Colours of June

These are my Colours for June. What a lovely month it is. So colourful and full-blown - fecund! Wonderful word - describes June beautifully! These are the chives which run riot each year in one of my small herb areas (to call it a herb garden would be a bit too grand!)

This is a honeysuckle which grows over an obelisk in the front flower bed. It's been there for years and always produces the most amazing display of flowers. I have another one at the other end of the flower bed and although it grows like mad and needs cutting back really hard, it produces very little in the way of flowers. Very strange.

I'm so pleased this close-up shot came out so well. It just sums up the frothy, pretty peony and this flower was at its absolute best when I took the picture. Now they're finished and looking sad and pale with brown edges.

This is my hydrangea with almost black leaves. I can't remember its name but I looked long and hard to find one and over the years it has rewarded me with better and better displays of flowers. It won't grow in the direction I want it to and it's a nuisance to mow around, but I just love it to pieces.

EDM 278 - P is for...

This is my drawing for EDM 278 - draw something beginning with your first name. So this is my can of polish. I really wish I hadn't chosen this because my least favourite colours are brown and yellow and it just won't go with my blog design. So I guess I'll have to post something new soon!

I've got one eye on the football as I write this post - England v. Slovenia, the last of our opening group matches. Football really isn't my thing, except at World Cup time and I'm completely connected. Especially because at last our side are playing like the professionals they really should be. So far it's 1-0 to England...

Sketching again at last!

Yes - I've started sketching again. And how I've enjoyed it! We're not talking great skill here but the only way to get that is to keep at it. Apparently!

This is a sketch of a couple of the pots on my patio. The large one is a lily which is almost ready to flower now but nowhere near that when I sketched it. The smaller one is a patio rose which is also now almost in flower. It's done with Letraset Trio markers which I loved using but they bleed so badly in my sketching book that I've stopped using them for now. If only someone made a bound sketching pad in bleed-proof board. If anyone knows of one please let me know.

This was a sprig of lovely, delicate little orange flowers that a neighbour brought in to show me. I can't remember what she said it was but it was definitely worth sketching. The little trumpet shaped flowers are so pretty.

This is my latest sketch, of a half-eaten bunch of grapes. They were very good! Both this and the flower above are ink and watercolours.

April Colours

Wow - spring has come on us like a galloping horse after the dreadful March weather. My tulips are out in the garden - opening their heads for the daytime and closing up again at night. Tulips are my favourite flower but I wouldn't think of cutting any of them to put indoors - I buy those from the flower shop!

I can't think what this is called but it has the glossiest evergreen leaves and at this time of year a riot of huge clumps of tiny yellow flowers. It spreads at will and I let it because I love it. Once I tried to dig some of it out but soon gave up because the leaves are very spikey!

This little shrub has a mate which is a male which I think it pollenates it. It has never looked so good as it does this year - really healthy and happy.

I only put this shrub in last year. It lives close to the house in a rather dry border which is slightly tucked under the eaves so it doesn't get too much rain. It seems to like it though! It has a friend nearby which I put in at the same time (you can just see it against the wall) but that one hasn't got its full summer clothing on yet so one for another post

This shrub has been in for quite a few years now - it dates from the time I planted several shrubs all of which had white flowers or berries. Since then various other colours have crept in but this is the first one to flower. The brown behind it is the beech hedge which has only just started to turn green in a few places.

Colours of March

Only just in time to post my colours for March. These were all taken at the beginning of the month when I was on holiday in Suffolk. The weather was cold and windy but mostly dry and this shot was taken on one of the lovely sunny days.

These reeds looked lovely with the sun shining through them and lighting the tops. Best viewed full size.

This lonely bulrush is really pretty outlined against the water. It was a grey day which is a pity because it would have looked wonderful with the sun on it and against blue water.

The Path

The path through the wood is hushed and soft.

Footsteps of man and beast

lie cushioned by ancient pine.

Centuries of fragrant needles.

The spirit of the path breathes a cool, damp sigh

turning leaves softly over;

whispering through high branches.

Gently shifting the mist.

The way of the path is blurred and smudged

with prints of hooves and paws.

Small paths leave it to explore

while it wanders gently on.

Travellers on the path step quietly. Heads lift

and eyes pierce through the trees.

Nostrils scenting, ears pricked.

They hear the path's song.

The song of the path is ancient and low.

Remembrance of bonds and affinities

forged in ancient days

reach out to touch it.

The colours of the path are earth and tree

snow and leaf. Sky and sunset

seen through bare branches

create stained glass windows.

The seasons of the path turn round and round

one upon the other.

Waking, nourishing, sleeping again

on the wheel of rolling time.

Good dog!

Well, no. He's not my dog. He's a good dog waiting patiently outside a very nice deli while his owner was inside.

That's my husband you can just see inside the shop buying himself a meat pie! Did he make it out of the shop and past the dog with the pie intact? Well of course he did because the little black dog is a very good little black dog. Unlike my large grey dog, Misty, who this morning took off after a muntjac deer on the common near the cottage we're staying at in Suffolk. Half an hour of calling later she came back panting like a steam train but luckily not with a deer hanging out of her mouth.

And that was just today! Yesterday she went after a huge herd of red deer the other side of the common. They were standing at the edge of some reed beds at the bottom of a slope. Misty doesn't know what reed beds are - they just looked like a field of reeds to her. Until she rushed in after the deer, that is. Now she knows what's underneath the reeds - very wet, very black mud!

Misty's a bad dog!