Christmas Crocuses!

Last Christmas I received a lovely gift of five crocus bulbs with their own special glass jars to grow them in.
I've really enjoyed watching their progress.
The growth of their roots which start out like lots of tiny tight curls and then slowly unfurl as a frizzy mop of hair.
Now I'm enjoying their beautiful flowers.


They belong to the Iris family.
Which isn't surprising considering their striking colour.
And unfortunately how they both come and go so quickly.



Last years Iris.

1950's chick

Dora's attempt at subtlety was as heavy handed as her eye-shadow!

Illustration Friday's Topic this week is 'Heavy'.
I'm enjoying looking at 50's graphics at the moment, and Dora is my attempt at a 50's chick.

Chasing rainbows

Happy Paddy's Day from the land of Leprechauns and rainbows.
Myself and and my love were up at the crackle of dawn chasing rainbows from one end of the green Isle to the other.
But that pot of gold is always just around the corner or over that hill, like Alice in Wonderland, "jam every other day, never jam today"
The very fact that there was a rainbow to follow at all was a prize in itself though, it meant that the sun was out and following us!

Poppy pods

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Garden'.
I've put up a watercolour I did of poppy pods and flowers.
I think I love the pods just as much as the flowers.
They are so sculpural and tough compared to the whimsical delicacy of their flowers.



These are a couple of photo-studies I took of pods that I collected the seeds from last year.
I must remember to scatter them soon for this years crop.
It's a very fine balance between dead heading to keep the plant flowering and knowing when to leave the pod so that the seeds have time to mature.
For example all my Sweet pea pods were either empty or rotten by the warm wet weather we had at the end of last autumn because I was too greedy for flowers and kept picking them:)

Japonica, Japanese Quince

I was out the other day taking photos of the daffodils, again, after the winter I was feeling starved of colour.
Anyway my neighbour kindly introduced me to her 'japonica' otherwise known as japanese Quince and I fell in love.
What a beautiful little tree (for some reason I hate the word shrub) ablaze with colour
when everything else looks half dead and frost bitten except for the darling daffodils of course.

Skinny dipping

Illustration Friday's topic is 'Leap'.

Suzy leaps out of her clothes and with a joyful holler leaps into the big blue.

I made somebody's day !

Cathy from musings at puflet palace a great blog with fabulous art and humor, has awarded me a "You make my day" badge which actually made my day!
Thanks cathy.
I'm going to pass it on to one of my favourite bloggers
bookbabie