New beginnings

We’re in the second week of February already. Do you think this year is going fast as well? 😉

I’ve begun a new project:

You’ll see what it is soon, for now it’s a work in progress. Maybe you could try and guess what it is but it might be quite obvious by its shape.  😊

Speaking of beginning new things, did you make new year’s resolutions? Have you kept to them? I don’t make resolutions, I gave it up a long time ago because expecting to do something new in a new year never worked for me. I try to practice mindfulness (I say try because I sometimes forget 😃 ) and I love the idea that comes with it that every day is a new beginning, a time to start again with whatever you intended to do. Even every hour – or even every minute – is an opportunity to begin again. It’s kind of like saying if you’re having a bad day, take some time out and start anew. It’s something I try to keep in mind if what I’m working on doesn’t seem to be going as I thought it would.

I came across this poem recently. It goes along the same lines of taking each day as it comes and I thought I’d share it with you:

Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

Who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

So if you’re annoyed or down about not sticking to resolutions, don’t be. Have a break and begin again tomorrow. Don’t be hard on yourself. 😊 I think I see Spring as more of a new beginning than the new year as Spring is when nature is waking up and the plants really begin to sprout new shoots.

The winter flowering jasmine and violas are still going in the garden, providing lovely colour and the primroses are blooming:

My mother’s camellia has blossomed like mad:

I’ve done some quick sketches of the blooms:

And also of some mini daffodils:

I hope to involve them in my work at some point, a painting maybe, or in some textiles.

The camellia always flowers in January and brings beautiful colour to the grey days. It also seems to attract blue tits. I’ve seen quite a few pecking at the centre of the flowers but I don’t know what it is they’re after. Part of the flower? Insects? If you know, do tell me!  J