Kieran's Art

  No bees, no blooms ... how colourless life would be? Bees pollinate about 75% of the world’s flowering plants and around 35% of global crops. This includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds—foods that are crucial for human nutrition. Without bees, crops like apples, almonds, blueberries, cucumbers, and coffee would see major declines in yield and quality. One worker bee collects about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey over her entire life. That’s why it takes tens of thousands of bees working together to make a single jar of honey. To make one pound (about 0.45 kg) of honey, bees need to: Visit 2 million flowers Fly about 55,000 miles (88,000 km) Work as a colony of ~60,000 bees

 

  This is my own composition - the smoking cigarette and pouring black tea give an element of dynamism, whereas the cocktail adds some chic.

 A farmer's life in the paddy fields of Goa is a mix of hard work, tradition, community, and nature’s rhythm.  Most farmers start early, often before sunrise. The mornings are cool, the mist lingers over the green fields, and there's a peaceful silence broken only by the sound of birds or frogs. Planting Season (Kharif – June to August): Farmers wade through knee-deep water to transplant rice seedlings by hand. This is back-breaking work and often done in teams, creating a sense of shared labor. Growing Season (Monsoon): The fields are lush and vibrant. Farmers tend to the crops, manage water flow, and keep an eye out for pests. It’s a waiting game—nature takes over here. Harvest Season (October to December): Time to cut the golden stalks. Sickles in hand, families come together to harvest. There’s often a sense of joy, relief, and celebration. Some farmers, especially in smaller villages, still use buffaloes and plows. Others have mechanized tools, though many farmers struggl...

  This is how I imagined seagulls to live ... however, to my surprise, in the dead of a Canadian winter, thousands of miles away from the ocean, I saw seagulls scavenging for food - and that sight stayed with me to this very day Though originally coastal birds, seagulls eat almost anything: garbage, insects, rodents, food scraps, small animals, crops—you name it. This flexibility makes it easy for them to thrive in urban areas, far from the coast. Sadly, climate change and overfishing may reduce coastal food supplies, pushing them to explore further inland. The good news is that their digestive systems can handle spoiled or dirty food that would make other animals sick. In some inland places, they’ve become dominant scavengers, replacing animals like vultures and crows in certain roles. They're not afraid of humans and know how to steal food or raid bins with precision. Seagulls are very smart birds: They learn quickly where food can be found (e.g., landfills, urban areas). They ca...

  Today we had unexpected heavy showers here in the San Francisco Bay Area - which inspired me to do this artwork

  Heliconia rostrata , also known as the lobster claw, hanging heliconia, or false bird of paradise, is a tropical showstopper—famous for its dramatic, hanging flowers and exotic flair. It’s a favourite in tropical gardens and floral arrangements for good reason! The blooming season is from spring through fall in warm climates. The "flowers" are actually colorful bracts—modified leaves—that look like lobster claws or parrot beaks. They are bright red with yellow or green edges, arranged in a downward-facing, hanging structure. However, the real flowers are small and hidden inside the bracts It is perennial, Rhizomatous, meaning that it spreads underground and regrows each year The leaves are large, banana-like, lush green, and can reach 3 feet long Here are the growing conditions:  Light: Prefers partial shade to full sun (too much direct sun can scorch it) Soil: Well-draining, rich, and kept moist Water: Likes regular watering; doesn’t tolerate drought well

  Magnolia liliiflora — sometimes called the lily magnolia or Mulan magnolia—is a small, ornamental tree or shrub known for its gorgeous, tulip-shaped purple-pink flowers that bloom in spring, sometimes again lightly in late summer It’s a favourite in gardens for its beauty, fragrance, and relatively compact size. The large, goblet- or tulip-shaped flowers are usually deep pink, purple, or reddish-purple on the outside, and paler inside The blooms with a light, pleasant fragrance often appear before the leaves, which makes the flowers pop against bare branches

  Cyclamen africanum is a beautiful and lesser-known species of cyclamen native to North Africa, particularly in countries like Algeria and Tunisia, where it grows on rocky slopes, open woodlands, and shady valleys, often under oak or olive trees. The blooms, pink to light purple with a sweet scent, appear in late summer to autumn (Aug–Oct) The heart-shaped leaves with silver or marbled patterns appear after the flowers, which is typical for cyclamens The plant likes well-drained soil, partial shade, and a dry rest period in summer It grows from a tuber (like a small bulb), which stores energy through hot, dry summers. It goes dormant in summer to survive the heat. The flowers are pollinated by insects, often ants or bees, attracted by scent. The seeds have a sticky coating ( elaiosome ) that attracts ants, which helps with seed dispersal

  Tulips are native to Central Asia, particularly the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey, where they grow in the wild on rocky mountain slopes and steppes, where winters are cold and summers are dry. It was in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey)—especially during the 16th century—that tulips became a cultural obsession. Tulips came to symbolize beauty, paradise, and wealth and were featured in art, poetry, and palace gardens. In fact, the Ottoman court had entire festivals around tulips. The period of 1718–1730 in Ottoman history is even known as the "Tulip Era" (Lale Devri). In the mid-1500s, a famous Flemish botanist named Carolus Clusius was working at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He had received tulip bulbs and seeds from Ogier de Busbecq, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to the Ottoman court. Clusius planted them in Leiden and began studying them—this was the first official tulip garden in West...

  Rain in the forecast, in case you were wondering. Here's a true story - back in the late 80s, on my first trip to London, I had the television on and they were talking about the weather - I know, right! The weatherman was standing in front of a huge map of the UK with a big white cloud that covered all of the UK and Ireland. And he was talking two to the dozen about how rain was likely in the forecast.  Seriuosly ... like we needed him to tell us ...