Spring is the perfect motivation to get painting and create new garden prints, wildlife greetings cards and other beautiful stationery items!
It's officially here this week with the equinox a few days ago but for a while it looked like it might not get here in time for the first day of spring.
Pretty blossom is growing everywhere; the pink cherry petals are back along the verges, and there seems to be forsythia's bright and cheerful mini blooms in every garden. From the studio, the view is white blossom galore - a full tree of plum blossom just outside and, next to it, the blackthorn's delicate white flowers, all blooming-lovely! The abundance of blossom on the plum tree is attracting huge bumblebees, including the red-tailed bombus lapidarius bumblebee - a frequent and favourite visitor to the garden
With the sun comes a few butterflies too - the yellow brimstone, red admiral and peacock butterflies have all greeted spring over the last few days and, with a little more sunshine, my wild honeybees will be back in action, tending the spring flowers and filling the air with their spring-time buzz.
There's no better time to start thinking about the garden - it has been looking a bit sorry for itself over the past few months, so I will be tidying it up, adding a few more flowers for the bees, snacks for the wildlife and growing herbs, fruit and vegetables for the kitchen garden. Lovely things from the kitchen garden and wildlife patches to paint over the next few months and welcome inspiration for some more stationery, prints and greetings cards.
