere to start. x
View of trees and local playing fields up our hill. It was four years ago. I took a photo during the winter and the trees looked skeletal. I put this through photodirector a couple of times to get the textured look. It almost looks like looking through a wet windscreen, where the lines are blurred and smeared. I think I might paint it.
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was trees. I’ve been snowed under with stuff so this is late. Such a lot of prompts to catch up with! I decided to draw a group of trees on my phone. It’s a bit of a misty winter scene. I think it needs more doing to it. But not tonight! Used my Artrage app.
Some years the pears set, the tree is well watered and we get many pears off our tree. But it’s looking sad as the wind blew it over at an angle a few years ago. We had to support it on blocks of wood.
As the branches are horizontal that usually encourages fruiting. But both the pear and cherry trees flowered but we’re caught by late frosts and then strong winds that blew the blossom off. The cherry only managed half it’s crop and now the pear is even worse. A few pears had a fungal infection and had to be thrown away, you can’t compost them as it encourages the fungus to spread. So we only have a few pears to show this year. Here are three. The little one is going squishy so it’s getting thrown out.
Pears are funny, they stay unripe for ages. Then seem to ripen overnight. We will just eat these, as there is not enough for a chutney.
Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
We have an old car, it’s about 23 years old (not as old as the morris in the painting), we can’t afford to replace it. But don’t really want to because of all the resources locked up in it. We only drive short distances now and did less than 1000 miles last year. I rarely have to fill it up with fuel. For local trips we usually walk. It’s a struggle to carry things, but it’s exercise.
I have a bike but I’m too wobbly to use it. But it may well be given to a charity so it can be reused, it would be good to give it to a good home. You only have a short window of adulthood to be adventurous but as you get older it gets harder. My mind is mostly fine but my body is getting worn out and ill.
Apart from that we planted a lot of trees on our garden which have become mature over the years. I’m sure that must offset our carbon footprint. We try and grow some fruit and vegetables too. We also try not to use much gas and electricity. We rarely buy clothes or shoes…..
I could go on. I don’t feel deprived. I’ve never flown and don’t want to and I rarely travel more than the occasional 80 miles to visit relatives. I hope all of this is a good way towards living a sustainable life. We could do more, we try.
Trees, that’s our garden, and leaves in the summer. We planted most of this about thirty years ago. There is an Irish yew tree, an old goat willow, holly trees, a sycamore, a walnut tree that must be 60 foot high, cherry trees, apple trees, ash trees, mountain ash, an elderberry tree, eucalyptus tree, two oaks, and a huge laurel bush at one end that is now tree sized.
Why? We were regularly pruning the trees and we plant perennials beneath them like poppies and geraniums and roses, plus a fig tree and wisteria and ivy everywhere. But for several years we didn’t actually own the garden, we rented it. Then the owner wanted to build on it, but we objected because we would have looked out onto a new house and the garden had become a natural place, with a pond and frogs, hedgehogs and the occasional fox. We have bluetits nesting every year and it’s home to house sparrows and other birds too.
Then we were in dispute and the owner would not let us tend the garden for about three years, so it grew wild and wooly. Eventually though, we bought the land, but by then the growth had got a bit out of hand. The land is where two houses used to stand. But we made it green. This is our way of lessening our carbon footprint…. I’m proud of what we grew!
Shade from trees is wonderful in this hot and humid weather. We walked along under them and they shaded out the sun’s heat. The trouble is the leaves have started to fall…. It’s only June but I think the heat stress and lack of water isn’t helping. As I looked up into the tree canopy I could see some of the leaves were curled up and crispy…. Please let it rain….
Acrylic on canvas painting, work in progress. Of trees and rocks or stones. But I don’t remember what I was doing with it. I found it in the summerhouse while I was helping clear it up. I must have started it sometime last year. Perhaps in the winter. I’ll have to make a story up? Maybe it was too cold in there and the water froze, or the weather changed and continuous rain put me off. I’m going to get my brushes out and try and finish it off….
Magnolia blossom about to open, the ones with the dark pink/purple outer petals and pale pink insides. They are expensive to buy, so this one stayed at the garden centre last weekend. We do have a small magnolia stellata in the garden, but as its been cold here it is yet to flower.
Mallaband-Brown 