Missing

I can't believe I've missed over a whole month on here and I really don't know what I've been doing! We've just come back from South Devon and it was Finn's second holiday. He was a good boy and we spent the days walking along the beautiful River Dart, sketching and just sitting taking in the wonderful British countryside at my favourite time of year. 

Blossom

I can feel Spring in the air - even though it is colder than it's been all Winter ... the end is in sight .. 

April

Oh dear I missed April completely. Finn has been taking up my time and a myriad of family problems unfortunately, but that's life I suppose. Here's a photographic montage of the missed month - it's my favourite time of year - so beautiful to see the Spring colours with leaves and plants unfurling in the woods and the blue sea sparkling in the first warm sunshine. 
Finn is settling in well, he's a little wayward and has eaten all the wild garlic in the garden and scared off the birds which is a shame. It's a year since Bill died and Finn has made me feel better about everything, as well as being a great walking companion.

April

The days are flying by - this is my favourite time of year when everything starts changing and there is an amazing amount of colour which seems to suddenly arrive from nowhere.

The bluebells this weekend were beautiful, no photo ever does them justice. The rapeseed is turning all the fields vivid yellow and the sky has been an intense blue - apart from the odd murky day of course when we could only just make out the shape of Bill. He has had adventures of his own - chewing up a toilet roll tube and getting his top and bottom teeth stuck together! We tried for ages to free them and had to take an emergency trip to the vets, where they tried everything but with no luck. He has a bad heart murmur and I thought this would be the end of him as he was becoming quite agitated and trying to pant. Suddenly it just came unstuck and he trotted out as right as rain - I on the other hand had to go and have a lie down to recover from the stress! My sister now calls him 'Billy the Eternal'.

We also all had a trip to Boxgrove Priory - the ruins of a 12th Century Monastery on the outskirts of Chichester. 

rushing by

Halfway through January and the year is already rushing by, which is a scary thought. 
But it won't be long before we see blossom on the trees - a lovely thought.

Limbo

I feel very much in limbo at the moment - I think it's because Spring was nearly here and then we had snow again with more cold weather and snow forecast for the next couple of weeks. This illustration is called Spring Woodland and kind of sums up how it is here at the moment.
Also I've been really busy with work and a friend's wedding so have not been posting anything recently AND have not been visiting other blogs either. I'm hoping to remedy this soon!
© 2013 nicky linzey

Dusk

The evenings are definitely getting lighter now - Spring is just around the corner. I was hoping to get to Brighton this week, where the starlings put on a display at dusk but time is running out ... it's Wednesday already.

Stop and Stare 9

I love this time of year, it is my favourite and I don't want it to end. The woods are just alive with plants, flowers, shoots, colour. I had to stop and stare at all this beauty; buttercups, bluebells and wild garlic, in fact this should be called stop, stare and smell.

Leafy Green

Phewww! What a couple of weeks. My computer expired suddenly in the middle of a design job with an imminent deadline. So I was completely thrown off course and it affected me more than I would have liked it too. In fact the loss of my computer felt like the loss of part of me and that's the bit I didn't like - that I have become so reliant on a machine - then haven't we all. Now I have a brand new computer and everything is back to normal and I feel so much better after a lovely weekend wandering through the leafy green of the woods in Spring (which is what I'd like to be doing every day).

Fluffy

Breezy

For the past 2 years, March has been very breezy and all the blossom has blown off the trees before it should. I hope it stays on a bit longer this year.

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Wild Crocus

What a beautiful day, sun shining and some heat in it too. As I walked through the cemetery in the late afternoon sunshine it seemed Spring was here at last or at least coming soon. I've been meaning to take a picture of these wild crocus for years and only got round to it today, they are in the old part amongst the angels, tombs and crosses. Every year they give my spirits a lift as they appear from the earth, this year even earlier than usual in January.

First Crocus

This morning, flowers cracked open

the earth’s brown shell. Spring

leaves spilled everywhere

though winter’s stern hand

could come down again at any moment

to break the delicate yolk

of a new bloom.

The crocus don’t see this as they chatter

beneath a cheerful petal of spring sky.

They ignore the air’s brisk arm

as they peer at their fresh stems, step

on the leftover fragments

of old leaves.

When the night wind twists them to pieces,

they will die like this: laughing,

tossing their brilliant heads

in the bitter air.

©2007, Christine Klocek-Lim

Great value

It's difficult to imagine that Spring is around the corner when there is week after week of cold wind and rain. I was in my local garden centre at the weekend and spied a display of seed potatoes - it seems too early as I can't plant them until March but I had to buy a sack as I nearly missed out last year.

I've also had a reminder to renew my allotment rent for the grand total of £17 a year. Isn't that wonderful value?

Cloud cuckoo land

© 2007 Nicky Linzey

Every year in April I hear the cuckoo - it sort of confirms that Spring has arrived. This year I've heard nothing, and with only 3 days left in April the cuckoo needs to hurry up! It already seems like Summer - it's been unseasonably hot and sunny for weeks - maybe the cuckoo is confused.