New paintings and regular art updates.
Walking every day for a couple of weeks seems to have put me back in touch with the seasons. I’ve been frozen for the last few days, the sun has been shining brightly but the wind has been blowing from the East. It actually made it good to wear a mask, it helped keep my face warm. Seeing the sun setting slightly later each day, when it gets past 5pm I really feel like we are heading back to Spring. Seeing a few snowdrops and crocuses about now. Soon it will be the turn of Daffodils. Hooray!
Little Oak tree
Not great yet.
Just middle aged
Not ancient
Will you survive
Into your centenary?
Have your acorns grown,
Have you got galls?
Surviving a winters day
With a squirrels dray.
Snow between bricks and cobble stones #bandofsketchers Tuesday 9.2.21 prompt ‘Winter’ . Watercolour on cartridge paper.
Blowing a gale
Air full of hail
What do I see?
Catkins on a tree!
Waving and twirling
Snow flakes are curling
Fall to the ground
But all around
Nature awakes
With every breath it takes
Spring comes nearer….
Nothing is clearer!
At the start of January it was getting dark around 4.40pm and we were having about eight hours of light. Now it’s staying light till after five. I feel like a weight is lifting slightly. Like the edges of a blanket being pulled up and light seeping in around the edges.
The clouds have obscured the sunset for the last few days. We’ve had almost a months rain in a day in some places in the UK with storm Christoph causing flooding in Wales and Northern England. We have avoided the worst here, but twenty miles or so away the town of Northwich in Cheshire is flooded in places and the river Severn is close to flooding over.
Yellow Church spire
In the valley
River runs below
Snow above on the hills
Yorkshire view
Deep country
Saltaire splendour.
Photo courtesy of my friend Tim Hargreaves.
It came again…
Startled the cat
Turned it yellow with fright.
Another beast from the East?
That’s what they are saying.
Cold comfort
In a cold world
The outdoor cat is now more of an outside cat. I call his name (he remains anonymous here) and whistle him and he comes in. I have to wait a few minutes while he mooches round the garden. He woke me up this morning by lying on me in bed for a cuddle, then up he got and slipped downstairs. I followed to let him out ( my indoor cats) also anonymous, have been out a couple of times but end up hiding under garden benches. They are a lot smaller and I think would get picked on by the ginger Tom who also patrols our garden.
After half an hour and a decaff coffee to warm me up, I whistled him about three times and he came back in from the cold and dark. He’s eating biscuits at the moment, having his fill. Next? He might go out to mooch again, but I hope he stays in.
By the way, I don’t know how many people whistle their cats, but it seems to carry better. I’ve done it since I was a child I developed some notes along the line of a ‘cat where are you?’ tune….ah he’s gone back upstairs…. Bye
X
Reflecting again
Houses climb the hill
Roses and ivy climb the walls
Snow dusted hedges
And bright shining rooves
I can almost hear
Reindeer hooves
Clambering over
Cold icy snow.
Imagine a landscape
Frozen below.
Five am and the sky was orange. The snow was dumped on us. Only a couple of inches, but you don’t know how disruptive that can be in a country that doesn’t get much of the white stuff in the winter.
As our street lamps change from sodium light to white led lamps I wonder if that orange glow will fade and we will get silvery white instead? The sound is deafened by the snow, everything is muffled. I think I can hear sleighbells…..
