New paintings and regular art updates.
I know the plants at the back but what are they at the front? Spikey little rosettes with little red flowers. Like little hens hiding in grass! I know a lot of things but not this and didn’t see a label to explain what they are. Seen at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales last Thursday.
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The first one is various daisy flowers, cone flowers, asters and grasses in the fountain flower bed at Bodnant Garden.
Then there is a drawing of pine trees and evergreens. Waterplants and other species. With an added Robin, along pools and a stream, at Bodnant.
The third is my hubby walking on the beach at Prestatyn this morning. He was trying to fly a balsa wood plane in drizzle and rain….
Finally, sitting in the car looking at Llandegla Forest this afternoon. Door open, just while I was waiting for my hubby.
Cold, wet and windy. But Prestatyn beach this morning was also clean and sandy. The rain showers blew over and although the sun didn’t shine it did try and break through the clouds.
The seahorse is something I drew on the spur of the moment. I usually try and draw a running horse, but this one wanted to be wrapped in mystery, my hubby called it a Merhorse.
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It’s turned up! I think it’s because I deleted about 80 pictures. The colours are not as intense as I saw them, but cameras and eyes work differently. If I had taken this on film I would have used iso 400 film (I don’t even know if they make it any more). It would have enhanced the depth of colours.
I took a beautiful photo of a very strong, bright, double rainbow, when we were in Llangollen earlier today. It was the best rainbow I’ve ever seen. But my mobile phone is not working well. If I put something on Instagram it duplicates the photo. It also seems to duplicate other photos. I keep having to delete lots of photos (which I did this afternoon after missing the spectacular rainbow). The photos are Mb not Kb. I wish I knew how to change the file sizes. I will have to find out how.
Red sky this morning, harbinger of bad weather. An ex hurricane no less is on its way. Now the curl of wind and rain is arriving, heavy rain washing down the sides of the caravan, beating the roof. Trees bending in the prevailing wind so their branches form the characteristic bent double pose, like a person turning their back to the wind and leaning forward, head down to try and avoid being blown over.
Time to hunker down and keep warm while the storm whirls out to sea, its winds whipping up the waves. To shuffle as far as you can under the duvet until it is snatched away from you by human hands not the wind! Listening into the night for possible broken branches. (Only its more likely to be a damp squib as I’ve just heard on the weather forecast that it’s mainly going to track up the west coast of Ireland and the Irish Sea?)
My romantic idea of a dark and stormy night? So much for red skies in the morning!
Bright colours
Extend the season,
Bishop of Llandaff,
Daliahs, Red.
Verbina and ice plants
Feed the bees.
Roses and autumn crocuses.
Asters and cone flowers
All sparkle and show.
Dont fade yet,
Wait for the snow.
The weather is changing, getting colder, wet and windy and the leaves are starting to change on the trees. 
The Acers are the ones that turn deep red and orange, at the same time the seed pods also turn bright red.
All of thus beauty can be found at Bodnant Gardens in the Conwy Estuary, near Llandudno in Wales. Travel along the A55 and turn off at Llandudno junction and take the A70. Up and down some hills you will see a National Trust sign on your left hand side. Follow the long drive up to the car park up a hill on the left. There is a green pavilion at the bottom of the carpark by the drive and you walk down and past it into a landscaped spiral ramp down to a tunnel under the road and into the garden centre, shops, and entrance into the gardens.
There are tall trees, pines, redwoods, Acers and oaks. Autumn flowers and mountains in the distance. Formal and informal gardens surround the Bodnant Hall with an old conservatory or greenhouse attached to it. There is no entrance to the hall but there is plenty to see anyway.
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We stopped off at the village of Betws y Coed on our trip through the hills and mountains of Wales. It’s at the junction of the A470 and the A5. The village has numerous shops and is always busy with tourists. There is an environmental feel to the shops that line the front of the train station, with images of gorillas encouraging visitors to the village to support and donate to charities that are working to stop them being hunted to extinction.
After lunch in a cafe with recycled lampshades made from discarded plastic, we had a look at the station. My hubby went off to the model shop and museum over the railway bridge on the other side of the train track. My sister and I went to browse the shops.
Finally back on the road. More photos to follow.
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I think I need a longer holiday. One whole day by the sea plus travelling there and back makes for a tiring schedule. Maybe we should have taken the train to Llandudno. I will have to find out what the service is like. It is so muggy inland, I miss the cool sea breeze.
Up on the Great Orme mountain it was lovely. With views out over the sea and looking into a misty sky.
The town itself seems to be much improved since we visited about ten years ago. More things to do. We did bump into a homeless man selling the big issue magazine. He is trying to raise enough money to buy a motor home to live in. At least he has a job selling the magazine that he can help to support himself.
I have to think there but for the grace of God.
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Mallaband-Brown