Bills Garden Now

We had a lovely afternoon in Hereford today. Bill had some Wyevale Garden Centre gift vouchers left over from his birthday and hes been hankering for a giant rhubarb plant for the garden for ages. He filled in the small pond with compost a while ago when he was doing the second level of the garden, this has created the perfect environment for this plant. It likes a boggy setting.

The leaves can grow up to 10 feet across, so it will be interesting to see how it does here!

I also got a beautiful black and white striped reed that will grow in the same place.

On the way out we spotted some beautiful clay pots with Alpine plants growing out of them.

The pots were beautifully aged with moss and algae growing on them--couldn't resist getting 3 -especially as they were reduced!

The 2 tall ones will sit on the steps and the one in the round bowl will look lovely on the table on the bottom level.

We had bought some plants at the craft fair yesterday, I wanted something that would compliment the beautiful blue flowering plant (no idea what its called) and found a lovely pink flower with dark red foliage-it looks lovely against the light gravel.

We have also bought some fun items like the digging dog statue and the happy face planter from the boot sales. Its taken a while but its all been worth it.

We were looking forward to having a BBQ this weekend but the weather forcast is not promising, so we will have to see what happens!

Bill Garden

This is how it all looked before the transformation! What a difference!

Fathers Day

We had a special little visitor this morning--our little grandson Callum came to visit with his mum and dad as it was Fathers Day.

I think hes being a bit optimistic if he wants to catch that fish with the net he has in his hand!

It was the first time they had seen the garden since it started its transformation and they all thought it was great.

Little Callum was kept busy picking up the stray stones that had found their way onto the stone circle on the bottom level!!.

Trouble is with the garden being on three levels ,its not very child friendly and you have to watch the grandchildren all the time to make sure they are safe. Concrete steps are not good to fall down!

A Palette With A Difference!!!

we called on Bills sister this morning and she happened to mention that when she and her daughter Mary-Jane called at the local garden centre the other day they spotted in the sale section a garden ornament with a painting palette on it.
As its only a minutes drive from her home we called there on our way home and to my surprise it was still there! I loved it.
It was reduced from £29 down to just £9 so it was an absolute bargain!
A beautiful painted Wellington boot with toadstools and flowers and a painting palette complete with brushes and paint brushes. There are 2 places to put plants on it.
Its too nice to put outside so for now its in our front room with a couple of house plants on it.
What a good job Maureen mentioned it!

Some Inspiration

Can you guess what these pictures are?

I took them all with the digital camera on the way home last night-they are all from car head lights and the snow!!

Its given me some ideas for some future paintings!

The snow was coming down so heavy at one time you couldnt see more than a few yards, we had to make a de-tour because of a fatal accident on our usual route.

we were glad to get home I can tell you!

Wyevale Garden Centre

I have rarely had the chance to paint in such tropical surroundings as I did yesterday at Wyevale Garden Centre, Hereford.

We had lots of space down by Santa's grotto which will be opening on 24th Nov.

It was very busy there all day, although the weather was absolutely atrocious all day, very heavy rain which later turned to snow.

I sold Winter Wonderland which was very apt!

I have to paint another now because that is one of the class subjects and I need one to take along to the class for people to see what they will be painting!

I may not do the craft fair on thursday on Ludlow market-I will be watching the weather forcast very close on Wednesday.If it looks at all iffy I will stay at home.Its not worth getting cold and wet for if its going to be quiet.

I am in the College on Saturday and Sunday for the medieval fair-always a busy time in Ludlow.

Wyevale Garden Centre

We are going to get everything sorted now for tomorrows new venture at Wyevale Garden Centre.
We will be there all day , I will have all the painting subjects on display and some other extra ones as well.I will also be painting all day in oils and acrylics so people can see just what happens in our classes.
There will also be demonstrations in encaustic wax going on in between.
I am really looking forward to it, at least we will be in the warm and dry.
At the weekend its the 2 day Medieval Fair at Ludlow College--always a busy affair and a lovely venue with plenty of room for us to show off my paintings to their best!! The money raised is for the Air Ambulance so its a great cause to support.