Still Very Wet, Yet Spring Approaching

This January was one of the wettest in the past 100 years; I have read such articles in the various mass medias.  Every day someone is reporting about the bad weather, disasters such as flooding, high tide and storm...

Now it is in the second half of February, and the rain fall has been still going on.  I caught a few sunny hours last week for a walk last week.

The buds of English Oak on the field were caught by my eyes.  The red bronzy buds in the blue sky pleased me.

But, as I walked to the edge of a woodland, there were streams everywhere, from higher to lower level.  The footpath, pictured above, became a stream, in which the clear water was streaming and it would be wonderful if it had been a real stream.  But it was to be a footpath. Wearing a pair of sturdy wellies was reasonable.

I walked in an oak and beech rich woodland.  There I walked a lot, and yet didn't notice the oak trees were actually downy oak until I saw the fallen leaves on the footpath.  I sadly witnessed several big fallen trees there.  Presumably they could not keep their trunks against the gust of wind and could not keep their roots in the loose ground wetted by the enormous rain fall.

At the edge of the woodland there is a long row of beech trees.  In the summer it is like a green alley.  In the early summer there transforms into a fairytale-like scene with the white flower of wild garlic.  I walked into the beech land.

There!  The shiny young wild garlic leaves were sprouting out from the ground between the fallen beech leaves and twigs.

On a beech stump these fungi were thriving in the winter.

I saw bunch of snowdrop on the sunny slope of a farmhouse at the end of the beech alley.

At a side of the footpath, protected from wind and cold, I found tiny cream white primrose. 

This winter has been wet but mild, which wake the plants up much earlier than usual, I suppose.  Today the temperature has gone up over 10 Celsius (actually, thermometer showed 12 Celsius!).  The plants cannot keep their dormancy (I didn't know this word; the slow metabolism) in the warm winter and the early visit of the spring!  

Created 'My Pages' on the blog!

You may have already noticed, but just in case still not noticed; I have created 'My Pages' on my blog, which show my art work in order.  The art pieces were uploaded as I created with explanations or stories.  But 'May Pages' are sorted in different art making methods.  Every art work has a short caption, which looks neat!

Please look at the picture below:

Under the front page picture, you can see the 3 categories circled with a black line.  They are 'My Pages'.  Just click one of these, one of  'My Pages' appears.  The art pieces in 'Drawings' are not new but not yet introduced on my blog diary.  They are still ongoing and more pieces should be put in.

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)

Warm Wet January

The temperature is mild as usual in the winter, but it's wetter than usual.  We have lived here for over 10 years, used to the wet winter.  And yet, this winter has been so stormy and a lot of rainfalls that many spots were flooded in this area.  The cray soil doesn't soak all the rain water, which caused the floods.

As I walked by the hedgerows, which contain quite a few ancient trees and shrubs, my eyes were drawn to the other side of the footpath.  It is neither pond nor stream in the picture above, but a long ditch along with the hedgerows.  Some ducks were swimming on the temporal (hopefully!) pond.

At the beginning of the walk I saw a man with a black dog.  He walked much faster than I did; rather, his dog wanted to run, I presumed.  When we ran into each other at a gate led to a meadow, he greeted me warmly and passed through.  But he turned around and said to me, 'Watch out for the puddle in front of the gate!  It was deeper than I expected.  I was kept in the mud up to my knees.  See my trousers'  'Thank you, I'll be careful.'  Indeed there was a big cloudy puddle.  Of course I didn't venture to go into it.  (Though I could've done with my wellies.)

I walked through the marshland.  There is always muddy except for the dry days in the summer.  Some meadow plants were half in the water.  The water was clear, though.  Maybe dragonfly's eggs are waiting silently for the spring under the water.

In the woodland various mushrooms were thriving on the dead trunks or between fallen leaves which nurture them.  Look at the black mushrooms on the dead oak trunk!

Everywhere in woodlands is covered with moss.  Looking at closely, we can recognise moss has also wide variety.

Outside at the edge of woodland there were piles of rose hips still left.  Mild warm autumn produced perhaps sufficient fruits.  The birds were obviously still enjoying the ripe sweet fruits.  I saw a few rose hips pecked by a (or more) bird.

At the edge of a meadow, an apple tree stood.  In the summer it had loads of tiny apples and now all gone.  I heard a bird chirping.  I know that!  Yes, indeed a robin was busily flattering between the branches of the apple trees.  Luckily I could take a picture of it.  But then the tiny bird flew quickly away onto the other higher tree.

Felt Work: Peas in Pods

Finally 'Pea Project' has been finished during the Christmas break.

I bought a bag of colourful natural dyed felt in a organic shop in Germany many years ago; always wanted felt making but no idea how to do it.  

Some years ago, I picked up the felt.  At first I made little balls with warm coloured felt. It was a great fun of rolling a small piece of felt in palms, and a lot of tiny balls popped out from my hands in a short time. After having had enjoyed ball making, I looked at them for a while.  Do they look like peas?

Inspired from overgrown pods in my tiny vegetable patch at a corner of our back garden, green pods were created for the peas.  Four pods with peas were created soon after, but I abandoned them in a drawer because I had no idea what to do with them.

It's time to finish off to decorate these pods!  It was just before Christmas.  I took out some cross stitch threads from my tiny sewing container, and found old white cloth nappies made of cotton 100% in a bag of old cloths for recycling.

Two piece of pea pods work:

'get on with'

(felt, cross stitch threads, cotton cloth, 23x23cm)

Usually I don't use words in my art work, but it was at the end of the year.  So I felt like having a new years resolution.  'Get on with what?' is up to you.

'just being peas'

(felt, cross stitch threads, cotton cloth, 23x23cm)

Story of my Calendars sent to Germany

Yesterday lovely photographs came through to me vial email from a cousin of my husband who lives in a Bavarian town, between Nuremberg and Munich, Germany.  I was very delighted of her greeting message and the photos.

The beginning was just last month, in December 2013.  She posted a message to me regarding my 2013 calendar, which was shown on this blog on 22.October 2013.  Some of mothers, whose children as well as her child went to a kindergarten in Eichstätt of the State Bavaria, were interested in the calendar.  She asked in the message if I could send some of them to her.

I was very interested in the kindergarten, which their children attended, and searched the website, Waldkindergarten.  Would have been ideal for me when I was a small child!  Children spend their precious time mostly in the nature.  The name of the kindergarten, Spielraum Wald und Wiese, shows that children play and learn through the experience in the wonderful natural space including woodlands and meadows.

Waldkindergarten

photos: courtesy of the cousin and her husband

I wanted to contribute something towards running the kindergarten, and thought. Would it be a nice idea to send my calendars to Germany as a donation.  I suggested the cousin that she could sell the calendar to those who were interested in and the money collected would go straight to the kindergarten.

So, I rushed into packing a small batch of calendars in a parcel and sent the parcel to her, having hoped that it would arrive there before Christmas broke up so that she had time to sell them as Christmas presents.  Luckily she received the parcel in time and could collect the money.  She wrote that the money would be used towards purchasing new materials, which sounded brilliant!  The amount of my donation was small, though, I was glad that it helped a little bit for such a nice kindergarten.  Thank you so much, cousin and her family, as well as those who are involved in the Waldkindergarten!

PS: Ich möchte herzlich danken derjenigen, die die Kalender eingekauft haben.  Ich habe zwar, die Pflanzen bzw. Blätter, die hier in der Gegend, South Wales von Groß Britannien, gezeichnet, und die Namen sind auf Englisch gezeichnet.  Aber man kann ja die Pflanzen auch in Deutschland im Wald oder auf der Wiese finden, außer Englisch Oak.  Auch Oak, Eichen, wird in Deutschland üblich gesehen.  Ich wünsche ihnen, den Kalender durchs Jahr zu vergnügen!

A Walk in the Winter Garden: Roath Park

From hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping in the town centre of Cardiff, just some 5 minutes drive, I was in the Roath Park.

It was a drizzling mild morning.  The flowerbed near by the conservatory in the botanic garden, a part of the Roath Park, was emptied and showed the dark brown manure, where some gardeners were working on.  It was quiet.  While having been walking toward the lake, I have seen only a few dog walkers.

(This tree is, however, no Japanese Maple.)

I haven't been to the park for years, but still remembered there was a Japanese plant area on the way to the lake.  I would come here sometimes with my children and a playgroup when they were very young.  The Japanese maple trees still stood there, but the all the leaves fell down.  The leaves kept their vibrant red colour as it didn't take so long after the fall.

I didn't expect so much colours in the botanic garden.  But the peculiar light purple colour was caught by my eyes.

Murasaki-Shikibu, Japanese Beautyberry!  I had seen them, in fact, only in pictures.

Next to the Japanese Beautyberry, I found another Japanese shrubs, Nanten, Nandina Domestica.  They are commonly called Heavenly Bamboo or Sacred Bamboo (in Wikipedia) although they are not the bamboo family.  

This shrub is seen widely in every garden in Japan.  My parents' house, my grandparents' houses, my friends' ....... this plant is so familiar.  Nanten is evergreen bush and has berries in the winter.  My mother would decorate the branches with berries for the New Year's celebration, and often put the leaves under or next to food on festive plates.

In the rain, despite the rain, they made me a little bit happy like being in Japan, my home country.

Some shrubs like thorns under big trees had still green leaves and red berries.  Holly-like shrub had strikingly red and green holly-like but tiny leaves.  I cannot find the name.

South Wales has usually wet mild winter.  The autumn has just gone and left colourful gift behind.  The winter brings the plants to rest and looks after them until the spring takes turn.