Or not, depending on my mood
My favourite kind of plants are the kind you simply stick in the ground, give them a decent drink, and pretty much let them grow themselves.
I love my garden, and enjoy gardening, but as much as possible I prefer to choose plants that can look after themselves.
This Ladies Mantle (Alchemilla Mollis) is one such plant – it appeared all by itself, as several small plants growing in odd places, so I transplanted them to where I wanted them to be and they’ve all flourished wonderfully well 🙂
With the nicer weather at last I’ve been busy out in the garden lately, and it feels long overdue! We seem to have had such a lot of rain this spring, so everything is growing beautifully, including the weeds.
Of course with my arthritic hip, ‘busy’ these days means doing a bit, having a rest, doing a bit of something else, having a rest, then stopping when I’ve done enough…
I’ve had to learn to over-ride my stubborn tendency to keep pushing myself to do a bit more, just to get something finished – I find I usually pay the price the following day when my hip joint seizes up in pain, so little and often seems to be the best way forward for me.
And at least my garden bench is earning its keep, and it feels good to enjoy just sitting in the garden, contemplating how lucky I am to have such a lovely outdoor space to spend time in 🙂
Yes, I’m nearly there with completing this year’s A-Z Challenge… only one more letter to go! 🙂
‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’
William Shakespeare, As You like It
I loved reading Shakespeare at school, while others groaned and moaned about having to study his plays as part of the curriculum I really enjoyed it, mainly because we had to read it out loud, and personally I find Shakespeare’s words always come to life when read aloud.
I love the way theatrical plays in general show you what’s actually happening live on stage, but also cleverly suggest aurally what’s happening behind the scenes – all those descriptive ‘noises off’ letting your imagination fill in the visual blanks.
Life’s a bit like that for all of us, I think, there is what the public sees – the life that effectively happens on stage – but often it’s the private noises off that build our characters the best, make us who we really are underneath the public persona. Or maybe that’s just me… 🙂
I enjoy posting stuff on my blog
Nothing stressful, so not a hard slog
Written up in real time
Pics and musings and rhyme
It’s my own personal monologue
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
Today’s Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt from Linda is ‘gen’, and what popped into my head was the last two lines from Dylan Thomas’ poem, so I’ve shared them here… 🙂
It may just be me being a bit pedantic but I’m not sure that I’d class pouring as painting so I’m not including it in my A-Z Challenge posts. However, looking at painting tutorials online it seems to be a popular creative skill using acrylic paints so I thought I’d give it a try to see how I got on. And here is my one-and-only attempt at an abstract acrylic pour!
I used only three basic colours, ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, and permanent rose, and layered them together in a cup (using cheap PVA glue as a pouring medium) before turning it over on the canvas and letting it do its own thing, followed by a little tilting from me this way and that to help it stretch and warp the way I found most pleasing.
I used these particular colours because I have some larger tubes of cheap paints I bought to try out which are really not the greatest quality so I was happy enough to experiment with them here. Of course as ever the paints have all dried a lot darker, and disappointingly the final dried surface isn’t nearly as smooth and glossy as it looks here. I should probably have added some white as well to lighten it all up but I didn’t want to waste any of my decent white paint as I use a lot of it in my paintings.
And to be honest I was probably right to make that decision, because even making allowances for the overly dark and brooding choice of colours it all feels a bit too abstract and alien for me as a creative process so even though I wouldn’t class the experiment as a complete failure, I probably won’t be exploring the joys of acrylic pouring again, it’s just not for me…
But at least I’ve tried it! 🙂
I’m a bear with a sore head today
Yet another cold won’t go away
Painful cough and tight chest
Interrupts my night’s rest
Think I’ll snuggle up with my duvet
‘One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal…’
Queen , It’s a Kind of Magic, 1986
There’s been a lot of Queen retrospectives airing on TV at the moment, musical concerts and documentary discussion and often a bit of both, and I’ve been listening to them and singing along with the volume turned up and a huge smile on my face.
I listened to a lot of Queen when I was growing up, from my teenage years in the late seventies through the eighties to Freddie’s untimely death in the early nineties, and I love to listen to it still. I just love the evolution of their music through the years, the way the sound produced by four good friends grew and changed with the times yet remained essentially theirs throughout.
Individually they are all great musicians, each with their own inimitable talent, but together, for me they were nothing short of magic…
For our tenth wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a hand-made heart-shaped hammered tin trinket tray that sits happily on my dressing table in our bedroom – the ten year anniversary is traditionally tin, and I was really touched by such a sweet romantic gesture. As a couple we’re really not into showy expensive gifts, so this little heart truly touched my heart ❤
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