The Feast Day of St Expiditus

The authenticity of this saint is debatable but a saint that expedites matters that you have been procrastinating about might be worth a prayer or two.

Feeling Weary

If the days were getting shorter and the dark nights were getting colder then The Lady would retreat into the Greenwood and build a little house of sticks, a bed of feathers and moss and hang a curtain of gossamer and dewdrops at the door.  She would lay herself down under a blanket of fleece and leaves and go to sleep for the season. But Spring is rising and the days are lengthening and amidst the April showers the earth is warming. No time for resting, birds are nesting and grass is growing, trees are blossoming and its time for creating. A short sleep with a prayer for technicolour dreams and visions in the dark to bring inspiration when the morning comes.

Springtime in The Greenwood

The woods have burst into life. Betty Daws Wood is carpeted with daffodils. snowdrops, primroses, violets and anemones.

Happy Days!

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)