Flocks of ideas
January is never a good month for me, and this year was no exception; but I feel I managed to get a fair bit done, if not just because January lasts about six times longer than all the other months. I think its because time expands in the wet. I’m glad its over (I was glad yesterday too, before I realised January has 31 ones days, and still wasn’t over). A lot of it was reprinting old favourites; seven fish for luck is running low on stock, and there is a new batch of valentinish cards (very suitable for platonic friendships)
About this time (February the 1st) is Imbolc, a pagan (and later Christian) festival of the start of spring, which felt far too early when I was living in the city. Living here, however, it seems perfectly correct. The birds start to sing, the school run (such as it is these days, a very small walk to the bus stop) is performed in daylight, the first buds start to swell and most of all, all the January resolve has ebbed away, meaning that I can go swimming on the Sunday morning without it being absolutely heaving with people on a two week fitness binge. Seriously, if you are going to start swimming, start in February, otherwise all the flailing bodies will put you off and you’ll never realise that the pools actually quite empty 90% of the year.
These are the very first signs of spring, and the perfect time to start new projects, but it is still winter, and the sky is still full of flocks of birds, huddling together for warmth and protection. I think it might be the peak of flocking season- I have never seen so many goldfinches together before; I nearly mistook them for the starlings. There’s also a mixed flock of jackdaws, rooks, and crows that come and hang in the field out back and we’ve seen large groups of linnets and yellowhammers out walking. They give me plenty of ideas, but the only ones I’ve sketched out on paper have been these redwings.
The redwings, and their flock mates the fieldfares, often come into the garden at this time looking for food, though the berries have all long gone. I might work this sketch into a print, or maybe not. I have a lot of other ideas to work with and never enough time.
Your probably thinking that this arriving on the 1st means that this has become a monthly newsletter; to be honest, I had decided on every two weeks, but it turns I can’t remember to post every two weeks. So I’m thinking it might be every week, if I have something to say, or monthly. I don’t know which.