Welcome, February!

I am pleased that it's February.  While I don't want to wish the time away, January always seems to be at least twice the length of any other month.  I was having a wander in the garden yesterday and these old stems from a herbaceous clematis caught my eye.

There's something very sculptural about them.

Then further down the garden, there were some snowdrops looking fresh, elegant and gorgeous.  

They are definitely one of my favourite flowers.

Hopefully I will get out to see some in the big drifts where they look so wonderful.  Yes, welcome to February!

When one door closes...

When we moved in, over thirty years ago, we had all new windows and doors, as you do.  They have done pretty well, but we knew the back door was on the way out, although we kept putting off doing anything about it.  It decided to lock shut one day and that was that.  We had to have a new door.  We got a man in to fit the door and that went well, although he said our previous door had been fitted too far in, so he would rectify that, which he did.  

Chris said he would finish off around the door, so he got the various bits and pieces needed and set to (after having a few issues because the framing pieces had been curved to fit in the car and then wouldn't straighten out!).  However, Chris persevered and has finished the framing, which looks great.  (The photos aren't the best, thanks to the miserable grey rainy day and lack of light!).

We also got another cat flap fitted, which looked good, but we have since discovered doesn't have a very strong magnetic fastening, so when there is any sort of breeze, it flaps open, letting draughts in!  Another one with a better magnetic catch may be in order...

The door is lovely - and Chris did a great job with the framing!

Winter flowers

Although it is still quite early for a lot of plants to be flowering, there are plants to enjoy. Above is Hellebore Winter Ballet Lulu, recovered after having a snowy hat.

Here is a Hellebore Credale double with just one flower so far, but a beautiful looking pink picotee edge to the petals.

Hellebore Hello Ruby just starting to flower.

Hellebore Ice and Roses Red looking very glamorous.

Cyclamen coum with its silvery leaves and pink buds.

Snowdrops, which really do need dividing this year.  They used to have lots of flowers but these have dwindled so I really need to dig them up, divide and replant them, giving them more room.  Of course, the heat in Summer is not really to their liking, so that won't have helped. 

Three more flowers.

Finally, Hellebore Ericsmithii Winter Sunshine, again flowering but perhaps not quite so happily as in previous years.  It may not have liked the heat either, but may need to be in a bigger pot now.  Lots for me to do when the weather is slightly less wet!

Wintry weather (for the UK)

Like many parts of the UK, we have had some snow.  I know this isn't the depth or duration of snow that other countries get, but here it is becoming more unusual to get any and if we do, everything grinds to a halt, as somehow we are never prepared for it! Above is my new hellebore, bravely flowering away despite the weather.

I took these photos last Monday, at lunchtime, so the snow was beginning to melt (and had gone completely by Wednesday).

Scotland has had much more than we have here. I like looking at the snow, but don't enjoy having to travel anywhere in it. Here is our patio table and some pots of bulbs.

You can just make out a cyclamen coum in bud to the left of the pot and you can see the noses of snowdrops starting to push up - always such a positive sign.

I leave the old foliage of grasses and perennials over winter for any insects.  I will cut the grasses down in February. 

I think the hydrangea flowers look lovely with their snowy hats!  I think we are due some more wintry weather over the coming days as Storm Goretti sweeps in.  I think we will be having heavy rain in this area but this may become snow - we shall see.  In the South of the UK, they are bracing themselves for 80-90 mph winds. I hope people will be sensible and keep safe. 

Happy New Year 2026

(Photos of the London Fireworks last night/this morning from the TV)

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2026. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2026 and revisit aims from last year.

(Photos are from my Care December (Green Edition) journal) 

Read interesting books - this has continued and I have read 78 books this year.  Some I have enjoyed were: the Shardlake series by C.L Sansom, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing, Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans, The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell and The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer.

Be Creative using what I have - this aim will definitely carry on in 2026 and I have completed my online art journal course, continued my slow drawing online classes and have continued to explore watercolours.  I have also made cards all year, which I enjoy very much.  I have a few sewing projects to do and various book-making projects on the go too, so there won't be any shortage of creativity in 2026.  I have several online classes which I also need to focus on.

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - this has stalled somewhat this year, although I have still been taking the occasional things to the charity shops. I need to get this going again and and really make an impact.  I am going to decide what I wish to keep going forward and what I don't, which is what I did with my books.

Take more notice of nature - I certainly did this while I worked in the garden. Birdsong is such a joy, as is to be able to sit with a cup of tea and enjoy the peace and quiet.  Living in a city, this is not always easy, but early mornings seem to be a good time. We had such a warm Spring and hot Summer, so I perhaps wasn't out there all that much during that time.  I need to purchase another water butt to help with irrigation.  Chris has been busy at the allotment, and we need to work on our plot and get the raised beds in. 

Visit gardens - I have not been anywhere again in 2025 so I would really like to visit some this year. York Gate and Hemingford Grey are still top of my list.    

So, these are my plans for 2026.  I wonder how I will get on?

I hope 2026 will be a more peaceful and a happy one.

Happy Christmas 2025

 

For those who celebrate, may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  My photos are of some of the Christmas cards I made this year.

As seems to have become traditional on my Christmas post; here is the quote from one of my favourite Christmas carols, "It came upon the midnight clear", written by Edmund Sears in 1849.

 "Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not 

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing." 

 

Again, this year, I wish the men of strife would hush and there could be some peace in the world.

To end on a positive, I quote from Desiderata (a 1927 prose poem by Max Ehrmann):  

"...And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

May I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful festive season.

Wanderlust 2025 - part four

The final twelve weeks of the art journaling course have been full of challenges.  The theme was 'Leaps and Bounds' and a lot of the lessons involved working outside a journal, on canvases,  etc.  However, I didn't want to make 3D objects as I really don't have the space for them, so I had to think how to translate them to 2D, to be able to keep them in my journal. (I think I will be doing the same next year when the course is aimed more at intermediate artists and will be focusing a lot more on 3D).  Above was Kate Crane's lesson on inchies, twinchies, ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) and Moos (half a business card size), so working small.  This lesson took me more time to complete but I really enjoyed it.   

Making ATCs from a masterboard was the next lesson and I turned the page over to cut it out, so the images really were a surprise.  Adding gilding flakes to each card made them look even more special.

Making matchboxes and filling them with interesting little bits and pieces, based on a printers tray, was the next week.  My 'printers tray' is flat, but I was happy with how it turned out.  I added a stamped image from one of my hand cut stamps, a piece of paper I made a few years ago with flowers and foil added into it, cut into a heart, some leaves and flower heads from the garden, a key die cut, an old postage stamp, a tile cut from a magazine, a piece of my handmade felt cut into a star and a tiny letter. 

Working with and on teabags was the next week's focus and sewing the teabag and stamping on it was included, so I had a go. It was tricky, but I got there!

This was based on an assemblage in a rusty tin, with another tin containing lots of bits and pieces. I made my own 2D version using die cuts, embossing, texture paste through a stencil and lots of bits of ephemera. 

Making a wrap closure for our journals was the next lesson, so I altered this into making little fabric 'cards' in pockets instead. I kept the same four seasons idea.  I used calico as the base, painted, collaged and sewn on. The backs of the cards have book pages stuck onto them for added strength.  

You can see the 'cards' better here.

A canvas family tree with photos attached inside painted lids was what I transferred into a journal page.  I used an embossing folder to add some texture to the die cut frames.

Finally, something completely different.  There is a load of writing underneath the paint, but no-one can see it now, which was the whole idea. Reflecting on things that have gone well, or challenges overcome was one side and 'what if...?' questions on the other.  I kept this simple and was going to add some words but decided I liked it as it is.

I think next year's course will provide me with more challenges - we'll see how I get on!

Hellebores in December and a new purchase

As you may know, I do like hellebores. I have some in the border, but most are in pots.  I didn't mean to start a collection, but I might have done so.  They are perennial, easy care and flower during winter and early spring. The flowers stay on until later in the spring, so they are really good value plants.   These are all in pots and all bloom earlier than the ones I have in the border.    Above is Winter Princess Victoria, with emerging leaves and flower buds.

This is one of the Ice and Roses series, much further ahead than any of the others, which is one of its selling points, I think. 

One of the Credale series, (either single white or double pink picotee) just tentatively showing new leaves and the tips of other leaves or possibly buds poking through the soil.

Reliable Eric Smithii Winter Sunshine, with lots of buds.  This one probably needs repotting now.

Here is my latest addition - Winter Ballet Lulu.  This series has larger flowers and the plants themselves are about 45 cm once fully grown.  In pots, they all remain a little smaller.  These flower earlier than many of the others and apparently stay flowering for a longer period.  I am in good company with my purchase as on Gardeners World last Friday evening, Adam Frost was planting some of the Winter Ballet series, but the white ones, in his garden. 

The flowers are big, bold and beautiful.  I look forward to seeing them through the Winter and into Spring.  

New woodless watercolour pencils

I have been looking at woodless watercolour pencils recently and the Distress ones by Ranger and Tim Holtz seem to be all over the internet.  However, I couldn't really justify the price of those and of course, there are six different sets to correspond with all the different colours in the Distress range.  I looked at a couple of other brands and these came up in my search.  They are Koh-i-noor 'Woodless Coloured Sticks' and for the price of one set of the Distress pencils, I got double the number of crayons (24) in a good range of colours. (I have a large number of Distress products, I use them a lot and they are good quality, but I am trying to look after my pennies a little more carefully!)

So, of course, once the pencil crayons arrived, I swatched them. You knew I would, didn't you?  The pencils feel quite satisfyingly substantial in the hand, which is to be expected as they are pure pigment,  but not so heavy as to make them uncomfortable.  There is a cover around them to stop the pigment getting on your hands.  I haven't yet had to sharpen them, but I have no doubt they will sharpen well and you can keep the sharpenings, add water to them and use them too. There is a good selection of colours and they blended out with water very smoothly. I have been having a play with them and am really pleased with my purchase.

Hydrangea and camellia

The last of the hydrangea leaves has now fallen and these were the most stunning colour, so I had to get a photo. This is Hydrangea Merveille Sanguine.

Down at the bottom of the garden, Camellia Yoimachi is quietly flowering away.

I do like these delicate white flowers, with just a hint of pale pink on the petals. They appear on my blog with regularity as I so enjoy seeing them at this time of year.

Really pretty and brightening up many a dull grey day.