A spring walk

I live in a valley, surrounded by gentle hills and lots of trees, and at the edge of a forest. The forest has been put under protection in 2007 and declared a "regional nature park of national importance" in 2009. It is a nature reserve and a rare example of a large original forest, which means that nature is left untouched, with only little forest management. No trees are felled and fallen trees are left where they are, only if a tree has fallen over a path is the part covering the path cut off, but only that part. It's a beautiful place to be. A few days ago I met up with my Mum to walk along the bottom of the valley to the visitor centre. That part doesn't really have the most exciting scenery, it's a broad path, sometimes close to the railway line and the road on the other side of the river. But if you look closer, there is much to see, such as lots of wildflowers, little ponds full of newts and tadpoles. We left early in the morning to avoid the heat and luckily, this side of the valley was still in the shade.

In the past two centuries, there used to be lots of industry along the river, including a spinning mill and a paper mill. The factories closed long ago and almost all of the buildings have been pulled down by now, but there are still remnants to be found along the river. And with all the industry gone, it means that the river is now clean and full of diverse wildlife.

It's not a too long walk to the visitor centre on the other side of the bridge, but if you're too tired to walk back, you can take the train from here.

Because we were so early, the restaurant was still all empty when we arrived there, and we enjoyed a cup of coffee in the peace and quiet before it was no doubt flooded with people later in the day, it being a fine day and a public holiday.

We walked back again, the same way we came, parts of it among the trees, which is always the best part :)

There were so many wildflowers on the way, including some gorgeous aquilegia, bush roses, and even some rare wild orchids.

It was such a beautiful morning, so energising and enriching. I don't spend enough time in this beautiful area, which is just outside my doorstep, but I should definitely take more time to explore and enjoy it.

Sunday Walk

I finally managed to force myself to go for a Sunday walk today. It's not that I don't like walking. On the contrary, I love going for walks, especially in the woods (and of course on the beach, but that's not much of an option here). But I just usually end up having too many other things to do instead. Or rather, making different priorities. In order to help me get back into a Sunday walk habit, I made a list of benefits, to give it some purpose, such as looking for inspiration for sketches and paintings, and capture beauty in the ordinary with my camera. I've been neglecting my DSLR camera far too much since I got my iPhone, usually using it mostly for holiday pictures. So today, I decided to use my little 50mm lens instead of my everyday 17-70mm zoom lens, in order to get a different perspective. 

With it's option of an aperture of f/1.8, the 50mm lens allows you  to capture a terrific depth of field, and, according to light, some fabulous bokeh.

I walked along some beautiful flowering meadows. Who would have thought that common little wild flowers can be so fascinating?

And trought the woods. Unlike the woods in England, where many of them are filled with carpets of bluebells at the moment, the woods here are rather bare of flowers, and instead present mainly a lush green.

The weather kept changing from minute to minute, but except a very short little shower, the weather stayed dry, and there was even sunshine as well! It was rather windy, though, which made focusing rather challenging at times.

Some of the rhododendrons (or azaleas, I never really quite know what the difference between them is) in some front gardens where in full bloom and just totally amazing.

And I even found some bluebells in a grassy patch outside a block of flats.

To capture this little fellow, my allround zoom lens, which has quite a good macro function as well, would of course have been perfect. But then that's the challenge; to work with what you've got, and make the best of it. I think he turned out rather well.

What I love about photography is how it allows you to chose how you look at things. Some of the pictures were taken at places that were not exactly the most picturesque. The gras strips between the pavement and the main road, road, on traffic islands etc. But even in those places, beauty can be found, if you care to look for it. And your camera allows you to focus on just that beauty, and to block out there rest. It allows you to capture and elevate the ordinary, to decide for yourself how you want to look at things, what perspective to choose, and on what to put your focus on.

I really enjoyed my little walk, and 'll definitely try to go for a little Sunday walk again next weekend, and make it a regular habit. But I'll better try not to take 220+ photos again - or I'll end up spending all day with downloading and editing them, and won't have any thime for painting, or anything else, at all.

Waiting for spring

I'm still waiting for all the spring blossoms and flowers to bloom, so that I can sketch them, but spring's very slow this year, with too cold temperatures and winter weather well into April. So I've been looking for alternatives around me, like the ivy outside my office window, which has beautiful purple fruits.

I like to start my sketches, even the simplest ones, with a pencil. There have been quite a few of my fellow bloggers who have done/are doing pen only sketches, and I'm in awe of their skills. I still the need pencils at the moment, they feel save.

The sketch was done during my lunch time, and I'm always looking forward to adding some colour when I get home in the evening. Finally, I got to try out my new Koh-I-Noor watercolours, the latest addition of paints to try out to replace my expensive watercolour paints in my little sketchbooks. I'm really pleased with them, and the way they mix.

I'm quite pleased with the result, I have to say. It's not the usual quick sketch I'd normally do in this sketchbook, but then this is what I like about sketchbooks. They can contain whatever you want. From quick simple sketches to more elaborate studies. There's no theme, style, pattern to follow, no rules.

Linking this up to the marvellous Paint Party Friday. Make sure to have a look at all the talented artists who contribute to the party each week. It's always so inspiring. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Totally uninspired

I don't know what it is, but I'm feeling totally uninspired at the moment. I had been looking forward to a long three-day weekend filled with paint and creativity, but instead I ended up spending most of the time on the sofa, with no energy at all to pick myself up and do something useful. Although that is not strictly true. I have actually covered four pages in my Moleskine sketchbook/art journal with collages and paint, but these were more repeated manifestations of severe procrastination and frustration than real inspired creativity. The obligation of having to produce abstracts of two articles in French (a language I will never master), filled with a whole range of terms related to some new degree courses I had no idea of how to translate into German, had repeatedly woken the urge in me to grab some glue and paint and stick something into my sketchbook, in order to put off the unpleasant task.

So my weekend ended with two unfinished abstracts and four finished journal pages, but I didn't have the energy to take pictures of them and write up a blog post. So Instead I'm posting some photographs I took during my holiday earlier this month, taken at one second favourite National Trust place, Angelsey Abbey. I've visited this place several times and at different times of the year. It is a perfect place to spend a happy and relaxing day.

The silver birches with their beautifully coloured and textured bark always make me happy:

The herbacious border is full of forgeous plants and flowers, like this delicate "chandelier" of blossoms:

Or these beautifully patterned flowers:

The gardens are full of busy bees of all kinds collecting pollen:

Daisies - simple but always pleasing:

I'll have another day off on Wednesday (our national holiday), and I hope to spend it in my studio. With the abstracts finally out of the way, there should now be nothing to distract me. Hopefully.

Spring blooms for the eyes and soul

I mentioned last week that I was going on a day trip to Germany on Friday, including a little "visit to Sweden". Well, last Friday, me and my mum went to Constance for the day, which is just an1 1/2  hours train ride away from Zürich, on the other side of the border. We left early in the morning and after arriving in Constance, took the next bus to the beautiful Mainau, a little island in Lake Constance. It wasn't hard to find beauty there, as the whole island is an abundance of beauty. Floral beauty. And right now, it's a feast of spring blooms. Daffodils, poppies, and many more, but most of all tulips. Tulips everywhere, whole carpets of tulips, and in so many colours and varieties you didn't even know existed.

I remember coming here for the first time (at least as far as I can remember) a few years ago, and I was somewhat puzzled that all the information was in German (obviously), English (makes sense) - and Swedish. Swedish?? Well, it all became clear when I read a bit more about the history of the island.

In 1928, Grand Duke Friedrich II, to whom the island belonged at that time, bequeathed it to his sister Viktoria, who was married to Gustav V, king of Sweden. The island so became property of the Swedish royal family. In 1932, Viktoria's grandson Lennart Bernadotte was given charge of the island. After his marriage to a commoner, he quite the royal house and moved to the Mainau and started to turn the island into a beautiful park and opened it to the public. Today, the island is still managed by the Bernadotte family, who continue to live in the palace. Many of the buildings on the island have a Swedish touch, and the oldest of the restaurants, the "Schwedenschenke" (Sweden tavern) serves some typical Swedish dishes.

The baroque palace, church and palm house on top of the island.

There was an orchid show in the palm house as well. Some of them look like little alien flowers from space.

They are fascinating flowers, orchids. But sometimes a little bit too fancy for my taste. I really prefer the simpler, more "common" flowers, and anyway, it was a hot day, and even hotter inside the palm house, so we soon went outside again, to continue wandering around the island and adoring yet more tulips and other spring blooms, sometimes displayed in rather unusual ways.

After lunch we took the bus back to the city for some retail therapy before taking the train back home. It was a wonderful day, and I took tons of photos of flowers on the island. I want to use these photos to practise some botanical painting with watercolours. And although I was far too exhausted to get started with it straight away that evening, I couldn't resist making some drawings into my sketchbook and colouring them with Neocolor while resting on the sofa.