St. David's Day..1st March

Today was such a beautiful day. The first day of a new month. So we went for a lovely walk around the village. First we stopped to look through the Church gates. It took my breath away, the beautiful purple carpet of crocus, snowdrops and the first daffodils. Of course we had to then wander through the churchyard and take it all in, take the opportunity to see it with the sun shining, on this St. David's Day.

We carried on wandering through the lanes heading up towards the moor you can see in the background. Past the old mill we decided to look at the beck, see how much water was running down and a chance to find some pottery. There was a huge bank of leaves and bits all washed to the side by the fast flowing water after all the rain we have had. I found an oak gall and then I needed to chose an oak leaf from all the hundreds on the ground. Meanwhile, someone risked wet feet as he balanced on wobbly stones to fish out little pieces of blue and white china for me.

We wandered on through the lanes and I noticed the first bright glossy yellow celandines. They were always the first wild flowers, my sister and I used to start our collection as we pressed flowers and made our own nature book throughout the year. I saw all the new fresh green leaves of the Lords and Ladies, at the same place I collected the berries last year for my zig zag book I was working on. I will make some sketches and try and record it at this stage to add to my book.

We listened to the birds singing, this little robin sang out in the tree as I collected lots of the skeleton sycamore seeds. He was there so long the photographer managed to capture this gorgeous picture, he is actually singing.

Sycamore seeds scattered everywhere, so delicate, like little pieces of lace.

I also collected some lovely pale empty snail shells. We saw a nest from last year, revealed as the hedgerows have been trimmed neat by the farmers ready for this new year. The birds will collecting and building new nests very soon. Although it is still early, there is lots of new growth along the hedgerows, as we have so far escaped any snow or severe cold weather. When we arrived home it was so nice I spent some time in the garden. It was amazing how much everything has grown with a few days of warm sunshine. Daffodils for St. David's Day.

At the bottom of my garden so many bulbs in flower. I love planting them.

Daffodils, crocus and snowdrops by my garden gate. I love seeing them, the pleasure of all this from planting the little bulbs in Autumn.

I was really thrilled to see my Snakehead fritillary plants, complete with buds. This plant always grows first as it is more sheltered and this is the first place I ever planted the bulbs, many years ago now. It always grows the tallest and the strongest. I so look forward to seeing them each year. Today I planted some new cowslips amongst my other plants in this my little wild woodland garden.

The birds were singing and a robin hopping around as I did a little tidying up of broken branches from the ash tree. The birds love the ash tree, and we love watching them fly in and out of it. I couldn't resist taking the view from here, looking from my garden to the shore, soon the buds will be bursting and it will be covered in leaves.

I have not been able to do much drawing as I have been having problems with my eyes. I have still being collecting both objects and ideas for future work. Next week I am having my first surgery for my cataracts. I have always been grateful that I have had the gift of such wonderful eyesight and have been able to draw in such detail. I am so aware how precious my eyes are and how much I value my sight, hopefully I will be able to return to my drawings soon. Meanwhile I am so lucky to live here, enjoy each day surrounded by all this natural beauty and be able to see this view everyday.

Like this view yesterday.

And then the colours of the sunset.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Thank you for the lovely comments. See you soon. Millyx