February flower power.

Snowdrops. Such a delicate little flower, that traditionally blooms January to March as it is one of the earliest bulbs to bloom, and brings with them the thought of warmer months. Snowdrops can transform a woodland floor into a stunning carpet of

white. This time of year when walking in the woods it's pleasing to be able to find these delicate flowers.  They look equally beautiful in big groups or on their own. Their bright white petals offer light and contrast amongst the pale and dark browns and greens found at this time of year, and may nestle amongst other winter bulbs such as crocuses.
Tennyson was quite obviously enamoured  by them that he penned a poem

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid,

Ever as of old time,

Solitary firstling,

Coming in the cold time,

Prophet of the gay time,

Prophet of the May time,

Prophet of the roses,

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid!

In my local park a group  arranged a snowdrop planting session in an area that was a little sparse a couple of years ago. It was held around Mothers' Day. You could go along with your family and help plant these special little flowers.  It was such a lovely community event and my daughter and I planted a couple of snowdrops.  Each year I go along and check out how they are growing. These ones are nestled comfortably and the bluey green leaves can be seen easily in amongst bark and moss.  Snowdrops are relativity easy to plant and grow - just watch out for mischievous squirrels as they may try to uproot them!

Occasionally  my paintings take a different turn then what I had envisaged.  I often have in my mind the end result of my painting but occasionally   something happens and it takes a different coarse. It happens in my watercolours much more than my acrylic paintings. 

Take this watercolour painting of Freesias. Not at all what I had in mind when I first put brush to paper. 

It started off quite innocently. The initial first few blooms were placed well. 

Then it came into my head to unusually paint a border round the outside. It just felt like this painting needed the constraint of this. So I took the lemon  yellow that matched some of the petals and did just that.  

I needed to fill in the background so used a light blue wash. I mixed  with a light ultramarine blue (opposite colours to yellow on the colour wheel) with a violet and this was the result. A light touch of a blue hue.

I was quite pleased with the background colour however still wasn't sure it was bold enough. It needed more substance.  So I decided to enhance some of the painting with a fine pointed black pen.  This really adds some distinction to a piece of work. It is a bit scary doing it at times, as one wrong move and the whole painting is ruined.

So this is the finished piece with fresh freesias in the foreground.  Not quite as I had in my mind to start with but still jolly pleased with the end result.

Being creative appears to be a family thing as my Dad used to

cut glass and make amazing objects with the finished results. He has made many glass terrariums over the years - which appear now to be  coming back into fashion. Kirsty even showed us how to plant one on her tv show a few months ago (because we need to know this information....)
And when I say terrariums - I mean high quality craftsmanship and handmade. Not the multi producing types you can now buy in fashionable retailers. My Dads were good hard grafting quality products. 
He used his hands, a soldering iron , good quality glass cutters, copper foil, solder , flux and of course his glasses so he could see properly. A mixture of skill and technique was used that cannot be matched by machines (in my humble opinion). When talking about this Dad added that also he needed plasters!
I will feature the lovely glass terrariums in another BLOG but for now I wanted to show you some delightful flowers that he made from some of the offcuts of glass he had left. I particularly like the white one. As I have been talking about snowdrops this actually reminds me a little of one. 

He used to sell them as hanging ornaments - for the flowers to be hung at a window or door with the sunlight reflecting through. 
The coloured glass reflects the suns rays through beautifully when hung in the correct place with the different colours casting delightfully coloured shapes where they fall.
As this BLOG is all about flowers I thought it fitting they should feature.

So as we approach  the end of February and coming into March - what will that bring on my BLOG? Mad March hares, longer days, some crafty makes,  tales of my two mischievous dogs , blossom trees, and maybe if we are lucky some early bluebells.  

Enjoy the rest of February flower power!

Thank you once again for reading my BLOG - hope there was something here for you to enjoy.

Vicky :-) (and the dogs)

nature doesn't hurry , yet everything is accomplished