The New Normal: July Painting Journal

 Some dabbling with paints, deadly nightshade (poisonous) and knapweed.  Dabbling with the sourdough is still in progress with a 50/50 chance of success - the amount of folding and resting involved in the process has been disheartening and is not over yet ...

 

Thank you for the good wishes/comments for our 39th wedding anniversary; we had a quiet day at home, pottering in the garden.  

We decided at the last minute not to bother going to the pub and watched catch up of Baptiste, ate sausages/veggie sausages, mash and mushy peas followed by pink gin (new to me) and tonic.

Red valerian is my new favourite 'weed', I have found some growing out of paving cracks and took a cutting.   The root is used to calm nerves and my little cat is benefitting from it in the form of Pet Rescue,

 suspended in oil and plugged in to a low volt diffuser it smells quite nice/earthy and it definitely makes her calmer.  It would be too labour intenstive to make my own so I have ordered more supplies online, I think the plant would be lovely in my border if it takes.

Wild yarrow.  I used acrylic paint for this to get some texture.  It's growing all over the place here but I would never pick it as both yarrow and queens lace are very similar to poison hemlock which tends to have more flowering heads and some purple to the stem.  Hemlock really is poisonous, even picking it is not safe.

We had torrential rain and thunder/lightening on Sunday - Mollie cat was petrified, she rejected the cat igloo, cupboard, spare bedroom and cowered on the stairs.    We kept our distance as she is prone to 'redirect' (attack the nearest thing, i.e. me).  She settled later with the help of her valerian diffuser.

Many people in the UK have been affected by flooding - I hope you're not one of them.  Climate change is certainly making itself seen and heard now and can no longer be ignored.

It's work for the next three days, late shifts.  On Friday we are having a little weekend away in the country so will update my blog on our return.  Judging by the weather and terrain it will be walking boots, raincoat and rucksack!