Spring Awakening

It's been a while since my last blogpost – sorry! Sometimes the days go by so fast … Especially in these first weeks of spring when I grab every opportunity to get outside!
I love seeing our valley and the river Lahn slowly waking up to spring. It's almost like you can watch the change from day to day.
These pics below are from the end of March.

The catkins are the first to wake up. And as we've got a lot of them, for quite some time the riverside will be spotted by glowing yellow-green bushes – a beautiful sight!

The canoe/ kayaking season is slowly starting too. (We have a few steadfast canoeists who get out on the river even in winter, but these are really very few.)
The wild violets are pretty early too. You'll occasionally find them on the slopes of the valley.

This is the typical riparian forest above, at the beginning of April.
And below, this now is mid April – I took these pics yesterday.

Well you can say that it's the same as every year … true, but I love it anyway! I hope you'll enjoy my pictures as well. Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and green Easter!

Hello 2017 – and nature's New Year celebration

Here's to 2017 – wishing everybody a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year!

There won't be a real review of 2016 this time … I'll just settle on admitting that I am pretty happy to be in 2017 now! And that 2016 was a challenging year at least. Caring for two 90 year old peeps (one of them with dementia) while looking after two households plus trying to run my art and design business often brought me to the edge of exhaustion. I believe that there's a time for everything in life, and this obviously is not the time for big career plans …

So for 2017 I'll just try to concentrate on the positive things. Hoping to help my parents to live their high age life in dignity – which is not easy all the time – and praying for patience for myself. And I'll just take every chunk of time I can get to create. It has become crystal clear to me that this is one of my basic needs, going way beyond any thoughts of career or making money.

For today – and to celebrate the New Year – I'll show you the winter wonderland that we enjoyed for two days right at our doorstep. It started on the 30th of December when we had a day and a night of dense fog. When the valley appeared again out of the big nothing, it had wrapped itself into a festive cloth of glittering frost … enjoy :-) Happy 2017!

Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow morning I'll be signing off for the holidays … wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas and some peaceful and festive days with family and friends!

I will be back on the 28th. Not really working until the New Year, but might peek in here :-) See you then! Happy Christmas!

November Garden

The garden season comes to an end but there's still some beauty to discover. The reduced vegetation makes you notice the little things … I particularly love the various forms of seedpods and plant silhouettes that provide good inspiration for floral/ nature designs.

The spikey Lion's Tail stems look like spines, and sometimes like strings of pearls.

Delicate Bluebeard Seedheads. I love their soft colours against the greys and greens of the roof.

 Dramatic silhouettes and shadows of wild Yarrow.

Last Hyssop blossoms and seed umbels.

Two sweet guys that guard over our rooftop garden :-)

Our garden dragon can spit fire and is the work of my potter friend Baerbel.

 

This little forest scene was a fun discovery on the roof!

 

 

For the head gardener and his feline assistant it's time to sit in the sun, read a bit and just relax …

End of Season!

Around here this week …

… there's autumn in full swing!
I took some pictures out of my studio window today – I love this view, especially in autumn! And it might all look different and leafless tomorrow, as they predicted the first frost for tonight …

I as well have been polishing up my Minted Store, to get into gear for the Holidays. As my Minted collection has been growing slowly but steadily this year, there's lots of beautiful wall art inside, and some kid's art, fabric and home decor too. Come have a look inside! Here's a peek into my faves for November:

Finally I couldn't resist to patch all my Inktober pieces together, so here's the full month!
There's some sketches that I'd love to develop further, in colour. And some interesting painting ideas and bits that might make nice patterns too. Hoping that I will find the time to do this …

Happy weekend everybody!

Goodbye blue-green September!

We had some gorgeous late summer days in September, with lots of greens and blues everywhere … they made me feel a bit like living in a fairytale :-)

 

Now it looks like autumn is here …
But sorting through my sunny photographs I just can't help posting some more garden pics!

House and Garden at the beginning of September …

… and mid September. The Morning Glories are growing …

… and that's at the end of September!

I have been asked quite a few times if the plants might bring a lot of insects into the house? Amazingly (and fortunately!), that is not the case. Maybe it's just more attractive for them outside, with all the pollen of the many blossoms ;-) And maybe these chaps help too:

We have many of these, forming a kind of second veil in front of the morning glory curtain. I find them a bit spooky, but interesting to watch nevertheless. And their webs are just beautiful, like mini works of art! (So far I refuse to think about where they might retreat to when it gets really cold …)

Some more blue September blossoms …

The Bluebeard is always humming with bees.

A little Toad Lily.

… and other colours are there too:

Hibiscus …

… Clary …

and Brown Sunflowers.

Plus lots of green foliage that add to the jungle feeling:

Dwarf Tamarillos and Caiguas.

The Dwarf Tamarillo umbels form beautiful silhouettes against the afternoon sun.

 Now we are hoping for a mild October, we just want to enjoy all this a bit longer!