Another Journey Begins

My sleepy winter self is stirring now the days are getting lighter.  I hope you dear readers had a wonderful Christmas time and I wish you all a rather belated Happy New Year!
I will begin by sharing with you a painting that I did in the last quiet days of December.
                                                    'Another Journey begins'

It's a beginning and an ending. As 2017 drew to a close I thought about what the year had brought and wanted to do a little picture to honour my dear feathered friend who I lost that year. 

I've been quietly recharging on these January days. Wandering beneath the apple trees looking for the wind fallen oak moss and collecting kindling to lay the fire at night. Sitting beneath the golden tails of hazel catkins with a mug of hot spiced berry juice and delighting in the snowdrops return. This has been my 2018 so far.

 My sleepy hibernating self is reflected in this recent work.

'The Quiet Sleep Of Stars'

Although quiet I've been quite busy spending some time designing new cards. I re-designed the bee card that I previously used to sell as a hand made card edged with glitter. Now it comes all printed, including the glitter effect.    

The next card, was using the small image Moth Spell that I created last summer.

'Stay wild and enchanted'

And lastly my heart images have also been added to cards in the shop ready for Valentines day.

I finished a little donation piece for the 2018 Twitter art exhibition which this year takes place in Australia. This year all money raised will go to a riding for the disabled charity. in Canberra.

'Origin' 

With the beginnings of a brand new year, my little white hare decided it was time for him to dust off his magical wooden staff and prepare himself for an adventure. The mountains are calling and he longs to see the silver lakes again and to head for the wild wood once more.

"Then something Tookish woke up inside of him and he wished to go and see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and the waterfalls and explore the caves and wear a sword instead of a walking stick."~ JRR Tolkien

Well this hare doesn't need sword, as his walking stick is rather special ;-)
The picture evolved from playing with ink. Once dry I could see a landscape. Forests and distant mountains, silvery lakes in the soft swirls and watery marks. And so the map was born and the continued travels in a Tolkien inspired landscape.

Where he is heading? Well that my dear readers we shall have to wait to find to out?

 'No half heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly'~JRRTolkien

Karen 
x

December Trees and Woodland Decorations

December beauty, away from the tinsel and lights and Christmas tunes that play on a loop in the shops. The apple trees have their own tinsel all year round, silvery bleached greens of lichen, emerald green moss and boozy fermented crab apples that have stayed firm and clung on in the wind. 

I have grown attached to these trees and others in the garden. I have known them now for 18 years. They are friends and I speak to them and tell them they are looking beautiful as the seasons change. I have watched them grow. Some are old and some not so, (the Hazel we grew from a nut) My children have played beneath them, had picnics, camped and climbed the bigger ones and they have grown up with them.  Now they are young adults and the trees are still here watching quietly when they return home, growing their apples, nuts and berries. The wood pigeons have their favourite perch and the blackbird and robin use all. The thrush likes to use the top branches of the cherry tree to sing his evensong. I have told my woody friends about other trees I've met on my travels, about the small twisted oaks in Wistmans Wood with the lichen as long as faerie hair and I'm sure they seemed to have grown their lichen more abundantly since the tale was told?

When I was a child running and playing in woods and jumping streams, we used the language of the field. Our maps were plotted out using the trees, the big beech on the edge of the wood, that my Mum had carved her initials in when she was a child, the huge elm we made a swing on. We knew which nut tree gave the best harvest, whether they were small clusters, fivers, or large cobs, We knew where the walnut tree was and the cherry trees and where the best apples were to scrump and our meeting place was the lightening tree, an old dead tree, bleached like a bone, that had been struck by lightning years before. And a holly tree always held a certain magic to me, a feeling I could never really explain? Now  I am lucky to have three of them in this garden.

December is the only time of year when we bring a tree 'intact' inside our home, to decorate and hang beautiful things on in celebration. It's also the time when trees are revealed again. Their silhouettes return us to the winter landscape once more and their real beauty is uncovered. Winter light and shadows on sleeping trees and icy bare branches. One of my loves of Winter. Everything is framed so perfectly.

Although I love the frost and cold. I'm hoping this year for milder days. Robin Goodfellow my dear feathered friend, I think has mites? He is scratching and losing his feathers which of course is not a good thing to do at this time of year. It is either that or fighting, as I've seen him chasing another Robin off.  Constant replenishing of food will help to keep him warm. I can't help but worry though. He needs a scarf like you see the Robins on Christmas cards wearing... Sadly he doesn't look the picture perfect 'Robin on the card' this year but that's life, I still love him dearly however he looks.  

Inside the house, I have brought the woodland in. Toadstools, birds, fox , squirrel and deer decorate the room.  

Now if only Robin would come in and keep warm like this other one. 

I don't normally have flowers with the Christmas decorations, but it was my Birthday the other day, hence the ones on the table.  :)

The little fir tree sits twinkling in the corner. Just the mistletoe to get now. ..

Flowers and Bees in Winter

Winter Solstice is almost upon us. The longest, darkest night, when the ground should be hard with frost as in the deep mid winter that carols sing about. The earth should be cold and asleep. It's not though, here there is not a sign of Jack Frost. In the garden there are flowers blooming and yesterday there were bees.

I don't think I've ever seen a bee on a flower in December here, ever!?

I know some folks are enjoying the mild weather, but I would prefer to see December decked out in frosty attire. The seasons are just not right. Maybe we won't get a winter at all?

Last weekend I had a fleeting visit to Dartmoor. It was my Birthday and I stayed a night at the Two Bridges hotel which is conveniently located a short walk from the ancient Wistmans wood. It was lovely to be back there again and this time in Winter rather than summertime which was when we visited last time. The lichen and moss seemed even brighter without leaves on the trees.  

On our way back we passed Postbridge, and stopped to see the old clapper bridge .

 A bronze age tomb remains. 

 Then walked a little and sat with the quiet stones.

Back home I've hung the green upon the door and the fae lady has mistletoe for hair once more.

It feels like weeks since I picked up a paintbrush. I've been so busy with packing orders there was little time for much else. Christmas has been busy in the shop and I'm very grateful to anyone that has supported my work and bought from me these last few weeks and of course throughout the year. The calendars have been a great success and only a small amount are remaining now.
Now things are beginning to quieten down and I have a painting on the go and  even managed to find time to do three little Aceo sized paintings. Inspired by Wistmans wood.

It would have been wonderful to have seen the wood on a frosty day or in the snow. Maybe one day?...But even though I didn't, my little white hare got lucky!  :)