March 2025

This morning the sky is so clear and bright, lighting up the sparkling frost on grass and path. The brilliance of the morning is all the more uplifting, coming as it does after so many dull days. I shall take the opportunity to photograph new work in natural light, as I listen to the rooks’ noisy chatter above me as they gather together in the tall churchyard trees. No nests yet, but it won’t be long! Also to be heard this morning are the robins; several pairs are guarding their mates and their territories, their tuneful singing adding to the joy of the morning. Spring is here with the arrival of March!

February 2025

February is a chilly month, so often misty and damp, scarf and wellie weather! Today I picked a few celandines from the churchyard opposite our cottage, there are masses of them, so a few will not be missed. I put these with some of our own snowdrops in a small vase for the breakfast table, a bright spot of loveliness beside the toast and marmalade! Even the littlest things can bring happiness.

I have been working hard on cards for a variety of occasions. Having been focused on Christmas for months, January and February are a time for catching up, re-stocking the website and fulfilling gallery orders. Good progress is being made…it is cheering to be stitching spring flowers, rabbits and lambs!  

January 2025

As I write this the sun is sinking fast and there is a pink glow lighting up little puffy white clouds low on the horizon. The pale blue sky above is clear; soon white crispness will enfold itself around every leaf and molehill, and we will put a big log on the fire. Early January is a mysterious time, when we peer forwards into a new year whilst still surrounded by the bits and pieces of Christmas, the stuff of the old year, now no longer with us.

This time the new calendars bring with them a shift in temperatures; a reminder that real winter weather is just beginning. When I was a young teenager, prompted by the sight of my parents hanging up a blank calendar, I wrote a poem which contained the words ‘all those un-lived days’ which expressed something I still feel even now. Every one of those days will be a big day for someone, a birth, a death, a birthday, an engagement, a wedding. As I stitch my cards I often think of the person who it is intended for and the special time in their life when they will open the envelope.

I hope 2025 will bring you many blessings and happy days.