Travelling from East to West

I realised today how fortunate I am travelling from east to west to my studio each day.  This morning I watched the clear blue light rise above the Malvern Hills in the east. This evening I followed a bright orange sun as it was setting over the Black Mountains and coloured the sky with gold.  Both were equally stunning.

Winter Turns to Summer all in One Day

Our green Winter has turned to white. We have had snow this week and last night was the coldest recorded this season, -16C in places. I was supposed to be travelling today but cancellations were threatened, roads are icy and trains are delayed so I have decided to work from home. This year I am studying 'Shakespeare' with the Open University and I shall spend this frozen day imagining Summer as I disappear into the world of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.


Coincidently, I have been asked to enter work into an exhibition based upon a theme of  'We are such stuff as dreams are made on...', from 'The Tempest', for showing during the Ledbury Poetry Festival in June. I shall, therefore, proclaim this as my year of the Bard and visit the theatre as often as possible for inspiration.

February 2nd

A fine Candlemas will bring about a prolongation of Winter and a rainy Candlemas means that we will have an early Spring. A fine but very cold day here. Perhaps this means that our long awaited Winter will at last arrive - not that I am relishing the thought of ice and snow but this long green Winter seems very strange.

On the Snowdrop

Already now the snowdrop dares appear,

The first pale blossom of the unripened year:

As Flora's breath, by some transforming power,

Had changed an icicle into a flower:

Its name and hue the scentless plant retains

And Winter lingers in its icy veins.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825)