Croft Castle

After a cold, wet and windy start to the weekend the weather improved enough to enjoy springtime for a day and a half at Croft Castle recently. I was probably a week or so too early to enjoy the full beauty of the bluebells and wild garlic. Bluebells were everywhere though and the gorse was in full bloom where it had colonised the areas of the woods cleared a few years ago. I wonder how the National Trust are going to keep the spread of brambles at bay? The walled garden looked beautiful with apple blossom, wisteria, clematis, tulips and lots of other flowers in bloom.

Flowers: opposite-leaved saxifrage, violet, wood anemone, gorse, bluebell, wild garlic, wood speedwell and others (I knew I should have made notes, I got distracted by the shear pleasure of being out on a walk).

Birds: coal tit, buzzard, nuthatch, robin, blackbird, wren, treecreeper, possible song thrush singing, greater spotted woodpecker, small tweety things, black cap, grey wagtail, chiffchaff, pigeon/crows and I am sure a few other things.

Black Hill, Clun

Distant hills, grey through the fine mist,

blend indistinguishably into the sky,

from where minute water droplets

land with a delicate tapping

upon windscreen and roof.

Dandelions closed, sunshine absent;

yellow broom and gorse tussling

in the gusting waves passing over hill and tree

as if with the chastising threat of a heavy hand.

Lambs bleat, wren, chiffchaff and blackbird,

delicate in the face of weather's dominion

that here, on the edge of the uplands,

more visibly asks for observance 

and submission to its omnipotent power.

The darkening mist gradually dissolves

the uplands into silhouetted forms, 

devoid of springtime colour.

Out of half opened window I gaze out

enjoying not being bound to time

nor the desires of the world.

Earlier, I looked at a hillside tree 

on the other side of the valley -

our distance separated by the thickening mist.

Between us, an old landscape, quiet and still 

belonging to the whims of nature and farming,

not degraded by the necessity of towns

or the warehouses of consumerism.

My tree is now lost to the darkness

and, in the beating rain drowning out the wind,

together we share the night and await the new day.

Spring Fox

Drew this a few weeks ago, another illustration experiment using Affinity Designer. This reminds me of some apple orchards I saw in Herefordshire a few years ago which were full of daisies during blossom time.

Easter Garden

Warm spring sunshine has at last brought life to the garden. A couple of weeks ago we were still getting frosts so the warmth of this past week has been welcome. Tulips and wallflowers are in full flower and the apple blossom is just opening. Today is Good Friday and I planted most of my remaining seeds this morning and the garden finally tidied up by tea time. Each year is full of tweaks to various ways of doing things with the hope of a good growing season ahead and time more efficiently spent on management. Last year worked well despite the intense heat and I hope this year will be better. I would really like a veg patch that is an overflowing wilderness of plants and flowers with all available ground being productively used. I am not sure what the secret is - plants have a mind of their own with unpredictable successes and failures and that is without the vagaries of the weather to contend with. But you know all that.

The 'trampoline greenhouse' had a makeover and is now covered with commercial thermal anti-drip polytunnel polythene and should last a few years. The greenhouse is not fully sealed, being open at the back where it leans against the fence. The metal framework was covered with cloth and tape to protect the polythene from hot spots/wear. Thus it is more of a large cold frame designed to keep the chill off plants and provide warmth without overheating. Plants started off in here last year did very well.

There is a cold frame next to this that I have had for many years. I recovered this with polythene and changed the polythene front to wire netting. This will also keep the worst of the weather off seedlings without them overheating during the day.

The aluminium greenhouse frame I obtained from a neighbour last year has been cut down in size by a quarter and is now covered with netting. In here I will grow purple sprouting. It won't be butterfly proof but it will keep the pigeons off the plants. I will then move it to a new location next year. I try and move things round each year, not in a strict rotation though. 

Here is what I have/intend to sow/plant this year:

Vegetables:

Potatoes (charlotte and rocket)

Red onions

Garlic

Chard 

Spinach

Climbing beans

Drawf beans

Cucumber (outdoor type)

Courgette

Tomatoes (cherry, on cordon type plant)

Radishes

Carrots (in a planter off the ground)

Lettuces

Salad leaves

Flowers:

Wallflowers

Zinnia

Cornflowers

Stocks

Sweet Peas

Mixed annuals

Herbs:

Mint, Chives, Sage and Parsley to replenish and bulk up existing plants

Gardener's Lunch

A couple of weeks ago I was intrigued to try the app Affinity Designer for iPad to see how it compared to Adobe Illustrator. Although more fiddly to use on an iPad than perhaps it might have been on a large screen desktop computer, I was very pleased with the result. Being able to blend vector and pixel modes was quite a treat and I was quite surprised how slick the app was once I had got the hang of it. It lacks some key functions of Illustrator, but as an up and coming competitor to Adobe I was impressed with it. Might invest in the desktop version at some stage as it is soooo much cheaper for individuals like me.

Clifftop Walk

A quick sketch from memory of the clifftop above Durdle Door in Dorset.

Seaside Town

An imaginery seaside landscape I worked on a few weeks ago. It was just a playful Procreate illustration exploring a few ideas.