Spring is on the way...but more Winter to come yet...probably

It has been very mild recently and the plants are thinking it is nearly Spring.  The hellebores are still looking beautiful but the camellias have now joined in.  I think this is quite early for them, so I am enjoying their flowers in case the frosts get them.  Above is the flower from the unnamed double variety that my Mum gave me. 

Here is another unnamed variety but I think this is a japonica type.

Here is Camellia St Ewe - I bought this a few years ago and it seems happy at the bottom of the garden, in a west facing position.  

I noticed the three flowers in a row and thought they would make a good photo.

I also have a few narcissus Tete a Tete in flower. I do like these small ones and need to get more!

Finally here is my standard cherry - Kojo-no-mai, with its delicate flowers.  Again, this seems quite early, but is telling us that Spring might not be too far away.
 

Junk Journal January 2024

Last month I took part in Junk Journal January for the first time.  This is organised by Meg from megjournals on Youtube and there is a list of prompts and daily videos from different people showing what they have made. I decided that it would be a good thing to start using some of the paper, digikits, and ephemera I have been collecting and this seemed do-able. Below are some of my favourite pages.

This is 'throwback' so I went for a vintage feeling, making a pretend slide with insects on it.  I made my colleague a birthday card similar to this last year so used some of the digital images I had left over, together with stamps, a postage stamp and some digi labels. 

There was 'eclectic' which was a mix of gel prints, a digikit photo, a die cut flower which I watercoloured, a leaf and a flower I made from last year's art journal, and a label I had inked and stamped.  An eclectic mix indeed, but I like it!!

'Fabric' was a sort of patchwork of scraps with an inked and dried baby wipe used as the focal heart.  

'Ombre' was easy with a watercolour background but I didn't know what I wanted to put on top until I thought about slow drawing so I added these ginkgo leaves, which are so relaxing to draw as they are lots of repeated lines.

'Translucent' was inspired by a piece of gel printed paper. I echoed the brushstroke pattern on a piece of tracing paper to become the translucent element.

Here's what's underneath - music paper, book page, the gel print paper, labels and a digikit camellia.

Finally, here is 'reflect' which I took to be reflecting on the whole Junk Journal January experience.  This page has a piece of paper pad, labels, book pages, ivy from a napkin, a piece of packaging from some bulbs and a digikit photo.  

I made this little journal for the challenge and I really enjoyed filling the small pages. Junk Journal July is also a challenge, so I may join in with that too.

Snowdrops 2024

We last visited this ancient cemetery in February 2021, when gardens that usually had snowdrops to visit were closed.  You can read about it here.  On the spur of the moment, making the most of a sunny morning we decided to head out again, so that I could get a snowdrop fix!  I do have a few snowdrops in the garden, but I love to see them in drifts.

There were lots of snowdrops and aconites and a few crocuses.

They were all enjoying the winter sunshine.

The trees made some lovely shadows too.

The tree bark was very textured.  There are London Plane trees, Sycamores and Limes here.

You can see the aconites better in this photo.

We were lucky that it was so quiet, with not many people about and we could enjoy the lovely birdsong as we wandered.

Just beautiful!

The blue sky was such a bonus and the tree branches made a wonderful tracery.

It isn't a very big space, but was a lovely place to spend some time with nature.

Good things to come

I am enjoying wandering round the garden at the moment.  Above are some snowdrops in the border, tantalisingly close to being fully open.  These tall ones, probably Elwesii or something similar were from my Mum's garden many years ago.  They may need to be divided, if I could ever remember to do this at the right time!

More promise of things to come. Here is a camellia, probably a japonica  which was a present from Mum and I have no idea what variety it is. It is a double and has nice plump flower buds.  It needs to be in a bigger pot now.

I was pruning some of my roses this afternoon and the scent from the winter flowering honeysuckle was lovely. The scent is best on a sunny day and it is like lily of the valley - a fresh, delicious scent.  As I have said before, this is a straggly birds' nest of a shrub but all is forgiven when it is flowering on a sunny day!