The end of an era - closing this blog

Well, this is a milestone in my life. I've been posting my art here since April 2009 and now, finally, I'm closing this blog. Here I've watched my art style grow and improve over the years and it's been a most enjoyable journey. I've met wonderful artists and friends and picked up many useful tips and encouragement along the way.

But now I'm spending most of my time posting my art on RedBubble, which I joined in September 2010 and it's really a lot of double work posting there and posting here as well. Another thing that's happened is that I found a lot of my work from here posted on other sites, some of it for sale! with no credit to me at all. It's amazing what some people will get up to.

I hope we can stay in touch, so please feel free to visit me on RedBubble where you will find all of my art plus some lovely goodies to buy for yourself or as gifts for family and friends.

Wishing you all the best,

Cheerio,

Maree

The most beautiful fairytale is the one in your dreams.

Lady in pink -- Ink sketch and watercolour

Die mooiste sprokie

is die een in jou drome.

The most beautiful fairytale

is the one in your dreams.

Hedgie, my African Hedgehog

W&N watercolour in Moleskine Notebook

 

Dedicated to all who love Hedgehogs!

This is Hedgie, a male Southern African Hedgehog (Atelerix frontalis) that I was lucky enough to have in my life for almost six years after I found him wandering on our previous smallholding. A couple of months after finding him, I also found Sethlong, a female, who joined Hedgie in the large enclosure I had made for them and together they raised a lovely brood of eight little babies.

You can read more about Hedgie here.

Kei-apple botanical - and a Chameleon

Ink sketch and watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm – Kei Apple tree and a Flap-necked Chameleon (Chamaeleonidae – (Chameleo dilepis)

The Kei-apple, Dovyalis caffra, is well known all over the eastern parts South Africa, common in open bush and wooded grassland, and often near termite mounds. It is a thick, shiny, spiny shrub up to three metres in height. The branches are armed with straight, robust spines up to 7 cm long. Fresh, ripe fruits are rich in Vitamin C and pectin and, following the example of the Pedi people who squeeze the juice onto their pap (porridge), they make an excellent addition to a fruit salad and to muesli and yoghurt. Nature seems to know best when to give us the right foods to boost our immune systems in preparation for the onslaught of winter colds and ‘flu.

Last year my trees also bore an abundance of fruit for the first time ever and I ascribe this to the fact that we get heavy frost here in Tarlton (South Africa). It has taken almost seven years for my trees to reach just over three meters tall and I was absolutely thrilled to have the fruit. Of course I had to try them but they really are too acidic, with a slight hint of sweetness, to enjoy on a full-time basis. And I’m therefore also not surprised at all that Torti, my Leopard Tortoise, did not touch any that had fallen on the floor. But they look really beautiful displayed in a dish!

And the Chameleon didn't seem to have any problem with the huge thorns! I was really thrilled to see him in my garden as these lovely creatures seem to be getting scarcer and scarcer.

Plant for the Planet

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm (135lb) Smooth heavy-weight sketching paper, from my imagination, no preliminary sketching.

“One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people.”
—U.S. Department of Agriculture

Plant for the planet, plant for the people. Planting trees is a simple way to protect and support the local environment, agriculture, water supplies, community development and health, as well as the world’s climate.

My Aloe route

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

This is the road I take (I call it ‘my aloe route’) when I go to visit a friend in New Thorndale just on the other side of Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa). There are dozens of Aloes along a certain rocky outcrop and in winter it’s a wondrous display when they all flower.

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Echeveria imbricata in terracotta pot

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

 An Echeveria in a pot on my patio (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

This popular and vigorous succulent has 4 to 8 inches wide, tight rosettes of flat grey-green leaves that, when mature, form offsets freely to form large solid clumps 4 to 6 inches tall. It has a branched arching inflorescence bearing clusters of red and yellow flowers in the spring and early summer. Plant in full sun, even in hotter inland gardens, to part sun/light shade in a well-drained soil and water regularly. Although it is is cold-tolerant, it does not do well in heavy frosts, therefore most of mine are planted in terracotta pots for easy winterizing.

This plant is often listed as a species or as E. x imbricata but is a hybrid cultivar created in the early 1870’s by Jean-Baptiste A. Deleuil of Marseilles (Rue Paradis) that resulted from crossing Echeveria secunda with E. gibbiflora ‘Metallica’ and was listed for the first time in his 1874 catalogue.

It has been argued by some that the correct pronunciation for the genus is ek-e-ve’-ri-a, though ech-e-ver’-i-a seems in more prevalent use in the US.

Category: Succulent
Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops)
Origin: Mexico (North America)
Evergreen: Yes
Flower Color: Red & Yellow
Bloomtime: Spring/Summer
Synonyms: [Echeveria x imbricata]
Parentage: (Echeveria glauca x E. gibbiflora ‘Metallica’)

Rattail Cactus sketch

 

Ink sketch and watercolour on Amedeo 200gsm

Sketch of my Rattail Cactus (Aporocactus flagelliformis), on my patio (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa). It is fairly easy to care for and maintain. It grows stems up to a four feet long, that hang and display brownish colored spines, which are terribly sharp and fine and somehow manage to get everywhere when you’re handling it!

The flowers are an absolutely beautiful (2in – 4in / 5cm – 10cm wide) pink tubular type (see photograph here) that usually bloom in spring for up to 5 days. These flowers will grow from any part of the stem, 4-5ft long, and you can expect plenty of them. Similar to many other cacti, they are very easy to grow indoors and outside (as long at the temperature is not too cold outside.

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Aloe flowers - Nature's silent healer

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Several Aloes have flowers with nectar that can be consumed. Among the sippable blossoms are A. ferox and A. marlothii. A. zebrina has edible flowers and buds after being boiled. In Angola they are pressed into cakes. A. greatheadii flower buds are a delicacy after being boiled in three changes of water. There is no report on the edibility of Aloe vera flowers. But since that plant is medicinal, I would not eat them.

The genus is native to Southern Africa.

Blue bottle fly (Calliphora vomitoria)

Pencil sketch and watercolour, candle wax, on Bockingford 300gsm

Blue Bottle Flies (Calliphora vomitoria) are from the Blow Fly family. They are larger than house flies, growing about half an inch long. Their head and thorax (front and middle sections) are grey, the abdomen (large rear section) is bright metallic blue. They have red eyes and clear wings. Blue Bottle Flies live just about anywhere and the world, including woods, fields, parks, and farms. They seem to prefer shady places.

This fly eats from dead animals or meat, living animals with open wounds, animal poop, or some other decaying matter, so it is not a fly we want in our homes! But living on a farm or a smallholding, where dead animals are sometimes a daily fact of life, this is sometimes unavoidable.

I found this one in my lounge window and after swatting it gently with the fly swat (they don’t squash easily!), I was able to examine it more closely, using my magnifying glass, and do the sketch.

Echeveria imbricata in wooden planter

W&N watercolour on small Bockingford 300gsm (5½" x 7½" – half of A4)

Echeveria imbricata in a wooden crate on my patio. Contrary to the belief that succulents are drought resistant, this Echeveria (E. imbricata) thrives on good soil and lots of rain.

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An African Moon in December

Black Pilot Lettering pen ink sketch of a full moon over my garden in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa

Sketching again...

Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a Joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?
- By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Aloe peglerae

Parker fountain pen, black ink and W&N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper

All the Aloes are in full flower and the winter got all 3 of my Aloe ferox, burnt the flowers brown. This is Aloe peglerae, which I saw in the veld on the way to Magaliesburg, endemic to South Africa occurring only in Gauteng and one other province (North-West province). It is listed in the Red Data list of South Africa as an endangered species on the extinction queue if not protected or grown for ex-situ conservation.

Young Aloe ferox

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

My experience is that this aloe (A. ferox) spreads easily from seed – from my original three plants, I now have over ten. They have sprung up all over the garden, obviously from seeds dispersed by the wind and birds. The only problem is that some of them are in unwanted locations and now I have the job of moving them to more suitable spots. But a chore I’m going to enjoy!

Aloe ferox (also known as the Cape Aloe, Bitter Aloe, Red Aloe and Tap Aloe), is a species of arborescent aloe indigenous to Southern Africa.

Graptoveria "Fred Ives"

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

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A succulent given to me by a friend a couple of months ago growing in a pot in my garden.

Category: Succulent
Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops)
Origin: Mexico (North America)

x Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’ – A beautiful and durable succulent plant that produces large clumps of rosettes to 8 inches tall by nearly 1 foot wide with broad bronze and pink succulent leaves atop short stems with 1’-2’ long branched inflorescences bearing red-orange centered pale yellow flowers in summer. Plant in full to part sun in a well-drained soil. Little irrigation required.

The leaves are broad and stiff, overlapping each other, with concave upper surface, rubbery to the touch, waxy pearly-bronze to purplish yellow-orange to blue green (depending on time of year and growing conditons). Often shading from grey-blue at the centre out to orange-bronze-purple. The purple blush is fairly consistent throughout the seasons. Higher light and heat seem to increase the purple a bit, though.
This is a vigorous plant and is great as a container specimen or in the ground in well-drained soils or raised planters. It is reportedly a hybrid of Graptopetalum paraguayense crossed with a plant in the Echeveria gibbiflora complex.

Echeveria imbricata

Ink sketch and watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book – 8″ × 5″

I’m absolutely mad about Echeverias and have a small section in my garden set aside just for them. My collection started off in the late 70’s when my father gave me three rosettes in a pot, which I transplanted into a rockery and soon they covered the whole area. Since then I have given away hundreds to friends, the geese got out of the pond area and made a hearty meal of them and they’ve survived many of the severe frosts we get in our area.

Winter blues

Black ink sketch and colour wash in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book.

Winter here always has bright blue skies and blue Kingfisher daisies flowering in the garden.

Autumn reds

Black ink sketch with colour wash in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Autumn – The colourful month of May filled with red daisies and orange leaves.

Spring splendour

Black ink sketch with colourwash in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

It is somehow extremely satisfying doodling with ink and colour!

Spring is always a celebration of new light green leaves on the Celtis africana (Stinkwood tree) and sunny Euryops daisies.

Fickle (and no, it’s not a plant!)

Fickle Marijuana plant

I sit here before the world, a very fickle person. Somehow I thought that I would be able to quit having so many blogs (I’ve got 28!), keeping only those important to me and deleting the rest. In stead, I make most “private” every now and then, but just for a while before making it public again, confusing the hell out of Google Analytics! On and off. On and off.

The problem is, I can’t stand to see a “public” blog just lying there, with the last post being a year ago. One of my pet peeves is finding a wonderful blog, only to discover that it has been abandoned. I know that one changes, that one loses interest in a certain topic. That’s life. Life changes constantly and what I was interested in five years ago might not be applicable now anymore. But why don’t people then just delete it? Why don’t I just delete it, especially those that don’t get many hits and don’t seem to interest anybody?

One reason could be that I want to keep the blog URL. Once you delete it, it’s gone forever. Another reason is that I just LOVE designing blog templates. I get great pleasure out of designing and manipulating the html code to see what I can come up with. And once I come up with something I like, I don’t want to let go of it! Another problem is, I have s-o-o-o-o-o-o many interests. Art, nature, gardening, jewelry making, collecting aloes and succulents, books and reading, insects, cooking (only of late), animals and wildlife, birds, my chickens, and thoughts on the Universe as a whole. And I’ve got enough thoughts and experiences for each topic to warrant its own blog. I’ve thought of putting everything on just one blog, but I’ve been told that blog readers are very specific. They have their topics and interests, and only want to read about that. So if you’re a chicken-lover and there are many other posts on all sorts of other random topics, they don’t return to that blog.

Another part of the problem as to why I can’t delete any blogs might also be that, in real life, I’m a hoarder. Don’t get me wrong, not as in those “Hoarders” TV programmes, but as in “collecting” things - feathers, stones, pebbles, pieces of driftwood, shells, notebooks, journals, fountain pens, crystals, pieces of wire and wood (there’s always some building project going on somewhere here on the smallholding, so just in case I need it), even cardboard boxes, in case I need to pack something away.

In the décor of my home I’m quite disciplined - I won’t display too much at one time, rather pack away a few things and bring out something new for a change. So there I’m OK, but my MAC is groaning under the weight of files, images, blogs and other useless information that I’ve collected over the years. A lot of it is necessary, like business and personal files, and as for the rest, it’s time for a clean-up. Fairly easy to do, just a bit time-consuming, but then, the internet is so full of wonderful stuff that needs collecting again! Thank heavens Blogger allows you 100 free blogs! lol!

Would you like to see all sorts of other random topics on this gardening blog…? Let me have your thoughts, thanks!

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Daisy love in Spring

Watercolour in my Moleskine 200gsm watercolour paper Nature Journal 

FLOWERS ARE ONE OF THE GREATEST INSPIRATIONS FROM NATURE!

Every Spring I revel in the masses of daisies that appear in one corner of my garden – no matter how cold the Winter has been, they’re the first to welcome the warmer weather with their beautiful colours!

Summer Cosmos

Black ink sketch and colour wash in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book.

Summer goes hand in hand with fields of Cosmos flowers every November to March, covering the landscape in pinks, cerises and purples.

Dianthus in Terracotta Pot

A pot of Dianthus on a friend's patio. (W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm)

I couldn't believe the array of colours these pretty annuals come in (although some are biennial) - solid white, red, purple, pink and sometimes yellow, or with two colours or marks in the petals. I would've considered getting some of them, but they are native to most of Europe and western Asia, and my garden is mostly indigenous to South Africa. I've long ago given up trying to grow stuff from elsewhere, just too much trouble.

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Revamping my blog - What do you think?

I'm playing around again and am in the process of revamping my blog and have chosen this daisies image as a back-ground. Do you think it's too busy? Does it make reading difficult? Please be honest, I really don't mind at all, it's easy to change!

Thanks a lot for your feed-back!

UPDATE : Tue, 2nd February 2016 - I've decided to go for something else - hope you like it!

A Merry Christmas 2015!

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas for 2015! I send my thoughts afar, and let them paint your Christmas Day at home!

Rosemary and Parsley

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Herbs on a windowsill in my kitchen (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

I just love herbs in terra-cotta pots. Clumped together, they make a beautiful, as well as useful, arrangement on a window sill or just outside your kitchen door.
Rosemary, (Rosmarinus officinalis) is known as a symbol of remembrance and friendship, and fills a garden with aroma, flavor, and activity — busily pollinating bees love the blooms. The secret to beautiful rosemary is to give plants a hot, dry footing. Grow plants in well-drained soil or a raised bed and they look beautiful in terracotta pots.
Curly leaf parsley (Petroselinum) brings a crisp taste to salads, vegetables, and herb butters. The only maintenance this fuss-free herb requires is planting and harvesting. Give plants evenly moist, well-drained soil, and you’ll enjoy fresh green flavours in no time.

A cool Sunday morning outing...

A scene near Magaliesburg, Gauteng, South Africa - Ink sketch and W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Sunday morning dawned with clear skies and lovely cool weather, so hubby and I decided to take the MGB Midget roadster out for a run to Magaliesburg and have breakfast at our favourite countryside tea garden. A 20-minute drive with hair blowing in the wind and we arrived, chose a table in the shade and I ordered my favourite, Mince and Cheese Jaffel with salad. By the time we finished eating and lingered, chatting for a while, temperatures were soaring in the early 30℃! The drive home was hot and bothersome and I wished I had taken a hat!

Bloekomdraai

W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm sketchbook

A scene a couple of kilometers from where I live - a gravel road through Tarlton (South Africa) on the way to Randfontein. It's a short-cut we often take past all the veggie and flower farms, the rubbish dump where all the Seagulls (600km from the coast!) gather and where tall Blue gum trees flank the road. This section of the road is known as Bloekomdraai. Here you will find many old farmsteads dating back to the 1800's and early 1900's, but unfortunately most of these have fallen into disrepair and neglect and are more and more making way for more modern and comfortable homes.

There is also a vlei (marsh) area here that extends for many kilometers all the way to Tarlton and the hills fairly sing with the sound of birds and waterfowl. I presume this was the original feed for the Tarlton Dam, which is now empty, broken and no longer in existence, although the water still flows down the course during heavy periods of rain.

A scene at my pond

W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

I have this bit of Celtis forest (Celtis africana - White Stinkwood) at my wildlife pond and it's my favourite pastime to sit under the thatch umbrella and sketch part of the scenery. A few weeks ago the bare trees were just beginning to sport green leaves. This is also the area where Torti, my Leopard Tortoise, used to live before I relocated her to her new home at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve.

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Sketching again

Black ink sketch and colour wash on Amedeo 200gsm

I feel it's time for sketching again, have been neglecting it of late, been preferring just putting colour straight to paper.

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

Black ink sketch in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketchbook

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The dark forest

 

W&N watercolour in a small sketch-book with Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper

A different depiction of the blue gum bush on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Woods creaked, the sounds of the forest was heard
A hoot and whisper’s in the darkness
Eyes lurking, bushes moving
Hunting beasts wandering,
crouching,
waiting in the shadows…

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The road to a friend

 W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

The road I take to visit a friend in Hillside (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

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Short-cut through Spring Farm

 W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Often, when I go to Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), I take this short-cut through Spring Farm past the little dam. It’s a gravel road, forcing one to travel slower and take in the scenery and I often have tortoises, hedgehogs, guinea fowl and small buck crossing my path. I much prefer it to the quicker route along the main tar road.

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Winter at the pond

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Winter is almost nothing but a memory and now spring is fully upon us, with the first spring rains having fallen over the past couple of days. But together with that came freezing temperatures as low as 12℃ yesterday. But soon all the cold will be in the past and I look forward to my wildlife pond once again bursting with summer colour.

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Cactus trichocereus

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I'm absolutely in love with my two cacti! (C. trichocereus). The one at the back made a baby, which I transplanted into a pot and placed it next to its parent. I'm sure they whisper endearing comments to one another all day long!

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Autumn - wonderful time of the year!

A small W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm watercolour sketch-book

Autumn (fall) in South Africa (mid-February to April) offers the best weather of the year. Very little rain falls over the whole country, and it is warm but not too hot, getting colder as the season progresses. In Gauteng, autumn is fantastic, with hot sunny days, blue skies and warm, balmy nights.

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My favourite Aloes

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Aloe ferox

Two of my favourite Aloes - A. ferox above and A. marlothii below - every winter I wait with excitement for their beautiful flowers, attracting a myriad of insects and birds and providing much needed bright splashes of orange colour to my winter garden!

 W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Aloe marlothii

This is the first winter in 4 years since I acquired my A. marlothii that it has flowered!

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The Poppy

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Poppies in a friend’s garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

High on a bright and sunny bed
A scarlet poppy grew
And up it held its staring head,
And thrust it full in view.
Yet no attention did it win,
By all these efforts made,
And less unwelcome had it been
In some retired shade.
Although within its scarlet breast
No sweet perfume was found,
It seemed to think itself the best
Of all the flowers round,
From this I may a hint obtain
And take great care indeed,
Lest I appear as pert and vain
As does this gaudy weed.
~ By Jane Taylor

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En route to Magaliesburg

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Whenever I go to Magaliesburg (Gauteng, South Africa) just 13km from us, I choose to take a short-cut through Spring Farm and although it is a gravel road, I do away with lots of traffic and getting stuck behind trucks on their way to Rustenburg or Botswana and, to top it all, I see lots of wildlife. It’s a route we used to take with the horses during my horse riding days.

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Visiting a friend

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

The driveway to a friend’s house on their smallholding in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa. Always a pleasure to visit as, besides her bubbling personality! the driveway is lined with gorgeous big Oaks and other trees.

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Solly's chickens on our smallholding

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Solly's chickens having a snack close to his living quarters on our smallholding. The Bluegum bush at the back is where I often walk to sketch.

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A labourer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A labourer’s cottage on a smallholding just down the road from us in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

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A farmer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

A farmer’s cottage on a smallholding not far from us in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

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