A lacemaker and a florist

Yesterday the sun and the breeze whispered light and shade through the brand new leaves. Today is cloudy and grey but the trees are still trying out their new leaves, still whispering and sighing. Gentle rustlings of early Summer. I hope the sun comes back tomorrow to join in again, for a day to be spent drawing in town.

Above: a lacemaker who is also a florist. Doesn't that sound like a fairytale job description?! :)

Green rustlings to your weekend :)

There is great drying out

This weather this week. Mornings of blue skies and sunshine and early walks, hanging clothes out to dry - fresh breezes no rain. Evening walks also with the lengthening days, busy birds, robins hopping a bit closer each day, bringing the washing in, carrying scents of sun and wind.

Top photo: Lace made by hand by Belle Fleur de Lis 
So delicate and beautiful, many many stitches like lots of little brush strokes. Thank you L!

Moon as big as the sun. Earth so small. (Celestial events)

A seat for sky watching, solar eclipses, new moons and a Spring equinox. Although it was too cloudy to see the solar eclipse this morning, the day got eerily darker for about 15 minutes.  Birds went quiet and retired to the trees. I wondered if the daffodils even stopped growing for a moment. Or held their breath. Shadow of our moon moving across the earth,  a reminder that we are so small on a small planet spinning around the huge universe. And then when the light started to return, a reminder of gratefulness and appreciation for the sun.

Today also a new moon and the Spring Equinox - yesterday this corner of purple stars.

Rain, Snow and Daffodils

   

March days have arrived with a little bit of capriciousness. With rain and snow flurries and cloud and wind and sun. And more wind. Chancing on little moments of warmth in those patches of sun. More and more yellow being painted into each day. Twice I was unable to resist bunches of sunshine (otherwise known as daffodils) from the local grocery shop for only a few euro. Little surprises of dabs of paint (crocuses and snowdrops and blossom) under trees and on trees. And best of all, birdsong concerts accompanying each evening now.

Paint the sky

End-of-January-evenings are painting the skies with  pink and orange sunsets. And end-of-January-evenings' light is touching further into my room and longer into the days. Birds going delirious every evening this week between 4.30-5pm, making my last half hour of the day painting go very happily.  Their sounds seeming to touch simultaneously on both old memories and future hopes of Spring. How is it that every year Spring feels both old and new?

Cherry blossom hellos.

A hello from my back door step this morning. A gusty wind is blowing all the petals down from the trees. Last week it was really Spring. Surprises of hidden clusters of flowers. Bright colours peeping out from here and there. Clouds sailing across clear blue skies. Birdsong accompanied slow sunsets (bright til 9pm now!!). Warm, gentle breezes that have become a strong, stormy wind today. Nice company, the wind, on my walk. Nice sound company too now that I am back inside, listening to the gales racing and chasing outside the house.

Spring-ing. Hello April.

 

  

 

April is arraying herself in Spring loveliness. Hints and whispers of green... chestnut baby leaves unfurling. Small speckles underfoot... dainty Spring flowers dotting highways and byways. Overhead, frills and flounces of blossoms. Shy and brave at the same time.

First lunch eaten out in the garden where I saw a butterfly flutterby. And ladybirds surprising me in unexpected corners (one in my bedroom!).

And at the beginning and end of each day the birdsong - like the "key to the morning and the latch of the evening."



"key to the morning and the latch of the evening." - Ghandi

Spring mirror

Two months of stormy weather has washed February clean and today is scrubbed and sparkling fresh. The brown-grey puddles are now blue and still, Cerulean Blue, mirroring the bright high-sprung sky. Trees and long grasses, everything absorbing and reflecting the Spring sun. Even the people I meet on my morning walk smiling back to me!

Above: I wonder where this fellow is racing off to.....

The year's at the Spring

The first day of Spring, though nobody has told the weather. Wintry colours and sounds all around. Splashing through puddles of Burnt Umber and Paynes Grey. Wild wind painting crimson and red onto cheeks, each face a different shade. The wind also catching and carrying voices here and there to who knows where. Bell tinkling over coffee shop door. Cup of coffee waiting to warm up cold fingers again while raindrops and wind continue their chorus on the window.

At my desk, different colours to those outdoors, wishes for Spring: pinks, reds, lilacs, and drops of Spring shower blues.

Hints and hopes of Spring, goodbye to January, hello to February :)

April's days

Spring was hiding a bit through April's days. Shyly and slowly she is making little appearances. Longer evenings are calling for short walks, every time a little glimpse more of green along the way. Dots of pink and white cherry blossom buds waiting to open. Hinting. Just needing a touch more of sun and warmth. Evening visitors of robins and blackbirds. They are not shy or slow to broadcast the Spring.

When bad weather is good weather

Some snippets from conversations I have heard lately:

Where is the Spring?
It's been a long Winter.
That's a skinny breeze.
Bbbrrrrr!
I normally have my windows and curtains washed before Easter, but this year the weather....
There's no growth. The field is too wet to get the tractor into it.
This weather would put years on you!

Still though, this spell of Wintry weather is very good weather for painting. Snow and rain outside make for perfect sitting at my painting desk conditions. And this unseasonal weather is also very apt for reading Endurance,  true story of survival.  28 men (among them Irishman Tom Crean) drifting, after their boat was crushed by ice,  for over a year on the unknown, ice-packed Antarctic seas with no way of contacting the outside world. Very inspiring story of how they overcame seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.

It makes this present cold spell seem not too bad after all!

There's great drying out

Blathín (Blaw-heen, little flower in Irish) hung the washing out on the line to dry the first day Spring was hinting with a blue sky and a mild breeze. Though the ground was still damp beneath her feet, she could hear a hundred voices of Springtime - birds twittering, branches rustling. Oak catkins swaying. Tiny little buds appearing.

No need to have the radio on

The best music these days is to be heard outside my window. Imagine not being able to hear the birds chirping - what would those Spring sounds look like?

A Green Wave

Nobody knows for certain when Spring begins. Around this time of year a "green wave" can be observed on successive satellite images moving north at a rate of about 100 miles a week.

For astronomers, Spring begins on 21st March, when the sun crosses the equator on its seasonal journey northwards.

Weather people base it on the weather. Meteorologists consider the 3 coldest months (December, January, February) to be winter. So for them Spring begins on March 1st.

Here, the evenings are light til 6.30, the air is filled with birdsong and I don't need my scarf - Spring!

A Stretch In The Evenings

The last days of January have wrapped themselves in Winter, grey skies, trees draped with drops of drizzle - but already the days are beginning to stretch longer. There is an extra half hour of painting in daylight in the evenings. And tomorrow is the first day of Spring.