April -- No Fooling

This weeks post is brought to you by the letter "S" and the colour "Green".

Spring has definitely arrived in this part of the world.

"April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, then a moment after, weep thy girlish tears."

 

Sir William Watson

 

This is a painting I did last year for the Brock House Society calendar, it is called "The Best Seat in the Park" and is a typical spring day in Jericho Park with someone enjoying my favorite bench.

This painting is for sale, all funds go to Brock House Society, let me know if you are interested in buying it.

 

SPRING, SPRING, SPRING!

 

The new spring growth is a very special bright startling green and is Springing up everywhere!

 

 

 

Green, green, green!

 

 

I love the patterns in this root.

 

 

 

 

Flower God, God Of The Spring

 

FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,

Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,

Here I wander in April

Cold, grey-headed; and still to my

Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,

Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;

Spring, flower-planter in meadows,

Child-conductor in willowy

Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:

Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:

O child, happy are children!

She still smiles on their innocence,

She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,

Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:

Thus one cunning in music

Wakes old chords in the memory:

Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.

One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal

Green - one more, and my bosom

Feels new life with an ecstasy.  

 

Robert Louis Stevenson    

 

  

The birds are busy too, pairing up, a spring in their step.

 

These Widgeons in step.       

 

  

 

 

Golden crowned sparrows I think.

 

 

 

And a lone Great Blue Heron fishing in the shallow water.

 

 

Spring Song

by Robert Louis Stevenson

THE air was full of sun and birds,
The fresh air sparkled clearly.
Remembrance wakened in my heart
And I knew I loved her dearly.

The fallows and the leafless trees
And all my spirit tingled.
My earliest thought of love, and Spring's
First puff of perfume mingled.

In my still heart the thoughts awoke,
Came lone by lone together -
Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love
A mere affair of weather?

---------------------

And with Easter just around the corner I thought some rabbits would be appreciated.

There were dark chocolate, milk chocolate and even white chocolate rabbits at the park.

 

 

These rabbits were stretched out, relaxing.

 

 Some were eating.

 

 

This one looked exhausted.

 

 

She seemed to be watching over this little brood of babies:

 

 

Please forgive me for including so many, these bunnies were small and so cute. My favorite is the grey one with the black nose. There were at least six of the little ones.

A few more plants, from my garden, beautiful greens, beautiful spring. 

  

Lots of paint being splashed around here this week. First of all I took a better picture of this one from last week so her is "Ready and Waiting: again:

 

Here are two new ones. First "Donkey Trio":

 

 

and second "High and Dry":

 

All are watercolours. The "Donkey Trio" is inspired by a photograph I took in southern France a few years ago. The "High and Dry" is from a photograph that I took when I was on Gabriola Island a couple of years ago.

That's my first post for April, no fooling.


Until next time...

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

happy Whimsy Wednesday,

 

 

Gillian.

 

April Showers

April weather can be quite a mixture, and this year we have just about everything from rain, hail, wind, snow (on the mountains) and then some glorious sunshine too. After a recent heavy rain the sun came out and I captured the raindrops.

I was reminded of a childhood rhyme:

Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain

Nnow the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again!

The amazing flower below is a Fritillaria:

"Fritillaria meleagris is a species of flowering plant in the family Liliaceae. Its common names include snake's head fritillary, snake's head (the original English name), chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, leper lily (because its shape resembled the bell once carried by lepers), Lazarus bell, checkered lily or, in northern Europe, simply fritillary.
The name Fritillarea comes from the latin fritillus meaning dice-box, and (possibly) referring to the chequered pattern on the flowers, though this derivation has been disputed. The name meleagris means ‘spotted like a guinea fowl’." (Wikipedia)

April Showers (Al Jolson lyrics)

Though April showers 

May come your way, 

They bring the flowers 

That bloom in May; 

And if it's raining, 

Have no regrets; 

Because, it isn't raining rain, you know, 

It's raining violets. 

And when you see clouds 

Upon the hill, 

You soon will see crowds 

Of daffodils; 

So keep on looking for the bluebird, 

And listening for his song, 

Whenever April showers come along. 

So judging by the amount of rain we have had here lately, there should be a wonderful array of flowers coming our way in May.

Quite an assortment of birds in the garden this week too

I did not manage to get the goldfinches, crows smashing peanuts, or hummingbird with something caught on its beak with my camera, but I'll leave those to your imagination.

A new watercolour ("Japonica"), inspired by a picture I showed on the blog a couple of weeks ago.

For more information on this and other works follow this link: GillianOlsonArt.blogspot.ca

That's it for this week, happy whimsy Wednesday, thank you for stopping by, until next time ..................