Spring into Springtime.

My favourite season.

So much activity in the garden, most of the spring flowers are blooming.
We are helping the birds as much as we can. Mr France has made some new Bird boxes & we've put out bedding for the taking, this seems to be working. We used to refill this suet cage with food, recently I've been filling it with wadding and the birds have been taking it for sometime.  Now I've seen on Mary's  blog A Breath of Fresh Air.
she adds  bits of lace & shreds of material cut into strips to hers. What a lovely idea. I know the Gold finch make very decorative nests. Some time ago,  I found one
 with blue forget-me-nots woven in with some of our dogs fur around the edge.

The birds seem to be taking it.

One of the new bird boxes, so far no residents.

 A gift from our daughter.
For the past 2 years I've put it out, but it's never been used.
Maybe it's too upmarket in style for our country birds.
How ever I like it as a garden ornament.

If I follow Mary's idea of adding some lace for a bit of luxury,

we might have some posh birds. 

or maybe a Robin / Rouge Gorge  like this, will take up residence there.

 Tucked in the Berberis, I found a nest from last year.
I think I'll leave it and keep an eye on it,
maybe it will be refurbished, by some new takers.

 Each year I put this little nest, with it's egg in one of the hanging baskets.

 This is the area we were working on this time last year.
Then it had to go on hold, when I was unable to do any gardening.
Now due to the resent surgery Mr France had to have, we have
decided it will be staying like this. I like it partly cultivated and the rest
left a bit wild. Later the wild flowers will add lots of natural beauty.

 I've just had a wander around the garden and found some more
different types of daffodils, from a few years ago.

Even some hidden in an area that certainly needs some tidying up doing.

How is your garden looking, do you have birds building their nests?
Are you putting up bird boxes ? If you've never had a bird box
in your garden, why not try. It's so rewarding watching the birds
busy building their nest, then flying backwards & forwards
feeding their chicks.

I'll be keeping you up to date with the flora and fauna in our garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Dahlias for Mr France.

When we were young and bought our first house in 1965.

it was a new build  on a small estate, in the north of England.

At that time, when the builders had finished building,
the garden was not landscaped ready for the new owner.

 We had a lot of preparation to do, before it even resembled a garden.

We were both very young and didn't know much about gardening then.

Then one day, my husbands father who didn't visit us very often,

arrived with a big brown paper bag full of Dahlias.
I wasn't  familiar with the different varieties.
So didn't know what to expect.
I must admit they grew quickly, but those huge flowers 

which were mainly the big blousey cactus type,
were not to my liking, and since then I've never planted them again.

There are not many flowers I don't like.
but these are not one of my favourite flowers.
~~~~~~~~~~

I'll let you into a little secret.

Until a few years ago Mr France didn't know a weed from a cultivated flower.

However he's now started to take an interest in the garden.
and during that time he'd asked me several times
' What was the name of the flowers my Dad planted in our first garden '
and because I didn't like them, I told him ' I couldn't remember'



But I've been caught out.
as he now comes with me to the garden centers,
He saw the bags of Dahlia tubers with the image stapled to the bag,
and said 'these are the flowers I mean'
~~~~~~~~~~
After all these years, I've only just told him I knew
what they were. but as I didn't like them I said
' I couldn't remember what flowers he meant.'

We made a compromise and chose another variety.
So he's happy.
These are the variety we chose and we both like them.

 Dahlias Collerette

I quite like the look of these.
( Looks like a nice flower to paint in my Garden journal )

He immediately put two bags into the trolley.

Back to my first garden.
Looking at the old photos we had lots of colour from the 'Nemesia'
but my planting left a lot to be desired.
I can also see some other plants there
that's NOT on my list of favourites  'Gladiola'
I think that's because it's tall and spiky and only has one flower stem.

As I've shown some photos of our first dog, 'Ricky'
I thought I'd tell you a little about him.
He was a miniature poodle and I may add nothing like a posh poodle.
 At that time Mr France worked shifts and thought it would be a good idea
for me to have a dog for company, as he worked late hours
and sometimes during the night.

 When we arrived at the kennel to choose our new puppy
he was a bit surprised when he saw the breed of dog I had set my heart on,
 Something small and as we thought would be easy to look after.
 But who could resist a little ball of black fluff.

But he was nothing like a poodle in character.
As he grew he liked nothing better than to roll in anything that smelt nasty.
which was usually just after he'd been to the poodle parlour.
So we soon put a stop to that, and he only ever went to have a quick trim
around his face and feet  as we couldn't manage that ourselves,
and we trimmed the rest and shampooed him.

I hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane.

and you forgive me for keeping my secret from Mr France.

He's looking forward to summer, to see the Dahlias growing 

in the big stone pots we have on our sun deck.

Do you keep harmless secrets from your husband ?

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

1st Splash of Colour

I know Spring has well and truly arrived

when the garden is popping with yellows and purple.

The back of our house has sun all day and is sheltered 

from the severe frost we've had this winter.

Even when it's cold if the sun is shining this is where we sit.

Making plans for what we need to do in the garden.

The garden was neglected last year due to my back problems and 

now Mr France has recently had surgery on one of his knees

we make sure we both stop for a rest.

Mr France and I have been busy in the garden today.

We knew that the arbour needed a repair job. However when 

we cut back the old Honeysuckle, we found it was past repair. 

So it's gone and will be replaced with a new one.

I'll show you later when the new one is in and we have been to 

our local ' pépiniériste '  and chosen some new climbers. 

I've managed to save a few long strands of Honeysuckle. I'm hoping 

they will throw out some new shoots & will mix in with the new climbers.

Not sure yet what to replace the old ones with.

I think I'll take a look at my rose book.

Any ideas Shane you are a rose expert, if you don't know Shane 

take a look a her lovely blog, her Roses are beautiful.

I've tidied up my potting bench.

and added a few more hanging baskets planted with miniature daffodils.

I have three hanging baskets full of dwarf daffodils.

All of these bulbs had been stored in a box in the shed 

 for two years and forgotten about. 

I planted them in this basket to see if they would flower

and they are as good as the new ones.

I cut a few flowers and brought some inside.

No fancy arrangement just popped them in a small glass tumbler

and placed them on the dining table,

I know they won't last long, but they look pretty.

These other Daffodils have been in the grass for a long time.

I notice over the past few years, there are fewer blooms.

We have an abundance of voles so I think they must be eating the bulbs.

After a beautiful weekend of warm sun,

this is the first pale yellow one to come out in bloom this afternoon. 

I don't know variety, but the trumpet has a frilly look about it.

 These are new bulbs planted in Autumn under an old apple tree

 by Mr France , he planted the whole bag in a small area.

  so they will look much nicer in a few more days, when they are all in bloom.

In Autumn I planted a few  Crocus bulbs in a basket,take a look here

Now I can move it around to give a splash of colour where I want it.

By mid morning the flowers have opened 

and

 the Bumble Bees have already been visiting. 

Another Bumble Bee  collecting pollen.

My grandson took this photo on his phone yesterday.

and sent it to me last night.

I hope you enjoyed your time in my garden.

This is where I'll be spending my time.

Come back again soon

there will be lots more to see .

Thank you for visiting 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Nearly there

 It's Spring I'm talking about.

If the only way I can see blossom is by forcing it,

why not, give it a try.

Last week I cut some branches of Forsythia

put them in a tall vase and placed them on the window ledge

to force the flowers to bloom.

It certainly wasn't the sun that did it,

as we didn't see much of the sun this past week.

It must have been the warmth in the house.

I love the way the flowers appear before the leaves.

Something new to me, quick painting wet on wet

with a textured finish to the back ground using cling film.
I like it. I'll certainly do some more of this.

I used Winsor & Newton  12x9 in.

Cotman 300 gsm/140 lbs Cold pressed/Not

and W & N watercolour paint.

Still on the board, not quite finished.

Then I colour washed it.

I have Photoshop, but can't for the life of me master it.
Does anyone have step by step instructions ?
something like the books you can buy for 'Dummies'

Then I did this using Picasa.

Would you like this painting for a card ?

Time to reflect on where I'm going with my painting.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Painted Pansies & Primulas.

At this time of the year Primulas and Pansies can be seen in all
the garden centers. Their colourful heads shouting out
 to be bought and planted to give some instant colour
Whether you choose vibrant colours.
 


or these pastel pinks.

When I first learnt how to paint in watercolour in 2008
I was terrified learning the technique of wet on wet, especially for flowers.
I learnt how to let the paint run along the paper I had just wet,
not realizing that the paint would only run where the paper was wet.
After a few mishaps, I loved what I was able to do, knowing I was in control.

 I continued my painting at home using books I'd bought and one
I borrowed from a friend written by a French artist Maryse de May.

One of her pansy paintings from her book.

She paints in a style I particularly like and fortunately in her book there are lots
of diagrams so I am able to follow the technique and adapt it to my style.

I have seen some of her paintings at an Aquarelle Exhibition which is
 held every year in a small town not far from where I live.
St Yriex Aquarelle Exhibition.
 Exhibitors  come from all over the world.
I have the date set in my agenda, as the previous two years
I arrived on the last day about half an hour before it closed

I used the Maryse de May  'L’aventure avec les fleurs ' book as reference
 and practiced a lot that winter.



I remember only too well, as we had a long cold winter
 so that was when I mastered the way of painting wet on wet.

 At that time, I gave everything I painted to family.Then when I got a bit
 more confident a gave them to friends.This weekend while visiting my daughter
 I asked if she still had the painting of the pansies I had given her.
Well here it is for you to see. (I didn't remember it being this good)
I feel quite proud of myself.



Which has given me the push I needed to get back into painting
instead of just dabbling .

So now my paints and favourite paper are out

 ready and waiting for ME.

I think these Primulas would make make nice painted cards.

These  are still in their plastic pots
but look a lot nicer in these decorative metal holders on a tray
which I've put on the wide window ledge, waiting
 to be planted in the garden when the ground warms up.

I have promised myself and Mr France I will do more painting.

 I'll be showing more frequently 

So if you like to see my sketches / paintings please come back soon.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian