I love a sweet pea. So as soon as the light lets me, in go my seeds, the improvised loo roll planters looking like firework boxes. Which, in a way, they are. Up shoot the seedlings, with promise of bright, fragrant flowers. There are unexpected visitors, too, my home-made compost throwing out some random squash. Recording the action gives me geometry to draw, and mud, for which I tear off a bit of kitchen scourer.
Out in the garden, the first narcissi are up. Their two-tone flowers, gold at first glance, hold green in their shadow and the stems give a nod to the petals’ yellow. The leaves, though, are a sleek grey-green, blending with their tulip neighbours. So I reach for some Payne’s Gray, a characterful colour passed down to me and now a favourite of my own.
The first Forsythia bud sings out, fluorescent, from workaday twigs which, when I get my eye in, have woken up, greening here, signs of the next flowers there.
Out of the February wind, the sun warms like Spring. Roll on, garden.
Ballpen, watercolour, fineliner and highlighter on waste paper.
For garden sketches on garments, visit my Teemill shop.