
Soon there will be tulips
Now there are snowdrops,
Daffodils emerge
Life comes back
Despite the winter
Earth renews
The circle of life rotates
Finds new ways to escape
From the grim greys
The dark days
The light plays
And lifts my spirits.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Soon there will be tulips
Now there are snowdrops,
Daffodils emerge
Life comes back
Despite the winter
Earth renews
The circle of life rotates
Finds new ways to escape
From the grim greys
The dark days
The light plays
And lifts my spirits.

For several years I was involved in a local community group that produced the Penkhull mystery plays. I was impressed by how the group wrote stories from scratch, made props like this green face, and organised music and stalls alongside the plays to make a wonderful mix of fun and theater for a local audience. I was sometimes involved, helping paint scenery and took small parts in the plays.
Sadly the Pandemic stopped all of this and it’s taken a few years to try and come up with New Mysteries. Firstly we are putting on a small theatre performance called Harpers Titchy Theatre, with 3 minute plays, a few stalls and hopefully some music. The plan is that if this works we can put on a 20th anniversary year Penkhull Mystery Play in 2025. Wish us luck (or a broken leg)!

Although I was not able to attend the Open day at a spode this weekend, I arranged to have one of my paintings Autumn Spring exhibited alongside other people’s artwork. I think it looks quite good. I was experimenting with an abstract idea in 2019 just before Covid arrived. The idea is a mixture of oblong and squares on the Autumn side, all jumbled and crammed together and is opposed to Spring which is more lyrical and fluid. Representing overwhelming waste and damage, and what we are doing to the Earth, and the renewal and regrowth that the Spring could bring.

I was sad to see winter
I want life to be renewed
Green and gold leaves
Pink blossom
Blue sky with fluffy clouds
Pour on a wash of yellow
Daffodils and tulips
Give me Spring!
Now.

A wall of a farmhouse. The bricks are sodden. There is algae and moss growing on them. The mortar is crumbling.
The farmhouse might be restored. The farm buildings have been sold. Some new houses are to be built but the building is listed I think. This could be the chance for it to live again. Get those bricks dried out. Bring new life back into the village? I hope so.



Gnarley trees in the graveyard
Stand and wave hello
We walked beneath their boughs today
Watching them slowly grow.
Allowed to reach maturity
Their girth spreading wide,
Leaves will be opening soon
Bringing them back to life.
Spring and Easter come again,
The end of winter strife.