Garden Journal Sketchbook - slowly but surely!

Things are pretty slow this year in the garden.  I've been keeping a garden journal for the last couple years, and these little green nubs (as seen on Good Friday -  April 3rd of this year) are our daffodils! Last year on Good Friday, they were already up and opened, like so:

and yes, last year Good Friday fell on the 18th... which is tomorrow. They are still not ready to open! They're up...and I can see the  bloom heads waiting...just waiting for that right time to pop open! Well, I'm gonna just quit looking. In fact I'm going down to DC this weekend to visit daughters and see cherry blossoms! Hopefully when I get back home the daffs will be in bloom. Hubby might even get to see them before me! If they pop open while I'm gone, I'm sure he'll send me a photo! 

So, I know what I'll probably be painting next week!! 
 

Spring Sky Awakening - Coastal Landscape by Roxanne Steed

40"x30" oil on gallery wrapped deep canvas 

For more information, or to purchase, click here.

Skies seem brighter, days are a bit longer, the snow is melting away...it's "mud-season". The tips of the tree tops get a bit of 'red' tinge to them...they are waking up, too. 

Spring is always filled with hope and more than a bit of excitement for me. The dried winter grasses out in the marsh still rustle their blond tops. Birds migrate through. All the earth is awakening!

Spring Froth

10"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

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One of my friends described this time of year (up here in New England when Spring finally bursts forth) as 'frothy'. Yes, it is sort of like that- trees stay a lavender bare limbed tangle, until sap rises and gives them a reddish pinky blush at their uppermost heights...then the bright fresh yellow green leaves begin to emerge- slowly but surely.....before you know it another week has gone by and the whole canopy of woods is filled from top to bottom!

Here at home, the tulips have come up, the crab-apple trees have bloomed...and now as I type this, they are fading, and other things are following right on their heels to take their turn in this symphony of color and texture----fluff and froth!

Oh what a delight after winter! Spring is just never disappointing!

As you can see, we are across the street from another building lot (hence the large dirt pile), so I can be selective - choosing to be rather interpretive and expressive in my painting rather than a literal rendering. 

Spring does go by so quickly, I'm amazed at how quickly I paint one scene .....and those blossoms are gone! But the act of painting them seals those garden memories into my very being.  A wonderful comparison from year to year....showing me how far this portion of Eden has come!