Paper Cut Work: Winter Woodland 2014

Today is the 1st of February 2014.  I notice the sunlight is getting stronger day by day.  What I am pleased is, the sky is bright when I get up in the morning.  I feel the tiny bit of spring. 

This winter, however, has been relatively mild and quite wet.  I saw a flooding ditch like a long pond or a stream alongside of the meadows where I often have a walk.  The ground of clay soil is everywhere muddy.  Around the meadows and the woodlands near my house I saw a decent mount of berries and rose hips, which feed wild animals.  Or, the mild warm autumn gave so many berries and fruits on the plants that animals cannot consume all of them?  

Anyway birds enjoy the very ripe red rose hips (I'd like to taste them!).  Ivy vines have the fruits ripening for animals.  The wet weather promotes fungi and mushrooms on dead tree trunks or in fallen leaves.  Small creatures like ladybirds and snails are waiting for the spring under the sheltered leaves.  The wooly inflorescence of traveller's joy (the old man'd beard) are still hanging on branches, waiting for their departure on a dry day.

The cream-coloured male catkins of hazel trees are hanging on the branches, and you can find tiny tiny red female catkins when looking closely at the branches.  (I couldn't put them on my work.)

This work, therefore, include a lot of berries and fruits.  The next winter might be much colder and snow.  But so far, the winter in the south Wales didn't let the animals starving, and the spring is approaching.

Winter Woodland 2014

(A3, original paper cut, processed with GIMP)