Spot the Spider

Hello friends

No, not a game, that's its name, Spot the Spider.  LoL.

Those of you who know the size of the Sycamore seeds will appreciate the miniature size of Spot the Spider who appears in the first photo.

Both of these photos are very pleasing to me because they have that natural bokeh effect which I enjoy and it's all the more rewarding when it occurs naturally as it does in these two images.

My latest online art course is another one hosted by the brilliantly accomplished fine artist, Ida Andersen Lang, from Denmark, who specialises in using watercolour pencils in her art.

I think I'm going to be a little while longer before I finish this piece so I'm sharing a snap of it in progress today. I'll be doing a more detailed blog soon, when it's finished, showing more of the detail and obviously the finished piece. It's a real challenge for me and one of the reasons why it's taking me a lot longer is it's my first A3 piece. 

I have had some very positive feedback on this painting, not only from my peers but also from Ida herself!!! I confess when I read what she said I had a bit of a squee moment!!!

The weather here in the west continues to be abysmal. We are constantly getting winds now of 40 miles an hour and we have had torrential rain, sufficient to mean that a hose pipe ban was lifted on the 25th of October, mind I can't see anyone wanting to use a hose pipe to water their garden at the moment with all the rain we've been getting. It's gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

To try and keep warm without turning up the thermostat, I have just bought myself one of those oversized hoodies in a teddy bear fleece. It seems to do the job. Last night I actually got warmer than I'd been in a long time. However, the downside is I do look rather like a pink version of Uncle Fester. Then, if you're keeping warm, do you really care what you look like if nobody else can see you? However, before anyone asks, I will take the jump on this and say no, there will not be any photographs.

This morning I had my flu injection so will be taking it easy for the rest of the day and sitting mostly at my painting desk.

Until next time
Stay safe stay well
Debbie xoxo

An Early Morning Bimble About the Borders

Hello Friends!

Thank you for all your kind comments about my drawing. 

Will you join me on an early morning bimble around the borders?  It hasn't been a great week, with emergency plumbing repairs, and my back has had another spasm, so I shall be hobbling about slowly and very carefully using a sturdy stick. The garden is a mess, but thankfully there are spots of delight amongst the wilderness of joy.

The grass is still damp with dew, so do wear something waterproof on your feet, unless you would like to go barefoot and wiggle your toes in the soft, dewy grass.

Let's begin outside the front door where I just adore this old slate trough.  I filled it with some soil topped with pebbles and now some terracotta pots rest on the stones.  I've let tiny things self seed in the trough too.  It looks so pretty right now!  

The old fashioned pinks are full of spicy rich clove fragrance.  They are so special, for they came from a dear friend's garden, and she died suddenly last month so they are now precious indeed.  She was one of my oldest and dearest friends of many years and we shared a passion for gardening that allowed the wild things pride of place.

The Oriental poppies are finally getting some dry days and the flowers are beautiful as ever.

Yellow roses and Rambling roses are opening in profusion now

And geraniums spring up, surprising me, in many places with their eagerness to do well!  I call them the doers.  They fill in gaps, help supress some weeds with ground cover, and send up delicate blooms in a wide variety of colours, for they are promiscuous cross pollinators indeed!  The flowers seem to hover, like tiny stars, often popping up in unexpected places.

The bronze leaf fern is looking good too, and there's a native Hart's Tongue growing alongside it!  I do so enjoy ferns in a shady spot.  

As so often happens, the label is lost.  Sighs.

I couldn't resist a little post edit play on this one!  I don't do it often, only resizing.  What do you think?

Until next time

Stay Safe, Stay Well

A Short Walk

Hello Friends!

I'm doing my best now to get out and about to revel in the glorious Spring weather. It's been a long winter for all of us. I have always carried my camera, but lately have been relying on my phone.  However, I've now started taking the camera as well.  Won't you come along?

Walking is so much more to me than fresh air and exercise. I love strolling along finding things to capture with my camera, but I also find walking is so very good for my spirit too.  Who could not be uplifted when surrounded by such natural beauty?

Right now, the spring weather is incredible.  Each day brings crystal clear blue skies, often cloudless, just blue from horizon to horizon.  Everything seems cleaner and clearer, colours are sharper than I ever recall.  Birdsong is sharper and chirpier, and the heady scent of spring blossoms is intoxicating. I don't know if this is because of the lack of air pollution as a result of Covid travel restrictions, or if it is because I have been hunkered down, indoors, for most of the year, only venturing into the village for my monthly prescription, scurrying along with my head down.  Whatever the reason, it's a pure delight for the senses.

The only down side is we're not getting any rain, and although it's wonderful to be dry when working in the garden, I'm already having to water, and my lawn is yellowing up not so nicely.  April showers did not come, so will we see the flowers that bloom in May?  None of us ever thought we'd be crying out for rain in April.

The wind that blows is coming from the east and north, a cold and drying wind, that chills to the bone, and the sea does not whip into the usual frenzy of white horses we see when it blows more warmly from the south and the west.  Bands of calm, still, blue ocean and a cloudless blue sky contrast against lush, verdant green pastures where the candy floss puffy, fluffy cotton creamy sheep graze, somehow anchored firmly, for they look as if they'd just blow away on the breeze.

Rich, yellow gorse, and dreamy, bridal white blackthorn border the ancient stone walls that form the enclosures and fields that spread across the Shire like a big, patchwork quilt of viridescent green. 

Just look at those distant miniature forests of gorse!

The blackthorn will bring forth sloes, later in the year, and many a bottle of sloe gin will be maturing over the autumn months ready to warm the cockles of our hearts on a long, cold walk in winter.  My hip flask is ready and waiting!  We'll raise a glass to absent friends on Christmas Day while sitting around the fire.

We've had a little rain overnight, just enough to wash the dust away, but it's all change this weekend.  Wouldn't you know it? May Day Bank Holiday weekend and Bank Holiday Monday is set to bring forth heavy rain {not good when the ground is so dry as it will run off and not soak in} and gale force winds {ugh}.  So, I'm making the most of the lovely days, and once more the old familiar routing of battening hatches happens.  It's the visitors and holiday makers I feel for, with limited places open to visitors, what will they do?  Sit in their holiday accommodation, or wander around in the wild, windy, wet Welsh weather? 

Until next time

Stay Safe, Stay Well

A Leap of Faith

Hello Friends!

I have taken a huge Leap of Faith and now the border in front of my patio and French window that looks out over the lawn sports a gaping gap, almost end to end, where the Pieris, buddleia, and Frances E Lester rambler bloomed of late.  They are still there, but greatly reduced in size as they were getting out of hand, blocking my view of the garden and keeping all the late afternoon sunshine off the low, raised borders that mark the edges of the patio and the lawn restricting planting choices. 

It's a risk I've had to take, a Leap of Faith, for I needed to open up the space so that I can find the original edges to the lawn border to enable me to get in and clean it.  It's hard enough weeding on your hands and knees to begin with, but even more difficult when you can't see what you are doing because of leaf laden branches on shrubs, or worse, being impaled on dagger like rose bush thorns. 

I know the rambler will be fine.  Most roses, delicate though they appear, are tough as old boots and respond well to a good pruning.  

The buddleia, well, we all know that they are nigh on impossible to kill.

It's the Pieris that worries me.  It was a gift from Dad's niece.  I have researched it well, and apparently they, like camellias, can take hard cutting back, almost to ground level.  It was getting leggy, all top growth and woody stems, so I've made the Leap of Faith and cut it right back, hard.  Very hard.

 

Now all that's needed is to clean around them, feed them, and tidy up the remains to make good shapes as they regenerate and regrow.

I had planned on making the borders deeper and having a little less lawn, but now I have found the stone edging, which has been hidden for years, I realise it's the original edging put in place by my Mum about thirty eight years ago, and I like it more than I remember, so am leaving it as it is.

Finally, the small, raised border will have better light and fair play for me to plant out the potted and patio roses and lavenders that I so long to see from my window.

Storm Ellen battered us, followed by an unprecedented second named August storm in under a week with Storm Francis. On the day in between I got out and did as much post Summer tidying up as I could manage, and picked another 2lbs of blackberries.  That's four pounds in two picks.  I have already enjoyed an apple and blackberry pie, and turned the rest into juice for making jelly.

I successfully avoided walking headlong into these lovelies and although I doubt they survived the recent weather I know more will have already taken their place.  It might be time to cut those seed heads if I'm going to use them this Autumn.

One of the great comforts during lockdown life has been rediscovering bread making. What a joy it is, to create something so simple yet so immensely satisfying as a loaf of bread.  Here's one I baked the other day, a rustic Farmhouse loaf.  Perfectly crusty on the outside and delightfully light and soft on the inside.  Absolute heaven toasted and slathered in unsalted Welsh butter with Marmite and slightly softened cheese on top.  Of course, you may prefer a different topping.

Then, there have been several bowls of windfalls after the storms.

Sometimes, these apples are Snow White red all the way through.  So pretty, and often the applesauce turns out quite pink, but not this time.

My favourite way to use these up is to make applesauce, but think I'd like to make another applesauce cake again, or an apple topped cinnamon cake. Delicious.  This time, I kept it chunky.

In clearing some corners, I found these.  Mum and Dad were given some garden centre vouchers about twenty years ago, and picked these garden ornaments.  I had forgotten all about them but am so happy to have found them, and I love how they are weathering.

It's funny, I have never been a fan of garden ornaments, but now I cherish these dearly.  I've cleaned them up, not too much, for I love the aging affect of lichen growing on things, and now they adorn the lawn, along with my Ddraig Goch.  I wonder what he dreams of?

Do  not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!  

He needs a small make over, and I think we can arrange that.

In honour of the turning seasons, I have brought out my Autumn Sunflower socks.  They're ever so comfy as well as looking pretty.  Almost too pretty to wear shoes with, but in the cottage of a seamstress, going barefoot, no matter how comfortable, is not a good idea at all.  

My Happy Socks! How can you not smile when you see Happy Sunflower Socks?

Until next time

Be responsible, and stay safe

Deborah xo

A Retrospective of Summer Flowers

Hello Friends!

As I wrote nothing during the last month, I thought I'd take a retrospective look back at some of the photos of flowers I took while I was away. That's away as in not blogging, not away as in on holiday. Chance would be a fine thing.  I had actually planned my first holiday in over fourteen years this Summer. So much for that!  After this look at the Summer garden, it will be time to move into Autumnal focused writing.

We have had a few days that gave a promise, a gentle whisper, that Summer was here, but then she backed away allowing the all too familiar cold wind and rain, more reminiscent of Winter, to rampage across much of the United Kingdom.  April and May were dry, but oh, have we made up for the lack of rain?  Wind and rain, that familiar marriage of garden destruction followed in abundance, yet, nature never fails to amaze with resilience, and the most wonderful way of bouncing back, so in a few days all was on the mend as new growth burgeoned forth.

For the last fortnight, almost all of the United Kingdom has baked, roasted, and melted in scorching, record breaking heat, while in my corner of the world we have shivered, sitting under a blanket of heavy sea fog that kept us cold and wondering what's happened to Summer.  

As I type this, we are coming to the end of three days of an early Autumn storm, Storm Ellen, which lashed us, unexpectedly, with brutal winds and torrential rain.  Little is left in bloom now, and these are all photos I took before the storm.

What little food crops I had left are strangely flattened, even my strawberries succumbed, and there has been a basketful of windfall apples which have already been turned into applesauce.

I am thankful that I brought in the last of the Betty's Smile and popped them in a sweet little vintage, decorative, porcelain vase.

When I look at the corner where the Crocosmia are growing, it is a gentle reminder of the Summer that should have been.  All is not lost, for September and October can be fine months.

Lucifer stood bigger, bolder and brighter than anything else for weeks.  Sometimes, I look at the flowers and see fire breathing dragons with long, flowing tails where seed heads will soon appear.

In the same corner is my white lavender.  It is in need of much tlc, so I think once this flowering season is done I must take cuttings, for although small, it has good merit, is delightfully fragrant and a perfect addition to a tussie mussie.

Another Crocosmia, more orange than fiery red, and much smaller, but no less stunning sits in another corner, bringing flavours of Summer to the border.

Here's a particular favourite photo of mine of Lucifer

Nearby, the buddleia's purple flowers pop brightly, contrasting against the red hot orange, with a flourish of lime green from a nearby shrub. 

As the season slowly turns, so the turn of the Japanese Wind Anemones arrives in the border. Their long, elegant stems sway gracefully, even in the fiercest of gusts; the pristine, white flowers with their bright yellow centres looking like fried eggs atop the bamboo canes of a plate spinning act. I love this flower in my late Summer border.

Turning a corner, there are a few rich, buttery lemon yellow Evening Primrose in and around too, having chosen their own spots to flourish.  Seeds to be harvested soon, I hope.

The clematis finally put in an appearance, but I am sad to say that something has helped itself to bites of both leaf and petal.  Here are a couple of the better ones.

Well, I want to delete that last photo, but cannot find where to click! Piffle. {answers in the comments, please, if you know how!}

The mints are in full flower too, and I really wish I could share the heady, minty fragrance that scents the air in this corner, where Morning Glories also flourish.

A very pretty combination. I love purple, green and white together.  Simple and clean looking, and very pleasing to my eye.

I'm happy to say at the moment, although there are a few blips every so often, and there's a lot of stuff to work out and discover, I am getting on with this new Blogger platform better than I expected, especially given some of the things I have read.  I'll get there eventually, and will not be moving over to WordPress {which I find particularly tricky to use} but hope Blogger leaves things be for a good, long while now.

Until next time

Be responsible, and stay safe and well.

Deborah xoxo