A July filled with Flowers.

With July almost over it had to be time to pop in and say hello to this rather neglected blog.
I've been having a sort of semi creative break for a while, so haven't got anything totally finished in the way of art to share... but I have flowers, so many flowers.  My July has been a July filled with flowers.
Flowers are I believe, a good way to balance the negative news that seems to be happening in the world almost on a daily basis these days...
Lets begin with a walk in Gloucestershire. The Slad valley, home to Laurie Lee. Cider with Rosie country.  A warm but overcast day, quiet except the gentle hum of bees and summer soothing sounds of cricket and grasshopper. Marbled white butterflies flitted from one knapweed bloom to another.  Fields of wildflowers, scabious, clover, orchids, yellow rattle dotted the fields.

We passed an orchard with the prettiest white cows and apple trees laden with mistletoe. 

Through a wood where a faerie had been busy making a home  

And a holloway,  silent yet so full with the whisperings of ghost horses and travellers.

“Bees blew like cake-crumbs through the golden air, white butterflies like sugared wafers"

~Laurie Lee Cider with Rosie

Take my hand, follow me to the purple scented fields of lavender...Somerset Lavender

Now if I had brought with me a discreet blanket and soft pillow then I would have been quite happy just to have laid myself down between these rows and spent a whole day and night here, breathing in this wonderful heavenly scent and soaking in it's energy.  Do you think anyone would have noticed me? ;-) No doubt the bees would have and maybe the hare that has been spotted in the fields on occasion I hear. 

This was my first ever visit to a lavender farm and now I would like to have my own. So I bought two little plants of the favourite variety to start me off on a small scale. :-) 

After browsing the shop filled with all things lavender, I bought some essential oil and then we sat for a while on this bench soaking up the surroundings and eating lavender ice-cream. 

Such a lovely place, if you are in the area then you must definitely pay them a visit. 

There were other  flowers at the farm too. The sweet peas were a joy to behold. The scent took me straight back to working many years ago in a local hotel. The smell of beeswax on old wood, and picking the sweet pea posies for the freshly cleaned cottage rooms. I always loved that simple task of putting a posy of flowers in a guests room to welcome them.  

More memories are stirred seeing  marigolds. Bright and cheerful and the smell and sticky, sappy marigold scent of childhood summers.

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”   

~Claude Monet

And now to home and to the little patch of Earth that I lovingly tend to. Such magic that comes from a tiny seed scattered on bare earth.

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” 

~ Iris Murdoch

I am not normally someone that is into bedding type plants or hanging baskets but this year I couldn't resist this petunia which I have just planted on the edge of the border. It is surely made of velvet! The purple black reminds me of a Queen's gown or cloak in a fairytale Or the Queen of the night from the Magic Flute? How wonderful it would be to design a fairytale garden.. . Now there's a thought.  

My rather delicate Tolkien inspired structure that I shared earlier, has survived so far and has sweet peas blooming now and is doing it's job rather well.  

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”

~Victor Hugo -Les Miserables

Flowers give so much pleasure and scent can really lift your mood. So if you are feeling  sad with the world or lonely or just want to lift your spirits, take the time to go out and smell the flowers and if you haven't any nearby then go on, treat yourself and buy a bunch. We need the return of flower power! 

“Find gratitude in the little things and your well of gratitude will never run dry.” 

~ Antonia Montoya

I shall leave you with this little angel that flew inside the other day. A plume moth. Plume moth caterpillars feed on bind weed so please please remember to leave some in your garden for this sweet soul.  Its all in the little things...

Watching Spring Emerge

Sweet primrose scent has entranced and stolen me away. Sometimes the pull is too strong and I have to just stay. So I sit and watch and breathe the perfume that takes me back. Back to my childhood days, playing in fields and scrambling up primrose banks and railway batters with mud on the knees of my old trousers. My nose in a posy of primroses, cool and soft when brushed against my cheek. One for Mum and one for my Nan, that lived next door.  That sweet delicate smell always steps me back in time.  

And I stay some more and watch the Spring unfold before my eyes.  Bees and brimstone butterflies beneath blue skies. 

I could stay all day, just sitting and watching,  there is always so much to see. But I have painting to do so I bring the outside in with me. 

Back outside for a tea break. I would have missed this beautiful bee fly if I had drank my drink indoors, sat with head in a phone or iPad.  

 From my desk I always get a good view of the latest visitors, normally the feathered type, but sometimes furry ones too.

So things have been a little slower. this month. Taking time to smell the flowers and watch the wonders of Spring emerge. And jobs in the home and garden, digging and seed sowing and giving the house a bit of care and attention.
The parliament is finished. I will miss them hanging here watching, with a knowing look in their painted eyes. But, they have given me an idea for a painting, so they will be back in 2D form.

In between there has been cutting out of more wooden hangers. Below is the Spring Wizard in progress.

And here it is finished.

All of the hangers will be added to my Etsy shop on Monday April 25th at 7.30pm (UK time)

***

Enjoy your weekend, I have golden beetroot to plant and more digging to do!

P.S...Mrs Thrush now has a nest in the honeysuckle. :) x

Light to outshine the darkness

Some light, to outshine the darkness. Pictures captured a few weeks back, from that time of day when another realm is glimpsed, and all manner of magic seems possible? I found words in the misty labyrinth of this woven inter web to go with them.

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King

“The Warrior of the Light is a believer. Because he believes in miracles, miracles begin to happen. Because he is sure that his thoughts can change his life, his life begins to change. Because he is certain that he will find love, love appears.” ~ Paul Coelho

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”

~Og Mandino

Never let the light fade... I've added these words to some hangers that I've been working on.

Foxes, midnight blue and red ones. This was a design planned back in March, but has only just been brought to life. 

I've made 10 of these, and each will be added to my Etsy shop on Monday 17th August at 8pm (UK time) There will also be birds and some hare pendants.

It's been a quiet summer here. In between painting, I've been also painting the kitchen, pottering in the garden, enjoying the sunsets, meteors and scent of night scented stock. Watching birds, wishing I was a bird, wishing I was a seagull, (one that lives on a wild cliff top dotted with thrift, not a cheeky one that hangs about dustbins or steals fish and chips) talking to the squirrel in the nut tree that has eaten nearly all of the nuts this year (before I got there :/) and reading Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy (finally)

It's important to talk to flowers. 

And watch spiders, weave worlds within worlds.