What Was Once There Is Now Returned

After posting daily over on Instagram throughout March things have become a little quieter.
I took a couple of days off and spent them in the garden, soaking up the primrose magic.

The painting I was working on is now finished.
                                   'What Was Once There Is Now Returned'

And is now available to buy as a print and a greeting card in the shop.

With Easter just around the corner, it was time to play with the theme of eggs. Well why not? ;) Miniature paintings with gold leaf. These four tiny originals will be available in the shop after 4pm today.

I've matted them ready to pop into 6x4 frames.

Have a good weekend. x

First Bee of Spring, Hares, and a Birthday

Now that the seasons are changing, primroses are in flower much earlier than they ever were. The climate is warmer which means bees and other insects wake up and are active earlier. I saw my first huge bumble bee this year around the beginning of February. Luckily there were lots of primrose, snowdrop and crocus around for this beautiful queen to feast upon. I'm sure she was a queen  because she was huge. To honour her wonderful majesty, I created a little painting.

This painting will be available in my next shop update. (tbc)

 We have been  enjoying the February sunlight and warmth through the glass.

Although the weather has turned chilly here today and we have even had some flakes of snow fall.

It was definitely a thermal trousers kind of day.

On my desk this month, I've been playing about designing some new shapes for the hares this Spring.

And with lots of tea to keep me going, creating some with the older regular shape too.

All of these hares will be leaping off to an exhibition at the Masham Gallery in Yorkshire  'Race The Wind' The exhibition begins on March 9th and continues until 23rd April. www.mashamgallery.co.uk
Many of my customers are from the Yorkshire area, so do stop and take a look and say a little hello to my hares if you live nearby. Or maybe even go and buy one there. Don't forget it's Mothers Day on the 11th March so you may want to treat someone special or even yourself.  ;-)

Can you believe it!? This blog is 10 years old! Well officially on the 29th February, but as there isn't one this year, then I'm going to wish it a Happy Birthday now.

So a big thank you to anyone that visits, reads, comments etc... I hope you enjoy this little place of gentle things.
 x

March blew away with the Dancing Daffodils

And  all of a sudden the frothy blooms of Spring arrived...

While outside the greening is in the midst of it's merrie dance, I have been busy working my way through my 2017 list of things to do. Most of March was taken up with making a new website. A job that had been years overdue and one I felt I could put off no longer. It's strange how days just float past you and merge into one another while you are so wrapped up in doing something. Before I knew it March had blown away along with the dancing daffodils. But with moments of my temper rising along with the sap outside I finally emerged from the other side and have a brand new website. The biggest change was the renaming. So instead of the old Karen Davis site, I am now officially
'Moonlight and Hares' It seemed a natural progression as many customers tell me they look for me under that name. So here it is... www.moonlightandhares.co.uk

It isn't completely finished yet, for instance I still have a shop to add. For now the shop button takes you to the Etsy shop but I do plan to get a separate one on the website as well.

Now April is here and the hedgerows are busy with birds feeding their young in secret nests. The apple blossom's divine fragrance perfumes the garden. New life is everywhere and the earth feels warm in the mild weather we have had.

The snakes head fritillaries and the sweet white violets have waved their sleepy nodding heads goodbye and now the cowslips and forgetmenots have arrived. The bugle is stretching up through the moss and ground ivy, lily of the valley, cow parsley and red campion are already blooming.
Over the Easter weekend we visited our local bluebell wood. A step into Faerie land...

It's so peaceful, no distant hum of car, just a blackbirds clear voice across the hazel tops, gentle woo wooing of wood pigeon and my own boots on last years beech leaves. Then the quiet is suddenly broken with the bark of a muntjac deer and we see it scamper lower down in the woods and a startled pheasant escapes into a clearing, fearful of who we are. The ransoms are beginning to come out. I take some leaves for a garlicky pesto for tea. In the meadow beyond there are cuckoo flower dotted in the damp patches.

Back in the garden I think I had a fleeting glimpse of a white hare, his two big long back legs showing as he leaped through the hedge. I believe he left me this... ;)

 My paint brushes haven't seen as much action this past month but I did do a couple of paintings.              'Replenishment'

A small canvas on the theme of recharging by starlight and moonlight. And...

'The Quiet Glade'

A unicorn for 'National Unicorn Day' a little while back.  Both of these images are available now as prints in the shop

Back in March whilst working on the website, I also did a little designing with my images for a set of magical nature notebooks which should be ready and in the shop quite soon.  I do love notebooks myself and have bit of a mild obsession with them and often can't resist buying another small book that I probably won't use for another year or so as I still haven't filled up my other collection of notebooks! 

It was fun designing these and I am already planning another set. 

That's all, I think, for now... I shall leave you with some raindrops on apple blossom and Mr Blackbird with his children's supper.

Don't forget for more updates in between blogposts you can find me on Facebook and Instagram. :) 

X

Watching Spring Emerge

Sweet primrose scent has entranced and stolen me away. Sometimes the pull is too strong and I have to just stay. So I sit and watch and breathe the perfume that takes me back. Back to my childhood days, playing in fields and scrambling up primrose banks and railway batters with mud on the knees of my old trousers. My nose in a posy of primroses, cool and soft when brushed against my cheek. One for Mum and one for my Nan, that lived next door.  That sweet delicate smell always steps me back in time.  

And I stay some more and watch the Spring unfold before my eyes.  Bees and brimstone butterflies beneath blue skies. 

I could stay all day, just sitting and watching,  there is always so much to see. But I have painting to do so I bring the outside in with me. 

Back outside for a tea break. I would have missed this beautiful bee fly if I had drank my drink indoors, sat with head in a phone or iPad.  

 From my desk I always get a good view of the latest visitors, normally the feathered type, but sometimes furry ones too.

So things have been a little slower. this month. Taking time to smell the flowers and watch the wonders of Spring emerge. And jobs in the home and garden, digging and seed sowing and giving the house a bit of care and attention.
The parliament is finished. I will miss them hanging here watching, with a knowing look in their painted eyes. But, they have given me an idea for a painting, so they will be back in 2D form.

In between there has been cutting out of more wooden hangers. Below is the Spring Wizard in progress.

And here it is finished.

All of the hangers will be added to my Etsy shop on Monday April 25th at 7.30pm (UK time)

***

Enjoy your weekend, I have golden beetroot to plant and more digging to do!

P.S...Mrs Thrush now has a nest in the honeysuckle. :) x