Tuesday’s rain has brought our back lawn back to life but, before I cut it, I thought I’d take a closer look at some of the grasses and flowers.
Back Lawn Botany
Category: Garden
Longest Day
I find a quiet bench by St James’ Hospital’s historic workhouse chapel and settle down to draw the cherry tree but get distracted as two town pigeons bustle past me inspecting the turf.
A crow chases a scrawny-tailed squirrel across pedestrian crossing, up a couple of steps and behind a low wall towards birches.
On the artfully boulder-strewn roundabout a blackbird gathers beak-fulls of worms. After a long dry spell, yesterday’s persistent rain must have brought them to the surface again.
The grand Victorian architecture around the hospital attracts me but I prefer to draw something organic. There was a breeze blowing around the cherry tree leaves so, returning after a break, I draw its trunk and the sandstone block next to it.
One of the crows finds an acorn-sized brown object, which immediately interests a second crow which follows it around until the item is either eaten or discarded.
Cat’s ear, self-heal, white clover and daisy grow on the lawn, although the much larger ox-eye daisy, or marguerite, that I drew was in a flower border, alongside berginia.
We have a brief shower in the afternoon, so I head for the church. The multi-coloured round-topped arch looks more byzantine than romanesque to me. There’s another similar arch above it with a balcony overlooking the chancel. As this was a workhouse chapel, I did wonder if anyone with an infectious disease would be put up there but it’s probably more likely that it was originally an organ loft.
Alliums
75℉ 27℃, front garden: The tall alliums are attracting small to medium-sized bumblebees.
Borlotta Bean
We’re growing borlotti beans this year, along with some regular French runners. The advantage with borlottis is that if you don’t get around to picking the pods and using them as runner beans – which is usually the case with us – you can un-pod the streaky purple beans and use them, or dry them to use later.
These had been grown on the kitchen windowsill so, like the one on the bottom left, they were leaning over towards the light. I turned the around to draw them just a couple hours ago and already the stems have straightened up.
Garden Painting Workshop
I did consider taking acrylics and a canvas to today’s painting workshop at RHS Harlow Carr run by their current artist in residence, Hilary Burnett Cooper, but I stuck with my regular pen and watercolour and it was a chance to try my larger watercolour box on location. I recently updated it so that there are fewer strident greenish blues and earthy browns, replacing those with colours that would be more useful for flower painting.
Link
Hilary Burnett Cooper Landscape, scenic and figurative artist
Désirée
As we’re fairly far north here in Yorkshire and on a north-facing slope, we’ve left it until today to put in the Maris Peer second earlies and these Désirée early maincrop. Drawn here to test out the different virtual pens available in Procreate.
Nestbox Wars
It’s that time of year when blue tits and sparrows fight it out for who gets to nest in our various nest boxes. Last year the blue tits raised a brood in the sparrow terrace at the back of our house but after a lively dispute between a pair of sparrows and a pair of blue tits over the blue tit box in the rowan tree in the front garden, the box ended up with no occupants during the breeding season.
History is repeating itself with the blue tits franticly trying to repel the sparrows at 8.30 this morning but the sparrows managed to force their way to the box and, as it turned out, despite the narrow dimensions of the brass ring around the entrance hole, they were able to squeeze in.
At the moment it’s sparrows who are taking most interest in the three-nest hole sparrow terrace but it’s early days and the blue tits could easily be the ones who eventually take possession.
Snowy Morning
Snow, rapidly melting, at the hospice this morning.
The Veg Shed
Like a scene from Peter Rabbit, a woman walks up the garden path to Hilary’s cafe with a large bunch of fresh carrots, holding them by the lush ferny foliage of the carrot tops.
She’s soon back down the shed, returning again with three Petanque boule-size beetroots, again with fresh-looking foliage.
“I only came here for a cup of coffee!” she explains.
Squirrel Baffle
Rainy, grey skies, a wind from the north, so it doesn’t feel like the first day of meteorological spring.
8.30 a.m.: A grey squirrel bounds across the lawn.
It soon realises that it can’t climb around the baffle on the bird feeder post.
It climbs into the hawthorn hedge and you can see it weighing up the possibilities. No, not worth it. It scampers off across next door’s lawn.