Spring in the Air

Hoppy Easter to everybunny! Spring is in the air as the garden starts to fill with colour and I take a little time out after a very busy six years!

As April passes us by with a definite feeling of spring in the air and garden, I thought I'd share some garden photographs and have a little catch-up. I have been really busy with decorating and landscaping, as my Etsy has been both quiet and busy, allowing me long periods of time in the garden. Whilst the amount of orders is down, the orders I have had have been huge, all from repeat purchasers and it is clear the economic situation in the country is having a knock-on effect. Living in England is not the best right now, so much so that last month we hired a relocations manager to advise us on the requirements for moving to Portugal. Whilst we met the financial requirements, we will have to wait until retirement in order to get the visa. So, we have shelved the idea of immigrating for now and instead set about finishing the cottage and garden.

For the last six years I have worked flat-out on new ideas, researching, tweaking my Etsy, making things and writing blogs, taking only the odd day off. It seemed the perfect opportunity to take a creative break. Therefore, for the last two months I have not thought about crafting other than mulling over a few new poster ideas. My friend Zoe asked me to design a poster of song lyrics, which was great fun, but I couldn't sell them on Etsy due to their copyright laws. I could be shut down, but I could sell them on my website, which was the push I needed to set up my own website shop. For the next few months I shall be creating listings, slowly moving away from Etsy and all the fees they charge. I also finally got round to decorating the lobby (once the roof man had given our roof a makeover).

There is one thing I really need to get sorted and that is to promote Short Stories for Little Plants. I have sent a copy to Australia to be reviewed for a worldwide magazine called Nexus, but I really need to get my finger out and try to get it seen by someone influential before someone pinches the idea. Now that my website shop is up and running, I can now promote my book. As the book took a year to write, illustrate, edit and lay out, I have started to write book two, Historical Short Stories For Little Plants! Here is a snippet from one of the stories:

The Time of Yellow Cliffs

Little Plant, there's a time and place we must visit,

To a self-indulgent land where everything was exquisite.

Fine mosaics and murals, fine robes and leisurely pleasures,

Until a disaster occurred that buried all those treasures.

Little Plant, here's a story about a certain plant, initially grown as a garden ornament. Admired for its colour, shape and fruit scent, even today it is grown to a great extent. Purple blossoms on sturdy, stout trees, with elegant, elongated, pale green leaves. Such reverence was given to this citrus bush that they painted it on murals as often as they could. It was grown in atriums of noble homes, surrounded by pillars made from local stone. Luxurious villas of the highest degree, for this town was a holiday destination for the extremely wealthy. Their homes had every modern feature, built to be cool with high stone ceilings and built to be warm with underfloor heating. The open-roofed atriums made sure the villa was bright, bathing the many rooms in cooled sunlight. To add to the perfection of these vast holiday homes was the citrus smell from all the bushes that were grown. The town was on cliffs overlooking the sea, with long hot summers cooled by a warm ocean breeze. The surrounding soil was enriched with volcanic minerals and ashes, which, as you know Little Plant, is what's needed for healthy plant growth. A busy town of temples and communal baths, with cobbled stone roads and pedestrian paths. Built from the spoils of empire and protected by an army so skilled, it even had several sports arenas and its own mills.

We had a lot of fun at the village hall each month this year, as I ran little crafting workshops. They were really inspiring, very relaxing and some fabulous things were created. I plan to do them again in September/October, depending on how good a summer we have. One idea is origami where we will make paper tree decorations and another is parcel wrapping for gifts, including hand-stamped wrapping paper and packing parcels to be posted.

I watched an Amy Winehouse video once of her talking about the success she had achieved. One thing she said has always stuck with me: 'You have to give 100%. If you don't give 100%, you'll never know what could have been achieved,' which has been the backbone to my work ethic. Although Little Plant is still sitting on a shelf, I have to believe that this will be the thing that is going to be really successful. With this in mind, I wanted to have the second book virtually ready by the time I started promoting the first one, so I need to get a move on. I have all the stories lined up for Historic Stories and have written six so far. They each feature a historical story about a plant that has been important to mankind's development, avoiding the obvious plants such as wheat. I have so far written about the mulberry tree and silkworms during the height of the Silk Road, jute in India during the Industrial Revolution and lemons in Pompeii, with each story taking the reader to a time long past. I have such confidence in the books that I even have a third book idea.

As the flowers start to bloom I stroll around the garden looking for good colour combination that I can use in my crafts. Here are fabulous tulips and wallflowers!

We have had a fabulous March and April, warm and dry and I have got some great photographs this year. Below is a Helleborus, Forget-Me-Nots and Forsythia against the deepest blue sky.

Below is a close up of the Helleborus as I am always looking for natural structure to use in my drawings.

We have also had all the usual visitors to the garden. The hand-tame pheasant and blackbirds are back. Our lady blackbird always brings us her babies as we regularly offer raisins which magically appear and don't need digging out of the ground. Just this afternoon I heard the new baby blackbird and noticed Mrs B was taking worms back to her nest, so we know for the sure the egg has hatched.

Lincolnshire has been stunning so far this year, with more blue sky days in just March, than there was for all of last year. Wouldn't it be fabulous to have a proper summer, where it is still warm to sit out in the evenings? I am ever hopeful that we'll get a summer this year where its warm at dawn so you can have a cup of tea watching the sun come up?