Rain That Isn't Really

Hello Friends!

Here are a few of the flowers blooming in my garden now.  As in previous years, I'm doing No Mow May, and given that the man who now comes once a month to mow for me is on holiday until mid June, it looks as if it's heading towards Thigh High July!!!  Warning: it's  photo heavy on flowers.

Rain is forecast.  The gardens really could use it, and water butts definitely need topping up!  However, on Saturday morning it did nothing more than what I  call damping.  I suppose it freshened things up if nothing else.  Today, it's misty and cold, a mere 17*C, and there is a sea fret.

As explained before, the garden really been left to it's own devices, and between the lawn and the borders there are:  Daisies, Buttercups, Herb Robert, Thistle, Dock, Self Heal, Cuckoo Flower, Clover, Mullein, Hawkbit, Valarian, Dandelions, Foxgloves, Mallow, Roses, Geraniums, Buddleia, old fashioned Pinks,  Poppies of all kinds, Teasels, Evening Primrose, even a patch of Nettles.  The Lavender hedge continues to delight me!  There are loads more that I can't even remember.  I do my best to ensure that "bought in" plants will provide pollinator accessible blooms and a good source of nectar, rather than the pollinator unfriendly double blooms.

It didn't take the Mullein Moth long to lay eggs on the Mulleins!  Decimation commenced last week.

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Moving on to art matters and the 61 day Annual Art Challenge

Day 6/61  "Wild Flowers"

Day 7/61 "Treble Clef"

Day 8/61 "butterfly"

Day9 off prompt

Day 10  Glyph  {I made this mandala using Alchemist's Symbols or glyphs for silver, arsenic, oil, dissolve II, purity, magnet, wax, Regulus II, and alkali}

These are the Sanntangle tiles I have been making, separate from the others.

I have stopped sharing my art on Facebook.  Someone, a public profile not on my friend list, openly, and uninvited, criticised my line work as "needing sharpening".  She has knocked my confidence badly, especially as she does not know that I have Parkinson's Disease and that holding a pen can be a challenge.  A classic example of "if you can't say anything kind, don't say it", or that we don't know what others are going through.  I can take criticism, in fact I welcome it, but not in the negative, destructive way this happened.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and viewing.  Don't forget I do like to know which is your favourite!  And, don't be shy if you've got any questions either, I'll happily do my best to answer.

Until next time

Stay safe stay well

Debbie xo

It's Addictive

 Hello Friends!

Thank you for your kind comments on my previous entry.  I have not replied individually as I'm having a few issues with the laptop.  Consequently, I'm forced into minimising my activity on line.  Thank you, also, for your support over my health issues.  Our NHS is a wonderful thing, but when it lets you down it generally does so with a bang.  I am still waiting.

So without further ado, here are my tangles and ICAD's for the first week.

This first tile is not part of ICAD, but create as part of an online tuition hosted by Sandra Rushton of Sanntangle.

As is this second tile, which I confess was torturously difficult, especially at 2:00 a.m. when sleep was the enemy.  However, once it fell into place I understood it!

Day 1/61 Prompt "Sapling"

Day 2/61 Prompt "Polka Dots"

Day 3/61 prompt "map" I went off prompt with a compass rose, a loosely connected subject.

Day 4/61 prompt "espresso"

Day 5/61 "zebra or stripes"

So, my lovely friends, this wraps up the first week.  I'll be updating every Monday, so I do hope you'll drop by and let me know which, if any, you like.

Here are a few more photos from the garden.  We have not had rain now for a month.  Top to bottom: Papaver Orientalis "Coral Sea", Pink Valerian, Teasel, Native Mullein, and finally Lavender.

Every one of those plants will make the pollinating insects very happy indeed.  Some will provide valuable seeds in the winter for foraging garden birds.

It looks as if there will be a fine crop of long stemmed lavender, and I hope to make a good collection of Lavender Wands this Summer.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie xo

How Does the Garden Grow?

Hello Friends!

Welcome Flaming June! A month of gentle days when roses breaking free from tight wrapped bud do send the fragrant scent of many blooms to float and drift upon the warming air ~~~ in calm repose the weary gardener sits ~~~ whose work is never done ~~~ she listens to the drone of busy bees while drinking in the perfume sweet, her eyelids close, and lulled by the gently buzzing bees she sleeps, perchance to dream ~~~ if only for a moment sweet, swept away on the fragrant air to distant and mysterious lands where ancient wonders wait ~~~

Thank you all for your kind comments over my recent photographic success!
I am still waiting to be called to the specialist spinal injury clinic.  Regrettably, there was a mix up in my paperwork and the referral was not made in March as it should have been, which is why I've not been allocated an appointment yet.  I am now on the waiting list.  I am devastated because, apparently, I would have been seen by the end of March.  When I think of how painful and inconvenient the past few months have been and how it could have been relieved already.

So, the garden remains still loved but unattended.  Nature, however, is doing a perfectly good job left to her own devices, and in the coming months the wildlife will benefit from mullein, verbena, teazels, herb Robert, dandelions, daisies, hawkbit and many, many more wildflowers.

I confess to loving this new, rewilded border arrangement!

Here are some more close ups of flowers blooming in the garden and bringing joy to my world.

The lavender hedge is coming along nicely and is even bigger now than when I took this photo a week ago.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the lovely people who were helping me for two months, so it's all rewilding itself, which I don't mind at all.  However, both my vegetable and fruit patches are desperately overgrown.  I have put out an offer for someone to take care of it in exchange for the produce they can grow, but no one is interested in it.

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How quickly the year has flown by, and Daisy Yellow ICAD is upon us once again.  I am planning two months of tangling, and I've got all my bits and bobs in order, ready to go

I've been doing a little practice run.  

Sadly, I went to sleep in the middle of the second piece.  I woke up face down on my work with my pen bleeding out into a fine, big blob of ink!  Unfortunately, sudden onset nodding off happens now because of the Molotov of drugs I have to take.  It's why they took away my driving license.  I've even dozed off while walking down the street!  It is not amusing.

Until next time

Stay safe and well

Debbie xo