New ideas?

I’ve just been to the gallery where II have some of my paintings today. I thought they would be asking me to take some of my paintings away because they have been up too long, but they only wanted me to take one of a poppy field. But I do need to do some new paintings, to swap out with the ones I currently have there. I’m trying to think of spring images, maybe flowers? This is a Vinca. I was also thinking of doing a painting of a Blue himalayan poppy (mecanopsis) or other similar ones like Helibores. Also maybe snowdrops or daffodils. We will see.

Spring flowers

It’s almost the end of tulips and daffodils season. Soon it will be bluebells and other spring flowers… Leaves are opening on the trees. Buds swelling with the water that is falling from the April showers. We decided to go out for the day and headed south for a few miles. You could see more leaves on trees the further south we went. I remember hearing on a TV programme once that you could see the spring slowly creeping up the country as the days lengthened and the daffodils flowered. It might have said it takes two weeks to go from the far south to the far north? Not absolutely certain though.

Tulips

Not this years ones, they haven’t opened up yet. But they are starting to grow up. I just can’t wait. I’m used to waiting for spring but sometimes it seems to take an awful long time to get here. A couple of weeks ago the temperatures were in the high teens Celsius, last week they dropped to freezing or below, and there was a snow in a few places across the UK. We didn’t get more than a bit of hail and snow here. Meanwhile the daffodils and snowdrops are up. We haven’t had much rain though, so the buds on the trees are not fully open yet…

Spring

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Spring. I decided it was too cold to stand outside and draw daffodils so I decided to draw one from memory. Also couldn’t get my sketchbook page flat so it’s a bit curved… I have some with very strong orange trumpets and bright yellow petals so I think these colours are close.

Daffodils

Yellow and orange. Large flower heds. In front of the house. Cheerful and bright. They delight me when I come home. Signs of spring are showing everywhere now. The trees are starting to blossom, buds are swelling on the branches in my garden. I’ve seen blossom on the trees along the canal. But it’s been dry and sunny, it’s been exceptionally warm for this time in March. I worry because the temperatures are due to fall next week and frost might nip at the buds. But if it stays dry they might be OK. What we need now is rain to swell the buds and start the growth process. Cells expand when they absorb water, the become turgid and then, they start to photosynthesise. We are at the turn of the year.

Three in one!

St David’s day (the patron Saint of Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿), Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) and the (meteorological) 1st day of Spring. All tied up in one day this year, the 1st of March. I know shrove Tuesday moves around, its generally in February I think? It is connected with Easter which falls on a full moon? And also the 1st of March isn’t always on a Tuesday! So it drifts around the calendar. Also linked with Lent, giving up something for lent, like chocolate, is a well known thing that Christians do at this time of year. St David’s day is celebrated with daffodils, Wales with dragons. I wonder if they have dragons holding daffodils. Then the first day of spring? Apparently the actual start is later in March so this must just be a way of dividing the year up into four equal quarters. Time moves on.

Tulips

Tulips in the kitchen. Now I need some daffodils for tomorrow which is the 1st of March and St David’s day.

Wales has many symbols, the daffodil, the leek and last but not least, the Welsh dragon that appears on their flag.

It is always good to get to March, it is the start of the Metereological Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. I expect we will be blasted by March winds. But tulips and daffodils cheer me up.