Mathilde's pots

Remember this a couple of years ago?  Mathilde turned up with a clapped out "antigua" pot that needed repair, with the request that mariposas be mosaiced on it.   It was a true labour of love as this is not the sort of design that D likes to do.   In fact, he finds it less satisfying to do any that are not out of his own head (usually abstract). 

 Mathilde was so delighted that she turned up with the pot's mate!  Again, it needed repair as it was falling to bits.  Again it was a labour of love with a rustic theme.  Here is the result .....we hope that is the last!   But, I have spotted two giant antigua pots in her garden and I just hope she doesn't get ideas!  

mosaic lizards

We found these little mosaic lizards in Ronda.   They're sold as fridge magnets, which I love collecting.   But D had other ideas ......he drilled two holes in the new sculpture plinth, inserted nails and attached the lizards to them. 

Now Yang, our male Siamese, has taken a great dislike to them - whether he thinks they're real and to be chased and divested of their tails (evidence of previous forays with the real thing abound around the house) I do not know.   But we found them on the pine chips and replaced them on the plinth.  Next morning, they're back on the pine chips......and so on, every day.    It's quite funny, isn't it!

Garden sculpture

It's taken me days to get this up on blogger:  and it's touch and go whether it'll get published as our internet connection has decided it doesn't want to play - for hours on end.  Then it'll reappear and go like the wind.    Also, have had trouble getting pictures posted on the blog.

Well, we finally got the sculpture we'd reserved at Chipiona.   D. made a lovely green-tiled plinth for it and it looks very at home on the pine chips. 

To the right is the cylindrical pot inspired by Renee Mackintosh's designs.

La Rivera Sculpture

We have been watching Monty Don's "Gardeners World" on BBC and have admired his stainl.ess steel garden tools.   D. has a dream that the s.s. spade will slip through our soil like butter, just like Monty's (fat chance:  ours is either concrete or porridge, depending on the weather!)  I blogged about our favourite garden centre in Chipiona some time ago, where we'd last seen such indulgent tools, so we set off today and got totally sidetracked at the luscious display of shrubs, trees, flowers and this stunning sculpture.   We'd already spent our budget but fell in love with this, so put a deposit on it to collect another time.     We are now wandering round the garden trying to find the ideal spot for all our purchases.   

We already have magenta, white and golden ice plants, so were delighted to find a deep purple and pale lilac to add to ours, plus a fabulous nemesia (picture another time).   What a great day it's been.   

April abundance

The last of the cauliflowers, just big enough for one each and of the most intense flavour. I've never grown broad beans before and was pleased with this haul, although of different sizes. I shall serve these with a Romesco sauce (a Spanish sauce of tomato, garlic, ground almonds and hazelnuts, breadcrumbs).


I worried that I'd hacked this solanum around too indiscriminately, but would you look at those flowers. Just gorgeous.
I call these mesumbrianthemums but I think they have another name. The red is arresting, just like the bright magenta and a golden yellow elsewhere in the garden.

April/May is a wonderful time for gardeners in southern Spain; temperature around 24C today. By June and July things begin to wilt.


Here's is D's Greek amphora urn, newly grouted, with the copper mirror snaking up the side giving a great art-deco look.
And, finally, here's Yang, posing for me in mid-wash. How he likes to check on my doings as I ramble round the garden.

DERMOT (DERMY) THE BURMAN

It's official - Dermy has given his seal of approval. He is 20 years old and has been very ill lately. Now he seems to be on the mend and has been out investigating his new pot.




He is the shoutiest cat I've ever met, and here he is giving full voice
That was a bit exhausting, so he'll just have a lie down near his new property.

What a lovely picture this makes.....

MOSAIC URN.

This is the latest project that D has started and it's going to take some time. The tiles for the black swirls are tiny and he needs hundreds of them.




Here is the start of it, with the larger tiles in copper mirror in a single fluid line on either side of the urn. To break up the black swirls, we decided some ordinary mirror tiles will accentuate the design.
I'll do some updates as this progresses.

Meanwhile, it's gung-ho in the garden again as we've had regular rain and sun. The black fly have appeared in their hordes and settled on the apricot and nectarine tree trunks. Now if only I could encourage the chameleons over there they could have a banquet - a real good blow out, so much so they'd probably fall off the tree!

CAT MOSAIC POT.

Here is the recently-finished pot for our friend - a real girlie-girl, hence the pinks, lavendar and blue colours. The grout was a bit of a problem so in keeping with the colour theme, we used white with a blue dye. El jefe prefers doing abstract designs and found the cat extremely difficult. I've looked at many mosaics featuring animals and although they are good representations of the animal, it seems difficult to capture their individuality.

This pot is dedicated to Dermot (Dermy) a Burman, who has a shout like no other. He's getting old now and weak on his back legs but he lives in the lap of luxury with his own room, all his toys around him, steps up to the bed and we all hope he lives to an ever riper old age.....he is such a character.



VIVA DERMY.

SUNNY SPANISH SCENE:


As we sat there drinking coffee at the end of a strenuous couple of hours filling the wall and planting, I thought this scene looked cosy. The urn in the foreground is waiting to be mosaiced in black and copper but it will have to wait a while as el jefe has another, more important one to finish off for friends.
And here are the fruits of our labours - he decided to fix a few coloured tiles on the back of the wall to cheer it up. Gonzalo had a spare Moscatel vine for us, so appeared with his mattock, whacked a great hole behind the wall, shoved in the vine and now we don't know how we're going to train it and where when it'll go when it gets on the move.

VIVERO EL LAGO, NEAR ROTA:




This is near the US Base north of Puerta de Sta. Maria and we were on the hunt for an unusual pot for mosaicing. Yes, we said "no more big ones" but pensionistos are allowed to change their mind. El jefe has plans for black with copper mirror lines snaking through. He's abandoned his plan, temporarily, to make his own sculpture. Here it is....


During our last visit, about 18 months ago, they were excavating to create a lake and above is the finished project. A haven for ducks, birds and insects. A tranquil place to rest before browsing their large selection of trees and shrubs. Very reasonable prices.

I said earlier winter hadn't really arrived and to confirm that we saw storks on the nest and flamingos in the lagoons on the way there. Too warm here I suppose for them to make the journey south.

MORE GARDEN ART:

Here are a couple of aspects of the bamboo pot, with a black urn on top. D is just finishing off the paved area to put a bench on, as there's some shade there from a pear tree behind.

There's a whole hotch potch of shrubs and trees in this area - cypress, pampas grass, a false pepper tree and clumps of osteospurmum. I have a lovely pittisporum to go in later in the year behind the bench....just have to nurse it along in a big pot during the hot summer.

This will be the last big pot to be done - we almost gave ourselves hernias carrying this from the workshop!

D is already planning another project - to put a double wall on the edge of the path behind the palm tree, fill it with plants and have Mexican jugs dotted along the wall. We already have the jugs, bought in a moment of mad spending at one of our favourite shops, Casa del Mimbre. Here they are:

It's really too hot to be starting any building work now - this will be shelved until Autumn, when the ground is less like concrete.

GROUTED POT:

Here you can see the four facets of the pot, in different styles, freshly grouted in black. Yin has just given it her seal of approval. Mathilde has been keeping a close eye on the proceedings and has now wandered round with an antique pot with the request "mariposas por favor" - butterflies please. So, mariposas it will be. As regular readers will know, Mathilde is not a woman to be trifled with!

After that it will be a big cubed pot for a dear friend, who wants her cat on it. I'll leave that complicated bit to el supremo, while I do the other three sides in abstract, in different shades of blues and white with a splash of girly pink.

MOSAICED POT READY TO GROUT...

Four different sides, all on the theme of bamboo. Removable rim will be mosaiced with black tiles and then all grouted in black. Should look good when placed just off the garden path.

BAMBOO POT. Sunny days are back and el jefe has started his big, big pot. He is also building a little arbour at the back of the house, where there is the beginning of a grapevine.He has visions of sunning himself round there and reaching up to pick a grape.

NEW POT TO MOSAIC.

Am still having trouble uploading a picture direct from Picasa to my blog - some coded message keeps appearing. Many people are experiencing the same - I hope they fix it soon.

This is the new pot, with a removable rim, which will have butterflies round it. I think bamboo sprays, like the ones on the stone benches, will look very tasteful.

FOUNTAIN THINGY.

The mosaiced bricks can be moved around, and they will be as we want to put some large flat stones and pebbles around and a papyrus plant. Need to get the sound just right too, so a bit of twiddling is necessary....

CUBE POT FINISHED.

This has now had its black grout applied and I think it looks gorgeous. We shall paint the inside as it helps terracotta pots retain moisture.


This next one, using up bits 'n pieces with the odd coloured glass pebble, is a bit of a disappointment



because the tiles get lost in the red grout. We have been reading up on oil-based grout stains, so will find a black one and go over this pot after experimenting on a trial piece.












And for Colin's benefit on mediterraneangardening.blogspot, here's the same pot before the grout was cleaned off. See what I mean about the tiles disappearing and that black grout would have been much better.

The days are getting colder now so I think this might be the last bit of mosaic work until Spring. Ooo, will withdrawal symptoms set in!

Colin of mediterraneangarden blogspot suggested that the process of mosaicing be shown, so here's the virgin pot and subsequent steps: the lizards and salamanders were drawn on the pot. Ordinary ceramic bathroom tiles are cut up, made smaller with special tools, shaped with nibblers or a grindstone and fixed to the terracotta surface with glue.



The background is meant to look like a tiled wall

Later fronds of greenery were mosaiced around the rim.












Grouting was added, squidged in, scraped and sponged off.

We applied a brown one and when it was dry, it was like pale chocolate - not the effect we wanted. The finished pot was placed on a plinth in the middle of the new circular path...

There were two dead plum trees with strangely-shaped trunks when we first bought this place that we saved them for an unknown project. We drank our way through a few cartons of an Arcos de la Frontera wine in the beautiful blue bottle and that's how this little bit of whimsy sculpture was born! We added different coloured bottles and, thinking that Blue Sapphire gin had a pale blue bottle, we bought that (just for the bottle, you understand!).

We have a few dozen more bottles and hope to create a bottle wall some time, which will catch the setting sun.

Here is the maestro at work on another pot. 

CUBED POT.

Nearly finished. These shapes had to be exact for all four sides so templates were used and D. tried them on for size before sticking. The joins on the four corners will be a challenge.