My illustrations in Active Arts 23rd Annual Art exhibition

Hello lovely readers, I hope you are all well!  I am delighted to announce that my illustrations Peacock and Nightingales will be exhibited this weekend (1st - 2nd March) at the Active Arts 23rd Annual Art Exhibition at Countersthorpe College.  The show will include over 300 works of art and is open from 1pm - 5pm on Saturday and 10.30am - 4pm on Sunday.  The address is:

Countersthorpe College

Winchester Road

Countersthorpe

LE8 5PR

You can see more details about the exhibition on their website.  Hope to see you there!

As always, thank you very much for reading!

Emma

Foxton Locks

Yesterday was such a fine and sunny day that I headed over to Foxton Locks with my folks to have a walk by the canal side.  There were lots of other families out that day too appreciating the gorgeous countryside, as well as the pretty boats and wildfowl on the water.  Enjoy!

Thank you for reading, look forward to seeing you next time!

Emma

Oadby Botanic Gardens

Last Sunday was an unusually sunny and warm day, so me and the folks headed up to the Oadby Botanic Gardens for a walk around the extensive grounds with its large array of interesting and rare plants.

I was particularly impressed by this Chinese Witch Hazel tree, with it's glorious yellow star-like flowers bringing some much-needed colour to the gardens in winter.  According to the University of Leicester Botanic Garden Newsletter the famous gardener E.A. Bowles called this tree the Epiphany tree because of the timing of it's flowering and because the flowers mimicked the colour of gold and the scent of frankincense.

There were large carpets of Snowdrops and Crocuses beginning to come into bloom, along with many other spring favourites.

Crocuses carpet the ground

Cowslips

Cyclamen

Daffodils

Iris

Primroses

The greenhouses there were also full of beautiful cultivated specimens.  It was very cheering to see so much colour when the weather has been so wet and windy of late!

Hyacinths and Cyclamen

Primroses and Cyclamen

Some much-needed winter colour was added by this lovely plant with its red leaves, as well as the red stems of Dogwood and red berries of rose hips.

Dogwood

Rosehips

There were also signs of spring approaching with the catkins coming out on the Hazel trees.

I hope you've enjoyed these signs of spring as much as I have!  Thank you for reading, see you next time.

All the best,

Emma

Gardens in Winter

Greetings everyone, I hope you are all keeping well!

We were blessed with a lovely and unusually bright and sunny Sunday yesterday, but sadly the rest of last week (and indeed, that last several weeks) has been thoroughly miserable, cold, wet and windy.  I've been wanting to go on some of my favourite walks over fields near my home, but it's been rather too muddy underfoot to venture over that way.  Instead I have been thinking about ways to cheer oneself up through wet and miserable weather, and have been finding some lovely colours in the garden.

There are still some bright red berries clinging to the bushes (that the birds haven't yet gotten to) as well as red on the thorns of some varieties of rose.  In addition, there are some promising signs that spring is not too far off, as the presence of Snowdrops testify!  Spring may be yet to come, but there are still some lovely colours, textures and blooms to be enjoyed outdoors in the meantime.