rubykittyruby

  Another sunny day, and it's amazing the countryside's so green & lush when we've not had more than the merest sprinkle of raindrops for the best part of two months.  I was hoping for a bumper crop of strawberries on my allotment, but the plants are desperately thirsty and I don't reckon I'll be scoffing bowlfuls of plump, juicy berries this year. But at least the foxgloves are almost ready to flower, and they've self-seeded everywhere.  It should be quite a show.   A couple of years ago, at least, I planted a packet of red clover seeds, and not a single one germinated.  Then, low and behold, look what's popped up.  The seeds must've been lying dormant until conditions suited them.   A patch of this also appeared.  I know it's a plant classed as a 'green manure' as it's good for the soil, but can't recall it's actual name.  However, it's a bee magnet.  They absolutely love it, and we've all got to do our bit to help t...

  I've ruined yet another laptop.  Honestly, I can't be trusted anywhere near them.  My previous laptop was killed by me spilling a cup of tea all over the keyboard, and this one died a death when I dropped it.  The screen looks like an abstract artwork.  It will probably be futile but I'll enquire about getting it repaired.  In the meantime I'll have to look at the small print on my contents insurance to see if it's covered by accidental damage.  It's not like I even dropped it from a great height, but it's massively annoying.  Anyway, enough of my whingeing.  What's done is done.   The weather was mild and dry enough for me to venture down to the allotment for the first time yesterday.  I pruned back brambles and a wild rose, and have the scratches on my arms to prove it.  There were a few purple crocuses flowering, and thankfully the weeds haven't got too much out of hand over winter.   Back home I finished re...

  There are three or four blackberry bushes on my allotment, and the first of the berries to ripen and be ready to eat were picked today.  Served with fat free natural yoghurt and a meringue nest, completely delicious.  Lots of the hedgerows locally have blackberries growing in them, and I'll be out - with my freezer bags and plastic tubs - collecting berries in a few weeks time when they're at their peak of sweetness.   I was on my allotment today, making the most of the sunshine, and doing my best to tidy things up.  I've not been spending enough time down there this year.  A combination of cold, rainy weather and having other things to occupy myself with has kept me away.  Consequently, yesterday I received one of those official ' tidy your plot or we'll kick you off ' letters.  Ooops!  I've nearly four weeks to get my act together, which is do-able, and I've made a good start.  Pulling up weeds and flowers that've gone to seed, ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and I've done my stint on the allotment.  The hollyhocks are well and truly blooming.  Not a single bee on them though, and I've seen a few tweets and postings on Facebook about how few bees people are seeing this year.  Is it simply the weather we've been having?  Or the effects of climate change and environmental pollution on our pollinators and insects in general?   All I can do is avoid using chemicals on my plot and provide as much food for bees as possible, like this marjoram, now flowering profusely.   The ragwort's flowered too, waiting for the caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth to turn up and munch on it.   The tall, elegant verbena bonariensis (if that's how it's spelt) is lovely too.  Though it's a manic self-seeder, and I'm forever pulling out seedlings from places where it's not needed, like smack bang in the middle of a path.  Back from the allotment, I needed to crack on with someth...

  I thought I'd start with a round-up of what's growing on the allotment and in the garden.  These hollyhocks have suddenly bloomed, and isn't that a glorious pink?  The leaves do tend to get rust spots, which is a shame when the flowers are so beautiful.   Also on the allotment are evening primrose, dotted around where they've self-seeded, growing here among a sea of seed pods.   The marjoram's flowering too, and will be a bee magnet.  They love it.   I think these white flowers are mallows.   The apple tree's going to provide plenty of fruit.   Should be lots of blackberries too.  I know I can gather them from the hedgerows, but cultivated ones tend to be more productive than their wild counterparts.   Redcurrants are ripening.  Blackcurrants too.  Gooseberries too, or goose-gogs as we always called them.   In my front garden the valerian is everywhere, another favourite with the b...

  Wednesday was time for another Stitch Art class at Leeds art gallery.  This month's session was based around the current exhibition of photographs by Peter Mitchell, entitled 'Nothing Last Forever'.  A lot of the photographs are of Leeds in previous decades, documenting old buildings, shop fronts, decaying structures.  Once I started looking at the pictures I realised some were familiar to me, having seen them on 'X' (formerly Twitter).  That account's called British Culture Archive @britcultarchive, and features other photographers too.   This photo of a terraced house with its neighbour having been demolished makes me think of those abstract works of art by Piet Mondrian, and the Mondrian collection by Yves St Laurent.  It's the blocks of colour on the walls of the demolished house, the way they're divided into sections by the unpainted brickwork.   The quirky framing of this particular photo is a clue about what we concentrated on y...