April Showers

Looking back to last year's Blog the weather in 2011 tied in with the school hols and I had tanned legs by the end of April, sadly not repeated in 2012. We didn't notice the winter being dry but the Gade has all but dried up right down to Water End, the lowest for maybe five years.

After a mild winter and a few warm days before Easter the garden looks lovely - both the cherry blossom and the bluebells are earlier than last year but the cold north wind is now scattering petals with the hail.When I feel in need of comfort I often stand beneath the cherry breathing in the fragrance and listening to the humming bees.

We walked down to Hoo wood this afternoon to see the first sprinkling of bluebells but as you can guess from the pics that dramatic sky caught us out. Beautiful light though...

A bigger picture

The queues were around the block for the last week of David Hockney's A Bigger Picture at the R.A. I've read all the reviews and some are harsh: this is without doubt the best exhibition I have ever seen or am likely to see. I took my husband and then my grandson; my daughter is going today. Sam asked (as I raved on) why I didn't take 'my whole school' and I wish I'd had the forethought. They will have to make do with digital images and the book and a day painting in Ashridge. I love the Fauvist palette, the mark making, the grandeur, the technology. I've always liked Hockney: etchings, pools, California landscapes, the Grand Canyon, but I hadn't realised how it all fitted together before. In close up the marks and motifs have been perfected while standing back the perspective, pattern and dynamic come into play. I was swept away.