The garden changes rapidly at this time of the year, emerging from near-dormancy to erupt into the fullness of May. We've not altered the garden's layout in the eight years of living here, even though the design is too linear for my taste. Ours is a typical urban garden, a small oblong shape surrounded by high walls and fences, which means each part of the garden gets some shade at different times of the day. I've a pile of unused plant pots waiting for more plants, and at some point I want to create a pond. The one thing I miss about our old house is my beloved pond. I'm no gardening expert, but I've picked up some knowledge along the way. We have introduced a wider range of plants to this garden and aim to continue doing this as, inspired by Claude Monet's example, I plan to turn my back garden into a source of painting ideas. Okay, his garden was on a somewhat larger scale...  If anyone has any bright ideas for the garden then I'd love to hear them.

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist".  I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri

  The snowdrops photographed in The Arno have almost finished flowering already. They spiral away from the tree trunk, blurring into a more naturalistic planting style nearer to the hedge. This small urban garden in Oxton is maintained by volunteers. Nobody seems sure why it's named The Arno. Possibly it's a corruption of some old Viking word or phrase meaning "high point" or "eagles nest here" - the jury is out. Most of the garden is given over to a series of tidy beds which, when viewed overall, make a geometric version of a rose. Each bed is filled with roses. At this time of the year, the roses look like a snarl of dormant sticks. Of much greater interest to me is the cottage garden border which runs along one side of the park. This holds a variety of traditional plants such as honesty, hellebores and elephant's ears, and a host of wildflowers which have either been deliberately planted or which have have helped themselves to a patch of unmanicured e

This very short video reveals, stage by stage,  how "Urban Shore" was painted. I hope you enjoy watching the process. There's a snippet of my dogs keeping me company in the studio, too.

  Urban Shore; acrylic on canvas; Birkenhead Park series; 2023. Big plans are afoot for Birkenhead . Umpteen billions are to be pumped into the area, old stuff is to be demolished and new stuff is to be build in its place. Some of this has already begun in the town centre, where long-empty shops have been flattened in preparation. Two new glass and steel tower blocks are almost finished. One is for council offices, the other is earmarked as a mixture of apartments, with shops at ground floor level. Do we need new shop buildings, when so many perfectly good premises have been vacant for years already? Peoples shopping habits have changed now so many of us shop online.  And what's wrong with the old council offices, where not so long ago £20,000 was allegedly spent on new carpet for the stairs? One aspect of the planned changes to the area which really interests me is the intention to create a large public park stretching down to the River Mersey. Currently this area houses derelict

These table decorations are so easy to make, but look good. All you need is a clean jam or coffee jar, and  few scraps of fabric such as ribbon or hessian, and a small quantity of PVA glue. Pop in an electric candle, and you've now created a pretty decoration. I saw something similar for sale in Southport for £5 each, whereas these home-made ones cost only a few pennies each.