The Joy of Spring

I’m a big nature lover, my favourite season is spring when the promise of new life begins.

It amazes me how the natural world seems to organise itself so beautifully around the seasons. Not just the plant world, but the creatures who wake from their slumber and revel in the new season. I love waking to the mating calls of the birds!

I heard a story some time ago, it came from Buddhism if I remember rightly. It said that if we were to be still for long enough, we would notice that nature provides us with everything we need. For free.

Over the years I’ve been learning lots about the plants I can use to make dyes and inks from, with a view to making art from them.

I have quite a collection now of dyed fabrics and papers waiting for the winter months when I can start collaging and stitching.  Thing is, I’m more inspired by the light of spring!  So here’s to spring, and the colours she will bring, June has been a fantastic month for the gathering of various shades from the plants I find and grow.  I can’t think of a better medium than mother nature to use!  And I’m still on the journey towards something more along the lines of natural, organic, biodegradeable art…

Norwich castle in beetroot ink on organic cotton rag paper: bio-degradeable organic art

Incidentally, Isabella Tree’s story of Knepp estate’s rewilding, a way of farming which works in harmony with mother nature, producing clean water naturally, with no guv subsidies, and no inputs, is coming out in cinemas near you! Naturally, they won’t be mainstream cinemas, it’ll be more your alternative cinemas like Picturehouse. Go see it, it’s called Wilding. It’ll help you see that thriving is actually more possible than we’ve been taught to think; on all levels.