Poppy Love

 

 Finally! I have finished my Pale Pink Poppies painting. I honestly don't think I have ever spent as long on a painting, it must have headed towards 30 hours. This sounds like just under a weeks work, but I don't paint continuously, usually only for two or three hours a day.

As the summer progresses I find myself becoming more and more obsessed with poppies. First there were the purple ones, the seeds sneaked from my last rented house:

Then there were the peach ones I bought at a local plant fair I went to with the teen:

These were short-lived, and I didn't manage to paint them, but I am hopeful that the seeds will mean many more next year. I have given some seeds to my friend, accountant and keen gardener. She has promised me some seeds from some amazing pink poppies, they look like big pom poms, and just appeared in her garden from nowhere.

Even the seed heads of poppies look amazing, here they are next to my beautiful Hydrangea:

As well as painting flowers, work has continued on the garden. After the wood stores and compost bins (rotting bins as boyfriend continues to refer to them) came first a garden bench:

As before, this was made from our big stash of scrounged wood, boyfriend's carpentry course last year continues to pay off...

Here is the bench in situ outside the studio:

Gimlet immediately slept on it in the sun, under it in the shade, and used it to stroll into the studio straight through the window. Like most of our DIY projects, the cat thinks they are done only for his convenience.

Next came the greenhouse base, complete with raised bed and a greenhouse kindly bought by my mum:

 The greenhouse is a tiny 6' by 4', and boyfriend made the concrete base exactly to the correct dimensions. Then when it turned up it was inexplicably four inches bigger in all directions. More concrete was added. 

Next the bed (which will eventually hold the rhubarb that was temporarily moved to build the base) was planted with a random selection of tomato plants and flowers most kindly donated by my accountant friend, and the scounged wood pile went down a little more as staging and potting bench were made:

Here is a close up of the potting bench:

It is great and I can't wait to start growing stuff next year.  

There is more to do to the garden but we are stopping here for this year as the 1970's house decor from hell is driving us mad and we are pressing on with the downstairs shower room, so that we can attack the hideous upstairs bathroom, with it's flaking wall paint, mouldy falling off tiles and a pink shag pile carpet so deep that we suspect it has it's own eco system. No one likes walking on it without shoes; I plan to have a small party the day it goes to the tip.

Although the greenhouse won't house plants until next spring it will not go unused... Gimlet is spending the summer evenings blissfully sheltered from rain showers, but still sleeping outdoors, and an alternate use has been found for the potting bench:

As usual, the cat thinks it was made especially for him!