Today the wind dropped and the day was reasonably dry and warm so I've just come in from an hour of stick collecting and branch cutting (laying a hedge to let in more light hopefully). Today is Imbolc... the first day of spring, Groundhog Day or St. Brigid's Day and so, good weather and wood collecting are not necessarily a good thing. The Cailleach collects the rest of her winter fire wood at Imbolc if she intends to make the season last a good while longer (bad weather on this day was seen as a sign that the Cailleach was asleep and that winter would soon be over). Anyway, it was good to be busy outside, it was still light at five, the snowdrops have emerged and as you can see I've been catching blue sky in bottles this week to save for a rainy day!
On Sunday I discovered this little home in a tree on the side of Buttermere; I'm not sure if it had been washed there by the floods or if it fell from higher up but it looked rather sad and in need of a new roof. We walked around the lake, which I'd never done before. The path goes through a tunnel in the rock at one point and it was all very quiet and beautiful; a dusting of snow on the tops and the lake very still and green with orange bracken slopes, bright green moss and young silver birches with pink and white bark - quite a colour scheme despite the late winter gloom.Meanwhile in my "studio" the colour scheme is very blue and white as I continue to plan what to take to BCFT in April. I bought some lovely Pink Pig sketchbooks and have been printing and embroidering covers for them on heavy calico. I was so pleased and flattered when they were spotted by the company on Twitter; they were really complimentary which is always such a nice thing when you're working in isolation in a barn and have no one to get feedback from except the cat!
The days are racing on and by the time I've finished typing this it will already be almost halfway through another week and only four days before I pick a winner for the giveaway in the last post... so if you haven't left a comment there's still time and if you have then thank you ( and good luck).
This is only a short offering today, I have to try and finish designing the catalogue and price list I'm making so that I can post it out to the galleries who have already requested one. I have to continue with product development and working out prices and terms and conditions and how to stick my stand together and most importantly I have to feed the stove because its getting dark and cold now and I need a cozy nest to work or I just huddle and go sleepy like a bear in a cave hoping to hibernate. The wind is picking up again so maybe the Cailleach is stirring...