The weather gods

 

Storm ‘Eunice’ arrived with a nervous and fast changing sky, beautiful at first but soon looking threatening.

‘There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it’. Was there music just in the trees?! It was outrageous, it sounded like Wagner, or Andriessen. Heavy going and most certainly going to our hearts!

In this painting by J.W. Waterhouse we see Boreas, the god of the cold Northern wind, bending the trees. Oreithya, goddess of the cold mountain winds, is trying to resist his force. She goes along in a field with daffodils, wearing one in her hair, pink blossoms behind her on the tree. The end of winter, a new beginning, the energy and brightness of spring. A beautiful painting!

'Eunice' damaged a lot in our garden and moved a few roof tiles. We were lucky not to have major disasters happening to the house. When I was clearing away the broken branches of our birch tree, out on the street next to our hedge, many a passer by told how scared they had been. 

A storm clears the air. After raking the lawn, clearing away the débris, after having put the roof tiles back into place, the trumpetters of spring, the daffodils and the blossoms were catching our eyes.

The tête à tête daffodils around the foot of one of the beech trees are a gift from my aunt. She presented them in a large bowl for my birthday a few years ago. They enjoy their second life and remind me of the long and animated chats I had with this so dear aunt, the last witness of my parents young life. My dear aunt is in my heart, I hear her music, and the beech tree hears Helena's music too.

Boisterous weather

 

It is a bit boisterous out there. WSW storms! A lot of work to do in the garden, débris everywhere. More storms have been forecasted until Monday. Maybe it is better to wait and do it all at once?

The snowdrops and crocusses look fragile, bending in the wind. The petals of the snowdrops look just like propellors!

The freebee on internet by Primitive Bettys just suits the time of the year. So far there has not been any snow, but who knows what the coming month will bring? The pattern ended up on my 'wishlist' and 'to do list'. I have to decide to do it in mono colours or dream up a colour scheme. It will keep me off the road and my hair will not blow away like in the sculpture, 'Blown away', by Penny Hardy (2014). A fabulous sculpture made of old machine parts. 

The tree of life with the birds is a very old pattern. Recently I came across it on an inherited needlebook. It can be stitched in red and green for Christmas, but in any other colour it would look great. Storms are always remembered in this garden, because of the damage they leave behind. Many a tree went down.

Busy birds

Although the garden itself produces a lot of food for the birds as such, they still love coming to the bird feeder.

They certainly have 'eating hours' and many of them are there all at once.

Soon they will be starting making nests, using all kinds of stuff that people or the wind have blown around. It is amazing to study a nest and see how they use moss, pieces of thread, plastic, and make it into a warm place.

The picture is a detail of a spring miniquilt. It was an attempt to use beads and free style embroidery.

The beak is the most minute piece of purple silk. Once you get going on such a project you cannot stop!

The supermarket has all its Easter goodies on display, so early in the year. My Christmas lights are still up on the facade. Time flies ..... like the birds.

It is difficult to resist the colourful bags full of praliné eggs. They soon vanish in this house! This is what is left over from a bowl which was filled to the top ..... Yesterday I got a new bag and I wonder how many more of those will follow before it is Easter.

The red robin visits many a time during the day, and way into dawn. Someone told me once there is only one robin in a certain area, but I see two. They certainly fight, and this little round ball is not friendly to the other small birds either. Taking a picture through the window does not give the best result, but who can resist it when it is so close? 

He does look me straight in the eye, with his black charcoal eyes. A darling!

Bird watching is so fascinating. We can see the bird feeder from all corners from both our living and dining room, such a joy. 

Happy day! Happy bird watching!

 

Orange sunrise

 

An eye catcher on our coffee table right now is the vase with bright and intense orange roses, with outer petals that form a five pointed star. For a moment they matched the sunrise, but the sky soon turned grey. Storms are forecasted. January/February storms so far always have brought damage to the garden.

This is polderland. Trees do not root deep and tend to spread their roots wide. The draught of the last two summers severely damaged trees all over the country. Let's hope they will all make it!

In the middle of the summer last year one of the beech trees was in such agony it dropped all its seeds at once, in order to save energy to survive. Amazing what nature does!

After breakfast I like to do a stitch or two. Quiet moments, a 'may', sitting next to the window, before the day takes its course with all its 'musts'. 

The painting is called 'The sunny window', by Frank Weston Benson.

My grandmother would love to see the English linnen fabric on what once used to be her chairs!

Roses are so inspiring and so often used in designs. 

Have a seat! And stay a while! Plenty to read in the previous posts!

Happy day!

Spring is in the air!

 

Spring is in the air!

Maybe time to blow new life into my blog?! On reading back I enjoy what I have posted so far. It is encouraging to pick this up again. There is so much beauty to share. 

Hope you will follow me on my steps into spring?

The snowdrops are plentiful in the garden. When I first moved in (in the month November), I was so curious to see what the garden would do. Only one bunch of snowdrops appeared in the spring time. With the advice of BBC's Gardener's World in mind I split them up and replanted them in families all over the place. One bunch seems to exist of a zillion tiny bulbs. They are absolutely all over the place now.

The painting by Laetitia de Haas I bumped into on a Belgian auctioneer's site.There is always so much solitude in her paintings. I just love the antique glass vase, so beautiful.

Now, this is a blog about stitching, about crafts. Somewhere I must have a snowdrop cross stitch item, which I made many moons ago as a teenieweenie curtain. But where is it?! If found I will add it to the post.

Happy Valentine! Happy Spring!