*the shadow side of spring

We had some welcome rain on the weekend. On our walk we came by a meadow full of huge marguerites, wild bellflowers and buttercups, and to my surprise the first scattered, bright blue cornflowers. I'm still busy with painting for the #maykind challenge and yesterday I finally planted my cucumber seedlings into the greenhouse and soon the weather should be stable enough to also plant the tomatoes in the outside beds. This year it is exceptional tricky, because of the abundance of ticks we are having. I think it might have to do with the floodings we had last autumn. I was already shocked when I found six ticks on my clothes in a period of no more than three quarters of an hour while cutting the berry plants. But when we had 26 ticks on a short walk on a forest path, I knew that this will be an extreme year and to be honest, I don't know how to manage this. There is this constant question mark in my head since a few years, something I can not wrap my head around. How should one be able to connect with nature when every step outside is such a risk to one's own life? Everyone who had been seriously ill from a tick bite will understand what I mean. Last month a dear friend of my sisters fiancé committed suicide after battling with severe symptoms of neuroborreliosis for 18 years! It is a hell of a sickness. It destroys you from the inside in a way that makes you feel completely trapped and out of control of your body functions and brain. Like torture, but with no hope for salvation. Sometimes I really feel lonely and stumped with this theme.

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*Gentle May days

{Music: Love grows – Oak Studios + Far Away From the Past – Hanna Lindgren}

Some gentle moments,

between blowballs, quince flowers

and the snails in the soft evening light.

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*a busy May

May is such a lovely month, but oh, so busy! I'm missing stopping by to leave some pictures and words. We started to trim our gigantic cherry laurel hedge this weekend. Recently I found pictures from when we had planted it and it's just incredible how it has grown over those eleven years. It is over 4 meters tall and partly almost 4 meters broad. To trim this giant is one of the most straining garden tasks of the year and it's not manageable anymore in just one weekend. But it offers complete privacy from the street side, keeps out strong winds and provides shade. After the exceptional summery weather we are having cooler days again and frosty mornings. At the beginning of May I started to join the drawing challenge #maykind, but I can't possibly paint all 16 prompts in that short time, but I will show what I managed as soon as the challenge is over. I wish you a fabulous weekend full of scents of lilacs and lily of the valleys!

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*spring watercolor update

Welcome in May! 

I'm back with a big watercolor update with all the paintings I made last month. Since the quality of my favorite watercolor paper changed over the years, I ordered some paper from different labels and feel quite excited to test them out! My last dahlia bulbs are planted and I can't wait to witness how the garden is transforming into a blooming dream, like in my paintings.

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*winter roses and the waves of life

Pictures from short before nature was awakening.

Winter roses are such grateful plants, they opened their first flowers in the beginning of the year and are still blooming! The welcome rain made everything so lush and green, it is a whole other world compared to only a few weeks ago (like on those pictures). The lilacs are blooming very early this year and I just saw that the quince tree started to blossom as well. I moved my seedlings from my window sills into a cold frame box inside the greenhouse, so they are safe from the still cold nights, but develop into strong plants. When I do not work in the garden, I paint, write letters and read. I started to read "The Lost Bookshop" by Evie Woods and I enjoy it very much. When trying to work further on my last knitting project, I immediately knew that this phase is over now. More and more I manage to accept that everything comes and goes in waves in my life. It does not make sense to try to hold on to something, it only blocks me if I try.

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*Playing with the April winds

{Music: Beth – Relaxing Acoustic Guitar Harmonics Nature Happy Vibes – Oak Studios}

We had a stormy April so far, with the most beautiful peach bloom and lots of dandelion flowers. The winds invited me to play and we had daily visits from woodpeckers and pheasants in the garden. Our Easter was calm. I painted a lot and brought some blooming wild cherry twigs inside to decorate them and I made cherry cake and cared for my seedlings.

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*Birthday dogs & stamps

Recently I made this Birthday dogs pattern and decided to also make a matching stamp set for decorating my letters. I painted them with my kakimori brass nib pen, then scanned the results and prepared the right size in photoshop for the stamp company. I also transformed one of my bird paintings into a separate stamp which is the biggest stamp I ever made so far (apart from the ones I hand-carved in the past). I love how they turned out and already used them for different occasions!

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*interwoven

I don't know where the last two weeks have gone. I'm sitting here with some warm drink, the wind is howling and the fresh grasses are moving like the waves of a green sea in front of my still a bit tired eyes. Little seedlings are blocking my window sills and the lush pink of the peach tree bloom is glowing surreal through the dawn. On the weekend we have been walking along a feeder stream of the Kamp river and I saw a kingfisher for the first time in my life. I almost couldn't believe my eyes! Since my early childhood I was fascinated by this kind of bird, but never spotted one in real life. Contrary to two weeks ago, spring is now on the fast track, suddenly I feel like I am not able to follow all the tasks that are waiting all around me, especially in the garden. Yesterday the weather was pleasant enough to work outside the whole day and at the end of my works, I sat down on the ground and felt woven into the essence of all things. As if the air has changed its consistency and the borders of my body have dissolved.

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*Between apricot blossoms, spring sounds & ceramic angels

{Music: Tenderness (feat. Chris Coleman) – Tony Anderson}

Spring is slowly arriving and it is wonderful to be able to pick fresh greens for tea again and smell the fabulous scent of the apricot bloom, feel how the winds are getting more gentle on the skin, listen to all the pleasant sounds out there, just witnessing how everything comes back to life. My special visitor found also a place in this little movie and I'm showing some of the ceramics I made during winter and burnt  in the kiln recently.

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*Bandana scarf for Triin

This third Bandana scarf I knitted for my dear friend Triin. Somehow I had to think of her when I saw this deep cranberry red colored fine yarn and in this moment I knew it would be for her. I hope she will enjoy it just as much as I do!

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