Gardeners' World

It is a sad fact that I cannot currently afford holidays in the South of France, but if I could I would probably visit this place: Eze, apparently a beautiful mountain garden full of huge cacti and statues. A friend kindly gave me a selection of photos, and after playing around with the composition I made this painting. The painting was challenging, particularly as the eyes of the statues are not formed, just left as soft hollows. But it is my new resolution to push my work into more difficult and complex work, in order to increase my skill level. This will no doubt lead to earning enough money to take holidays in the South of France. Optimistic, that's me.

Actually I don't normally like France, it seems just like another England to me; rubbish weather, grumpy people, plus they think vegetarianism is a form of mental illness. In fact I decided to go vegetarian after a trip to Paris, where apparently it is perfectly fine to put almost raw steak on someone's plate; there it was, all that blood swimming about with my chips and I thought "No, this meat business is just not for me" But to visit those beautiful gardens I would make an exception, and perhaps smuggle in a tofu sandwich or two.

Back home and our efforts to make our own garden look better continue. Here it is, proof that things must get worse before they get better:

No that is not war torn Syria, it is our garden, work in progress! At least Gimlet finds it exciting...

But a combination of warmer weather and boyfriend acquiring a lot of very good wood from work (they were giving it away, it had been a crate housing a machine about the size of our house) has at last led to progress...

New wood store number one:

New wood store number two, this one has a lift up lid for kindling:

Even the teen helped with painting. I would like to say she did it willingly and happily but I hate to tell lies.

And then, my personal favorite, my new 3 bin composting system. Boyfriend may have made it, but I did the hard work; all that designing can be exhausting.

Then boyfriend acquired yet more wood, this time in the form of old garage doors. They are a good paneled wood, under a coating of flaky blue paint. Eventually they will be turned into various indoor cupboards but meantime Gimlet has been using them for sunbathing:

When not sunbathing Gimlet likes to dust bath:

In fact Gimlet is obsessed with dust bathing, until he is beige in colour and dirt comes off him in clouds, I have no idea why, but it is very tiring obviously:

 

Look at those teeth, glad I am not a mouse!

Finally in the garden this week something else appeared. For months boyfriend has been threatening the teen and I with his new soon to be patented invention: The Warm Up Chair. Apparently, all our complaining about the cold could be solved without lighting the stove or putting the heating on. All we need is to sit in the garden in the cold (on the warm up chair), and when we come back indoors it will feel much warmer. Well this week, with a lot of bricks scattered around boyfriend decided to build the first version. The teen got home from school, looked outside and said "It's The Warm Up Chair!" And it was.