Hydrangeas and other plants

The hydrangeas are starting to take on their autumn colours.  Above is a Dwarf white macrophylla.

The shades of pink are just starting to appear on Sundae Fraise.

They are more evident on Pinky Winky (a not so great name for a lovely plant!).

The tri-coloured hibiscus has only seemed to have two sorts of flowers this year, with the pink dominating.

The occasional white/pink flower has been lovely and there are still a couple on the plant today.

Muscari Valerie Finnis are starting to grow again.

Clematis Wyevale has been divided this year and is flowering away happily, with its soap-like scent.

At the front of the house, Choisya White Dazzler is flowering again.  There are only a few  flowers, but they are most welcome.

Finally, this hydrangea, Magical Revolution Pink, is putting on an amazing show.  It should be in a bigger pot and it got hydrangea scale earlier in the year, but look at it now!

The flowers have turned from a baby pink to this raspberry ripple colour, with touches of green.  It is a lovely sight to be greeted with when I get home!

Late summer sunshine

We have been lucky to have some late summer sunshine this last week, accompanied by some blue skies and it has been lovely.  

The perennial sunflower Helianthus Lemon Queen is certainly enjoying it...

...as are the bees.  Spot the action shot bee flying to the next flower!

There haven't been that many bees or butterflies this summer, due to the wet and cold Spring, but they were out in the sun busily gathering pollen and nectar.

I stood watching and photographing them for quite a while.  They seem to be mainly buff tailed bumble bees from what I can make out.  (Even today, on a very grey and cloudy morning, the bees are still drawn to the helianthus.)

Other flowers enjoying the weather are the Asters.  They have another name now, but will always be asters to me.  Here are September Ruby (I think) and Little Carlow.

A couple of clematis are flowering again too.  Above is Prince Charles...

...and here is Blue Angel.

Finally, in other news, I may have seen a Japanese Anemone, 'Ruffled Swan', on another blog and instantly fallen in love with it.  I have since bought one for myself and it is above.  I particularly like the pale blue/purple backs to the flowers.  The photo is an interesting one as the plant is on the little north facing patio in a big pot, and it was a sunny day when I took this photo, but as you know, my camera doesn't like low light levels, so produced this shot.  The darkness around the plant does make the flowers really sing out though!

Wanderlust 2024 - weeks twenty-five to thirty-two - Printmaking

I was looking forward to this theme of the Wanderlust 2024 course and I have enjoyed it. The first week included some rust dyeing which I had not done before, so that was an interesting start.  We incorporated the images into the page.  There was also making a printing block using crumpled packing tape and doing some gel printing.  The focal image was a print from a polystyrene tile which we incised.  I was pleased with how the page came together. 

Week twenty-six was all about carving our own stamps set and we had to create three squares which would be printed over each other.  The next thing was to print a repeat pattern which I found a bit of a challenge and I didn't get it quite right on the finished page, but I still like the end result and enjoyed carving the three stamps.  

I went full on grunge with my next page, using household objects to print on a gel plate.  I used a few lids and a plastic cover from a plug, as well as some bubble wrap.

Creating fern prints was the focus of the next week, using the fern leaves on a gel plate as well as using the leaf as a stamp too. We then had to cut the prints into strips and weave them. 

Making our own foam stamps was the next focus and I liked adding the bright neons to this page which is one of the most vibrant I have made this year.

Making transfer prints from photos and magazines was the technique here.  The photo which I transferred onto a book page (on the left) shows three of my great uncles, around the time of the First World War.

We had to find a photo of a person which appealed to us for the next week. I chose this girl as I like her attitude.  Once she was cut out of the background, we had to fill it in with descriptions of ourselves - Chris provided the words for mine.  We could then add colour to the image and other details as we wanted to. I really enjoyed this page and using old photographs.

For the 'artful musings' week, I chose to create a grid showing some of the techniques I have been using during the course this year.

Our next theme is 'Drawing' so it will be interesting to see what is featured and how I get on.

Doddington Hall visit - Gardens

 As we were wandering around the gardens at Doddington Hall, I couldn't resist taking a few photos of plants and trees which interested me.  

The walled kitchen garden had a good display of fruit and vegetables.

It also has a pond which is hidden in this photo.  The apple trees through which I was peering are mainly heritage varieties.

Another view towards the pond area.

The waving grasses caught my eye here...

...as did this block of Gaura Lindheimeri.  If you look closely, there are three 'sculptures' made from reinforcing bar and filled with branches and logs.  I thought this was a great idea and could be adapted for a smaller space.  They could be filled with all kinds of materials to make insect habitats for winter.

Hopefully you can make them out in this closer view.  I would love to do something like this in my garden (when I can find a space!).

I do like views like this where something tempts you to explore and see what is round the corner.

The trees were beautiful and ancient.

This summer/autumn planting caught my eye in the formal garden. I like the wispy effect of the grasses too.  The 'everlasting flowers' (helichrysum) look great with the rudbeckia. 

They have repeated this particular rose along this border.  The shades of pink and apricot together caught my eye here.

Finally, for ancient trees, you can't get much better than the sweet chestnut trees they have, which are at least 450 years old.  

They have grown such gnarly trunks and branches...

...and have developed their own personalities.

Just imagine what they have seen through their lifetimes since around 1574.  Incredible!

It was a really good few hours we spent at Doddington and we enjoyed the visit very much.