Time

Last night we changed our clocks to British Summertime. I am looking forward to the longer evenings. I have been enjoying lots of late afternoon walks. It is such a lovely time to go just before the sun sets. All the birds are singing and high up in the trees the rooks are building their nests.

I like watching how the the colours change as the light fades. You see all the silhouettes of the trees against the evening sky and the nests are easily seen. And by the time we wander home the sun is setting.

Beautiful colours all soft and faded. A lovely way to end each day. It has been a mixture of sunshine, rainy days, windy blustery days and several days of cold frosty mornings. One morning during the week we woke to snow covering the landscape but it soon disappeared in the sunshine later in the day.

I am happy to say the first bright sunshine flowers have appeared along the hedgerows, the lesser Celandines. I picked a few and had fun capturing the flower and leaf in my square book. It began to curl up and the petals gave me some interesting shapes. I also have a large new pot of black Indian ink and so couldn't wait to use this too.

It so reminded me of my childhood, as we discovered if we liked butter, as we held a flower under our chin, the bright yellow glow always told us we did, an innocent game we played time after time.

I love the way the primroses appear too, from all the dead leaves and plants on the ground. I have noticed lots of them growing along the lanes and footpaths, the same places as when I was a young girl. I picked a single wild flower as I have this large clump growing in my own garden.

I have been drawing a bramble leaf with the tracks made by a mysterious insect. After some reading I have discovered it is a moth. These are the three finds I picked an a walk, I managed to paint the ivy leaf and the pencil sketch of the bramble leaf, and the primrose gave me that gentle sweet smell and glowed in the sunlight through my window.

I didn't hold back from collecting the fragments of China. I climbed into the field to look in a muddy river bed and scanned the ground for pieces which has come to the surface. I am thrilled at finding even the smallest blue patterned shape and sometimes patterns on both sides. I love discovering each and every fragment, left from broken objects from long ago. Another treasure was a little green glass marble from a bottle neck in the side of a hedge. I picked up the sycamore seeds at the same place, the photograph shows my finds all washed and sorted.

I never tire of drawing the sycamore and love the twin ones.

And the sprouting shoots.

And this acorn cup, remnants of last autumn, the seeds sown for new life.

And that brings me to my beautiful snakehead fritillary. My first flower and buds of this year down at the bottom of my garden. They are growing so fast. I planted over a hundred new ones last November and I am so excited to watch them all flowering again this year. I picked one of the buds.

I sketched it in pencil and left it. Little by little I have started to paint it with the acrylic inks. My eyes only allow me a short session. So it all takes time but I am making progress. Last year I could not even attempt to draw anything, so I am so grateful I can this year. I just have to be patient.

And something else that has made me smile is seeing the first glimpses of several different ladybirds. When the sunshines I spot them in my garden and along the hedgerows. We counted five one day. This one was captured by the photographer.

So small but so beautiful. I have been making something small by printing and sewing using red fabric paint. It is a slow project as I am making very small stitches, I will keep it to share another time.

I will leave you with a dramatic looking sunset. Each day is different and I love to stop and take it all in. Before the sun sets today I am going to wrap up warm, then enjoy a very windy blustery walk around the village and make full use of our extra hour of daylight.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have been doing. Thank you for your comments. If you are visiting I would love to hear what you are doing, or just say hello. See you soon . Millyx