Spring Arrives

I'm all aflutter with Spring!  Are you??

The color combinations for Spring almost speak for themselves.  I used lavender and a lime green that looked sooo much like the new grasses growing along our country roads.

Life is good and I've begun  another circle project thinking of blue and gold for the coming month. 

" It is spring again.  The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." Rainer Maria Rilke

CIRCLES TWO

Still going around in circles -- but its been so much fun!

Experimenting with color is something I should have started a long time ago!  Its great fun and I feel as if I'm learning so much. 

Best of all  is the searching of myself to see what colors appeal to me the most and why I am attracted to them

Its quite coincidental that this 'searching' comes in early Spring because everywhere I go I see yellow, green, pink, light blue, violet...  Its a whole new world for me to explore.

I hope you're using this 'rebirth' time of the year and discovering ways to bring it into your life.

"It is spring again.  The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." - Rainer Maria Rilke

March into March

Here we go - into one of the most fickle of months.  It could snow tomorrow - it could be sunny and warm - it could rain until it floods...  You get the idea - this is March.

Working on this month's punch needle was somewhat of a chore.  The colors go all over the place -- deep and somewhat dark, a spark of green here and there, a wind that will blow all the branches dried by the cold winter and once in awhile a lovely sunny day promising that Spring will be here on the 20th of this month.

Although they don't photograph well I've used two words framed and mounted (they were formerly earrings).  One says 'ebb' and one says 'flow' -- perfect for the month of March.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer  in the light and winter in the shade." - Charles Dickens

Once again its spring!

I am called outside to take in all the newly blooming color.

Who can stay within four walls at this time of the year?

These days I don't have to look for beauty, it is all around me...

....if I choose to look.

"The sun just touched the morning; 

         the morning, happy thing, 

supposed that he had come to dwell,

 and life would be all spring."

 - Emily Dickinson

Ahhhh Spring!

I've spent some time translating Spring into punchneedle over the past couple of months. I think this one is my very favorite, so far.

Periwinkle blue and a green the shade of the newest leaves outside my window, bring this Spring kite to life.

"The beautiful spring came; and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also." Harriet Ann Jacobs

Sneak Peek

Some people do 'spring' cleaning at this time of the year. I've been doing 'spring' shopping.  My first stop was the paint department at one of our local home improvement stores.

What a wonder of color lay before me.  I started collecting color card after color card.

Next up was a trip to the shops for embroidery floss. The threads I already had at home were hopelessly 'wintry' in color and tone.  With my color cards in hand I started pulling out all of the 'light bright' colors and shades that I could find.  

Here's a sneak peek of my first Spring piece.

I want to happily wave goodbye to Winter and to greet Spring with joy and abandon.

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." - Marcus Aurelius

Winter Time

Almost to Spring... 

Such a strange Winter this has been.  More 'conflicted' days than 'contented' days. Even my body has felt it, as I've dealt with aches and pains more often than I usually have to.

As I write this, the sun is shining and its above freezing outside.  Perhaps I'm getting a glimpse of the Spring to come.  Perhaps my life will be filled with light instead of darkness as we greet the coming months.  

I suspect that at this time in history I need to make my own bits and pieces of joy and imagination.   I must live in the moment and make each of those small moments count.  
Spring is coming...

"Time, time, time

See what's become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please

But look around, leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter..."

Simon and Garfunkle

The Winter Garden

As we delve deeper into winter I spy this beauty outside my studio window.

The Oakleaf Hydrangea never fails me.  From one season to another it gives me beauty while reminding me of time passing. 

When I took this picture the sun was shining, the air cold (but not freezing) and all was right with the world.  Entering a new year, this beautiful plant reminds me that everything has its season and some are able to remain beautiful throughout all four seasons.

"January is the quietest month in the garden...but just because it looks quiet doesn't mean nothing is happening.  The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall, while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.  The feasting earth worms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come." - Rosalie Muller Wright, editor of Sunset Magazine 1999

What is a miracle?

"Miracle - wonder; marvel; anything extraordinary or supernatural"

This little scrap found recently among other little scraps speaks to me.  I must use it on something personal.  What will it become?

Walking outside at this time of the year there are miracles surrounding me.  Sometimes they are small and easy to walk by.  I'll try to capture them and add them to my heart collection.

                                                                                   Beardy Vulcan

Sometimes they are a total surprise such as deer crossing the road as I start up the hill on my morning walk.  Moving through my vision so quickly I was not able to take my own picture.

This is the perfect time for miracles in the garden.  White petals still held close.  Ready to burst open.

These miracles are all around us, all the time, sometimes in the most unlikely of circumstances or places.   What  small miracles have you encountered today?

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

Spring Fling

A couple of weeks ago I walked under trees with bare branches.  I strolled over to a Forsythia that was barren.  I noticed a couple of daffodils but otherwise our neighborhood was still in winter.

And then the sun started shining and the blooms appeared. 

I am surrounded by color, beautiful color.

I am in love with our earth and its beauty.

"Spring has returned.

  The Earth is like a child that knows poems."

Ranier Maria Rilke

Winter's Ending

In some ways Winter can be a 'lonely' season.  We are often captives inside our warm, dry homes - while wind and snow and ice rage outside.  We are hermits of a sort.

Now it is March and Spring is not far away.  As I walked this morning I looked up at the bare limbs of the Winter trees.  

Behind them was a brilliant blue sky.  It was like an interim between the two seasons - with each season represented in the simpleness of bare trees and deep blue sky.

How I love the change of seasons.  Just as I'm getting tired of one the next one appears. 

"When the seasons shift, even the subtle beginning, the scent of a promised change, I feel something stir inside me.  Hopefulness? Gratitude? Openness? Whatever it is, it's welcome." - Kristin Armstrong

Early Spring

I love this time of the year -- its almost made to be for the brave of heart and the givers of promise.

Early spring gives me small flowers -- taking a chance that it won't freeze again -- putting their colors out for for all to see.

Some of them are precursors to the more 'noisy' flowers of summer - such as the phlox.  Taking up great sections along rocks it likes to show off.

Meanwhile, the blue bells move with the spring breezes.

The Dutchman Breeches are so delicately white.

The Blood Root, also white, has a little niche in the side garden.

During this early spring its a treat to step outside each day and look for these small, unassuming beauties.  What a lovely presence they are.

"I am going to try to pay attention to the spring.  I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees.  I am going to close my eyes and listen." - Anne Lamott

A Walk in the Garden

No day is complete without a walk through the garden. At least during this part of the year.

Each day brings something new and special and definitely colorful.

Some, like the Flame Azaleas, look like a bit of sunshine.

Others, like these purple and white Irises are bits of velvet standing tall against the rocks.

"Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it." - Rumi

Meadowood Trail

Just up the street from our house there is a street called Meadowood Trail.  I love to walk it because it goes down a hill to a small stream and it gives me a nice walk up hill afterward.  In the winter I often have to skip this lovely street because it is the last to melt after snow or ice.  Right now, at the bottom of the hill, the trees are still looking a lot like winter.

But - earlier in the walk, before it dips down too much, spring is definitely here.  What a wonder to walk beneath these flowering trees - showing up beautifully against a perfect blue sky.

The Forsythia, one of my favorites, is already preparing its yearly take over of any area where it might pop up.  No one has been along to trim it so I get the full beauty of its bright yellow color.

Every winter I feel like a caterpillar wrapped up in my cocoon and every spring I feel as if I'm awakening as a butterfly.  Its obviously time to spread my wings.

"Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems." - Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring Colors

I can hardly be contained inside my studio these days.  The colors of spring are calling me. And so, while in my studio I have resolved to try to capture some of these outside colors in a 'Garden Cottage'.

The design drawn -- I've written (in pencil) the various shades of floss that I want to use.

The door is attached and the fun has begun.  Although I'll never capture the true nature of the colors and beauty outside my window perhaps when finished it can be a reminder of all that I have to be thankful for during this time of the year.

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into." - Henry Ward Beecher

Then and Now

Not so long ago -- this was the scene in the garden.  

The flower pots showed no signs of their spring selves and this poor butterfly wondered what all this cold white stuff was...

Today, as I walk out the door I'm greeted with this beautiful white bloodroot  flower - shyly still closed up.

As the sun starts to shine so does this lovely, ethereal flower.

The phlox is in full bloom, even a little earlier this year than last and already spreading rapidly.

Each season has its beauty but after being an 'inside' creature for this past winter, I'm happy to celebrate spring.

"I am going to try to pay attention to the spring.  I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees.  I am going to close my eyes and listen." - Anne Lamott