Spring has definitely sprung now. I've seen the first bees of the year buzzing around in my garden. Here's one on a crocus.
You can see the yellow balls of pollen on her legs. They looked like little trousers!
The birds are still working away at their nests. Monty and Mabel magpie have added their conservatory and now they're bringing soft materials in to pad it out. Their nest is so big, I can't see either of them when they're in it. William and Wilma woodpigeon are feeding themselves up with the seed I put out for them. No sooner do I leave the garden than they're there pecking madly at it. Usually, one flies down first, then the other barges in.
It's lovely waking in the morning to hear the birds singing. Robbie robin is usually the first I hear, then there's the chorus of chattering sparrows. If I named all of them I'd be here forever.
I've been awake very early to hear the dawn chorus because I haven't slept very well the last few nights due to back pain. That's also why it's been a while since my last post and I haven't able to sew. Fortunately, I've seen a physiotherapist who gave me some exercises to do and I've had strong painkillers from my doctor, which have really helped. I've managed to do some drawing, the results of which you'll see soon.
Meanwhile, here's a bunny to say happy Easter!
Easter seems to have come around very quickly. For me, it doesn't seem that long since Christmas, but then the Easter eggs have been in the shops since January.
We've also had the Spring Equinox this week, so the hours of daylight will be getting longer, which is lovely. More light, more energy, a time of hope and feeling better, with nature growing and showing us all her colour and diversity.
I hope you have a happy Easter and enjoy the holiday. (Don't eat too much chocolate!)
I thought I'd show you something I did a while ago when I was struggling a bit to get any textile work done. I had so many ideas but none of them were making progress because, I think, I was frightened of them going wrong. I'd done a few things but they had come to a halt because I either didn't feel happy with them or couldn't see at the time how to develop them and due to that I think I had this fear that nothing would go right, so I couldn't even touch any of my ideas, even though I really wanted to.
I saw a fabric panel that had been designed by Jill Dian Izzard in the magazine STITCH with the Embroiderer's Guild and loved it so much I had to have a go myself. As it had instructions on how to make it, I didn't need to think about it; I could just follow the points leaving my mind free to enjoy the process.
But, although I followed the design for some things, like the sky being stitched with straight stitch to represent clouds which also rippled the fabric slightly to to add texture, and fraying the fabric to give a soft look, I did change a few things to my own preference.
Here is the finished thing:
The original had leaves on the tree and also a nest with eggs on one of the branches, but I decided to make it a winter scene, so I left the tree bare and, of course, birds don't nest in winter, so I left out the nest.
There was also a shape representing the sun but I left that out too as I wanted it to be a midnight scene, feeling there is something magical about a frosty winter's night.
I decided to make the hills out of pale fabric and added lace to the bottom edge, representing snow, which I stitched over with French knots in white thread.
I painted the lace with silver glitter paint and added clear beads to get the look of frost gleaming in the moonlight and attached some of the same beads to the sky area as well as painting small patches of glitter to look like stars.
Working on this seemed to alleviate my fear, proving to myself that I could do my textile art and, in freeing my creativity by not thinking about it too much, it set me on a path to creating the the things I'm working on now.
With all this talk of winter and the weather we've been having here, it's difficult to think that it's spring. But the birds in my garden seem to be getting ready for it.
The pair of woodpigeons who have been here for ages still have their nest in the tree. I've named them Wilma and William. They had at least one chick last year.
There is also a pair of magpies who've been building a nest in another tree for a few weeks now and it seems to be huge. I think they've added a conservatory! I've given them the names Mabel and Monty and it's been quite entertaining watching them fly in with long twigs then trying to get them to the nest through the branches.
Then there's the pair of collared doves I see regularly. Guess what their names are!? Clara and Colin. I can't leave out little Robbie who I posted a photo of recently, and his wife Roberta. They're robins, of course.
The leaves will probably obscure Mabel and Monty's nest soon, but as long as I can see it, I'll keep an eye on their progress. I don't know why some people don't like magpies so much. In the rhyme 'One for sorrow...etc.' it's only bad luck if you see one. More than that and you're ok. After all, they're only ordinary birds trying to get on with their lives, just like us.
The last week has been a very sad one for me and my family. My cat Rusty, one half of the duo who gave their names to this blog, passed away. He was the blind cat I mentioned in an earlier post, the one who took me on trips around the road. Even though he was blind, he was still adventurous and never let anything stop him, dragging me behind him on the lead.
In the house he was always on my lap or very near by, whether I was at my sewing machine, drawing, painting, at the computer, there he was, snoozing and keeping me company, or rubbing his head on my hands for a smooth. He once deleted two emails for me while having a wash near the keyboard!
My other cat Boots definitely knows something is wrong. He keeps looking at the place on the settee where Rusty usually slept like he's expecting him to be there but he's not and he seems confused as to where Rusty is.
We miss Rusty terribly. He was with us for fourteen years. For a small cat, he had a big presence in this house and it feels emptier without him.
Here are some of the drawings I did of Rusty:
Sitting in the sun in the garden.
This is the painting of that drawing.
Curled around on the windowsill in the sun. (Yes, he loved laying in the sun!)
Two 'cat naps' from a drawing I put in an earlier post.
Most of my cat drawings are Rusty. There are lots that I've done and I'll probably do more, but now I'll be working from photos instead of the real, beautiful cat.
It's St. David's Day here in Wales, so here's a photo of our national flower, the daffodil bringing bright colour to our lives. Happy St. David's Day to everyone.
