Winter has arrived. It always does. Finally our ash and beech trees have given up their leaves and autumn’s glorious colours have gone but our garden is not willing to let go of every flower. The roses hold on tightly to their remaining buds and as I walk past, memories of an early spring and warm summer create a delightful picture in my mind.
Golden yellow hypericum is flowering again, there appears to be no stopping it and the spiky pyracantha is covered in bright orange berries. Fragrant, sweet smelling pink Viburnum contrasts beautifully against the sky on grey sunless days.
Hellebores, one of my favourite winter/spring flowers, appear like magic, they are happy to be back after their summer slumber.
Today, at first light, waiting for the dawn, the garden has woken up to the first frost.
Sunrise will come soon and the birds will follow. Yesterday our garden was filled with goldfinches feeding on everything they could find …….. a large green woodpecker and many blackbirds foraged under the leaves. Blue tits and great tits joined them in a feeding frenzy, bringing so much life to the garden but where are the robins?
I was inspired to paint the garden in autumn – will I be inspired to paint the garden in winter? Winter has a beauty all of its own.
After the rain, which arrived with explosive energy in early September, dry brown grass has become lush and green again with forget me not seedlings germinating everywhere, large clusters of campion forming and even signs of cow parsley re-emerging. The scattering of seeds is a truly magical thing. Where cranesbill geraniums had been cut back, they are growing again with vigour and gentle pink flowers. They never give up. So much cutting back and regrowth.
There are still traces of Self Heal hidden in the wild flower lawn and the garden is fragrant with fallen apples. Roses bloom, dragonflies and butterflies appear on rare warm windless days, Silver Birch leaves turn to yellow and begin to fall, an abundance of red berries on the Viburnum waits for hungry birds when the cold weather finally comes.
A feeling of sadness creeps in as the most gloriously sunny, hot summer draws to an end and memories of a beautiful spring fade away. Autumn’s arrival is almost here.
There have been many blue sky days this summer and painting them has been a challenge. Unlike Portugal and Italy, blue skies are a rare thing here but this year it has been different and the gentle Dorset landscape, of subtle earthy tones and pale blue cloudy skies was transformed into a Tuscan land of purple hills, orange sunsets and gold.
After the Equinox, what will Autumn bring.
Blue sky in the Purbeck Hills, Dorset
I thought an early start would keep me cool as I set off to walk in the Lodmoor nature reserve near Weymouth. How wrong could I be …….
The sun was strong and heat rose up from the dusty track – no shade, no breeze. The water channels through the reeds were dry but wading birds still found sanctuary on mudbanks and open water.
Crossing the road I reached the esplanade, continuing my walk very slowly only stopping briefly to look at the golden shingle beach and deep blue glittering sea of Weymouth Bay. I would have liked to walk further to Bowleaze Cove and sit awhile gazing at the cliffs of White Nothe and beyond but it was time to head back.
Too hot to look longer I returned to Lodmoor and found a few shady places to pause and study the flowers and butterflies along the purple buddleia and wild clematis trail. Sloes and blackberries were already ripening, pink agrimony, silver leafed mugwort and marjoram filled the edges of the pathway.
This would make a lovely painting, I thought. Just feel the colours of high summer and paint the sky blue.
I celebrated Mothers Day on the Studland Peninsular in Dorset with my two lovely daughters. The sky was cerulean blue and the sun shone all day.
This is my favourite place, well, one of them! We were immersed in the vanilla/coconut fragrance of golden gorse and sat in the dunes quietly eating our delicious picnic.
A sandy trail leads to Little Sea where beavers have been released to help re wild, another path winds its way across the bracken and heather to the beach.
In the distance we see Old Harry rocks, chalk white and iconic; beyond Little Sea we gaze at glorious views of Purbeck hills and Godlingston Heath.
Most people head straight for the beach and National Trust cafe but by taking a different path and walking a little further we were “Far from the Madding Crowd” .
Always in search of landscapes to paint, this is one I often return to and it never fails to inspire.
It’s still spring but feels like summer. The clocks have gone forward and there is more light, every day there is more light. Wonderful.
After experiencing so many cold, frozen days and keeping cosy and warm by the log fire, I just had to go out for a walk. Not far, anywhere, just out!
Where to go? A walk to Sturminster Mill from the town via the old bridge and new pavement was a good start. White winter sun shone through the trees creating beautiful reflections in the river Stour. It’s easy to take this magical place for granted but visiting it reminded me of how lucky I am to have it on my doorstep. Must go there more often !
Take sketch book. Look longer.
A month ago the river had burst its banks and flooded the surrounding meadows. It’s still high and fast flowing and the long pause between winter and spring means there will be many more rain filled days to come. The fields in our Dorset villages look more like the wetlands of Somerset and a soon to be built housing estate has become a large lake!
Reflections in the Stour
Just before the New Year I walked by the Chesil Beach with my daughter and her very lively Cocker Spaniel who ran at top speed along the pathway towards the line of coastguards cottages. The sky looked threatening but it didn’t rain and although at this time of the year there is little colour, perfect for a monochrome painting, it is a spell binding spot. Views of the Isle of Portland to the east and coastal cliffs stretching far away in the distance to the west. In spring the beach will be carpeted with wild flowers – a natural garden. Stunning.
Chesil Beach – spring
Chesil Beach – winter skies
We wait and wait, yearning to take off our coats and macs and when Summer eventually comes every warm sunny day becomes precious and to be treasured. After a very wet winter, spring and summer rain continued to flow endlessly, the countryside and gardens stayed forever green. No scorched earth this year, the wildflowers kept flowering when people stopped cutting verges and no mow May allowed the buttercups to flourish. It was a good year for buttercups!
Ox eye daisies covered roadside banks and roundabouts; pink rosebay willow herb followed by purple loosestrife coloured the greenness; blackberry flowers turned into delicious fruit.
A few mini, short lived heatwaves came and went with strong winds to follow.
Strange weather – or has it always been this way?
There are Christmas cards in shops already! but apples are still ripening and waiting to be picked. The sun sets earlier every day but the clocks don’t go back until the end of October. Roses are still blooming but leaves are gradually changing colour, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is waiting in the wings.
Summer is going… but not just yet.
Winter lingers on with rain filled days and grey skies,
blossoms cover hedgerows and birds begin to sing,
daffodils are blooming – it might as well be spring.
Rivers overflowing, meadows under water,
wind is blowing through the trees, the sun is rarely seen,
Celandines and catkins , primrose paths and puddles,
it might as well be spring.
It’s coming!
To be in my garden is to be in a place where memories are planted in time and space.
As the month of March comes to an end, I reflect on how I have struggled to paint, overwhelmed by endless grey skies. Venturing into my garden in between the showers I am always amazed how nature seems to cope and the lawn is abundantly thick and lush. Wild flowers are appearing …… daisies, celandine, primroses. Early cherry blossoms have fallen but the damson and blackthorn are in flower, while apple and hawthorn wait their turn.
My daughter and I visited Swanage on a rare fine day and walked to Peveril Point. The cliffs are eroding and there are warnings everywhere not to walk to the edge but we found a seat where we could gaze at the views of 9 barrow down and Old Harry rocks. The bay was calm and the colour of the sea constantly changed from turquoise to silver.
Swanage has been a favourite place for many artists and it is easy to see why.
The light is extraordinary.
In early spring, before the summer holiday crowds descend to the beach, the cafe on the pier is a most delightful spot to watch the world go by.
Fisherman’s cottage at Swanage.
“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous”.
Rumi
This is one of my favourite quotes for this time of year when we notice the day light hours gradually increasing. Very slowly at first and then it seems to gather pace. I went into our garden this morning at first light and the birds were already singing. I have found it difficult to paint with every day being grey and dark but the rain and wind has at last given way to bright very blue sky days. No longer “pink dawns and white sunsets” (Thomas Hardy ) I can see pink sunsets and golden dawns.
Hellebores are happy to bloom in the winter cold and two viburnum bushes have been covered in pink sweet scented flowers since December. The garden will be full of colour in the spring – snowdrops, crocus, celandine, daffodils will flower again and roses will bloom in June but right now I can see trees that are strangely more beautiful without leaves as I watch the early morning sunrise light up each branch and trunk.
I have a wonderful book of gardening quotes which are truly inspirational.Another favourite is “a garden should feel like a walk in the woods”We are fortunate to have many trees in our garden and space for them to grow.Over the years my husband has planted fruit trees, silver birch and beech while Hazel grows everywhere side by side with ash seedlings. It is all about the trees someone once said to us while visiting our garden in summertime…
They were right, an artist’s garden is all about the trees as well as flowers. It’s time to paint them while the sun shines!
Grey clouds heavy with rain hang over loch Fyne and the sun remains hidden for hours on end. Walking in a Scottish rainforest, rain drenched oak and beech trees bend their branches towards the moss covered ground while leaves begin to cascade into the fast flowing river. We tread carefully along the footpath, swallows fly low and fast – catching their last meal before the end of the day. As summer becomes autumn they will leave us for warmer lands.
A stone circle appears in Temple Wood, in Kilmartin Glen, close to standing stones and cairns. A ritual landscape with hidden meanings, still not fully understood.Rock art has been discovered in this ancient place of mountains and moors – was it art for arts sake or has it a deeper message. This is a mystery.
I touch the moss, I touch the bark, I touch the stones.
At last the clouds disperse and give way to gentle sunlight and a hint of pale blue sky. The golden leaves glisten and the mountains reflect their beauty in the loch.
The landscape is an enigma to me, a complete contrast to the chalk hills and ridgeways of Dorset but the moors and forests remind me of the Studland Peninsular in the Purbeck Hills where the heath meets the dunes. Where dark green conifers mingle with silver birch and hazel. Brown bracken covers the heather, no longer purple. This is a place I am always inspired to paint but maybe the muted tones of a wet autumn in Scotland and wild skies will somehow find their way into my art. We shall see.
People walk so quickly by,
eyes down, phones in hand,
always in a hurry, why?
April, May, June, July ……. 4 months pass in the blink of an eye.
Will they look up when all is gone ?
When cliffs have crumbled, footpaths tumbled, down into a rising sea.
I stand and gaze at racing clouds and listen to the wind,
See reflections in a rain soaked lane and hedgerows filled with flowers
The people walking quickly by will never see a changing cloud,
a falling leaf, a butterfly.
But if they pause and raise their heads,
By looking longer they may see the wonders in the sky.
Lin Adams ( July 2023)
As an artist I am always looking at colour, changing seasons and landscapes.Nature is my inspiration.
I only wish more people could take time out to “smell the roses” and look at everything around them. Walking in some gardens in Somerset recently I noticed the following wise words written a few hundred years ago by a botanist….
“Wonder at everything even the most everyday things”
Wise words indeed.
Blue lake at Steeple Langford. (Wiltshire Wildlife Trust)
Wetlands in the Purbecks
After a wet, cold and very windy March/April, beautiful May is here and yet the rain still keeps coming. The bluebells and blossoms love it and the cow parsley in our wild flower garden is growing taller every day. It is waiting for the sun to shine before it eventually becomes a gentle haze of creamy white flowers. Marjoram, lemon balm, mint and chives fill the herbary; The pink campion bank and blue forgetmenots having self seeded are mingling with bee loving comfrey.
Buttercups, daisies, bugle and cowslips grow in the lawn which has been left uncut for a while but it is still too cold and wet for bees and the butterflies are struggling once again. I watch and wait for butterflies, despite the abundance of wild flowers only a few orange tips and blues emerged briefly a few days ago; we can only hope bees will return soon to set the blossoms and spread the pollen ……..sadly every year we see less.
On a positive note, the birds keep busy singing and building nests whatever the weather. I sat in our garden the other morning just before first light to listen to the dawn chorus, it wasn’t raining – what a glorious way to start the day!
The herbary
And so what to paint? Finding inspiration has been difficult during the long dark days of winter but after the spring equinox there was a subtle change and shift of energy. The trees and plants felt it too and once again the garden has greened up and overflows with nature and wild life.
A perfect time to get the brushes, paint and paper out and see what happens, feel the vibrancy of fresh colour around me and with any luck I may even see a spectacular sunset.
Each season is unique and special. Painting with emotion and feelings that the changing seasons give us is something we can be grateful for.
To feel the leaves come tumbling down and see them tossed in the autumn winds is a brief moment in time. It’s mid November and memories of heat waves and scorched grass in summer have almost faded. Showers followed by long periods of heavy rain and mild weather have given the gardens a new lease of life. Almost spring like.
This cannot last, inevitably everything must rest and pause and wait for winter to come.
“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous”. (Rumi)
In the woodland bright red holly berries appear and Redwing from Scandinavia arrive in flocks to feast on them.The sun sinks lower in the sky every day and the nights grow longer. Sunsets are brief, rare but beautiful.We light our candles and begin to add sparkle to shop windows. We crave light.
The winter solstice followed by Christmas is celebrated. A turning point. Without noticing, the days grow longer, and slowly but surely light returns. Snow drops followed by daffodils. Bird song and nest building. Spring!
To quote Dorothy Wordsworth “ it is a pleasure to a real lover of nature to give winter all the glory he can, for summer will make its own way, and speak its own praise”
Leaving the frenetic seaside town of Weymouth behind us we stop at the Fleet Lagoon and then cross the Ferry Bridge causeway to a new marina on Osprey Quay. The historic Ferry Bridge Inn was sadly demolished recently but Portland Castle built by Henry V111 stands sentinel just along from the quay. A must see for another day.
Driving up a narrow, very steep road from Fortuneswell, “ houses above houses” as described by Thomas Hardy in the Well-Beloved, we reach Easton, park in Tesco’s, leave the car behind and walk towards a quarry. Two old 17th century windmills and wild flower covered footpaths create a landscape just waiting to be painted. We are in another world. Our footpath ends at a road but crossing over we find a thatched roofed museum – the inspiration for Avice’s cottage in The Well Beloved. There are large pieces of fossilised wood in the garden creating natural nature sculptures. We walk on, under an old stone archway and look up at Rufus Castle (Bow and Arrow castle), its 15th Century ruins still clinging on to the top of the cliff.
Then a real treat awaits us… Church Ope Cove, on the edge of wildness.
The cove is rocky and has a pebble beach… steep steps will take you down to the beach but we stand at the top, gazing out to sea. It’s a blue sky day, very warm, the sea is turquoise and unusually calm.
Retracing our footsteps we walk back slowly towards the quarry and onto the lower path enclosed by high banks of valerian, mallow, ox eye daisies and birds foot trefoil. Red, mauve, white and yellow. Free flowing and untamed. A myriad of colour.Houses are being built in a disused quarry close by and more likely to come, but in the meantime, butterflies and insects can roam and feed in this beautiful wild flower garden covering the creamy white limestone, glistening in the sunlight.
The Isle of Portland remains an enigmatic place. Often hidden by mist and surrounded by turbulent sea. Migrating birds pause here in spring, butterflies find warmth and sanctuary in summer, fog or flood warnings can be heard in the autumn with landslips constantly changing its shape over time. Boat yards, quarries, houses, all chip away at this strange island of stone but the foot paths are still there, waiting to be walked.
My daughter Sam and I recently enjoyed a lovely spring picnic in the magical landscape of Banbury Hill, north Dorset. Walking from Broad Oak village via enchanting woods and delightfully named Banbury Cross we climbed a steep narrow lane, found a muddy footpath leading onto wide open grassy fields. It was warm. The views took our breath away. We ate our sandwiches and drank hot soup. Perfection!
A spell of warm weather had held on for one more day and overflowing with inspiration we promised ourselves we would paint the views of the distant hill fort of Hambledon or blackthorn blossom covered hedgerows. Contrasting colours of golden yellow pussy willow reflecting in a dew pond in the foreground with a sunshine sky above lifted our spirits and we thought, surely winter is finally over.
Not to be… while Blackthorn is in blossom there is always a risk of extreme cold weather, even snow… the following day, icy winds returned.
Wearing our thick coats, scarves and hats to keep warm, we will go back to this beautiful area to look again at the carpets of white anemones, primroses and early flowering bluebells. We may not be able to paint outside just yet but we can dream.
One of my favourite walks and an inspiration for painting in all seasons, is a nature reserve and wetland area close to the bustling seaside resort of Weymouth in Dorset. It is a calm and tranquil place and in winter the reed beds and water channels are so very beautiful, opening out and stretching towards distant views of the mysterious Isle of Portland and gleaming white chalk cliffs at Ringstead bay and beyond.
Silent Marsh Harriers fly low, noisy geese gather in groups, lapwing feed on the mud flats then suddenly rise into the sky, their black and white feathers glinting in the sunshine. Grey herons and white egrets hide in the marshland areas at the water’s edge, quietly fishing.
Sweet scented purple buddleia fills the hedgerows in summer, pretty michaelmas daisies line the pathways in autumn, blackthorn blossom is everywhere in springtime, and golden brown marsh grasses with silver grey wild clematis create a palette of neutral tones in January.
When the winter sun lights up this haven of nature it becomes the perfect place to sit , watch and be still.