Changes

 Hi there,

As you can see, I've made a few changes. Call it a blog lift. It's scary. There's hardly any blue left in sight! (If you are new here, I readily admit to being crazy about blue.)  I don't even like to use a black pen, and will walk a mile to find a blue one. Although for easy reading, I usually type with black/grey ink in blog land. I occasionally draw with a black pen but it's difficult for me. In loving blue,  I am not alone. Survey says: blue is the favourite colour. Period! What a slap in the face to one's concept of uniqueness, but, then again, we are all kindred spirits at heart.  It seems my original blue scheme lost the plot next the snowscape pic, so red lettering it is until spring arrives, or until I have a change of heart.
Speaking of colour, I've been craving it. So here we go...

                             Standard January fare...tulips and daffodils. Puts a spring in my step.

 I always hope for a cool spring so that I can stroll by the neighborhood gardens to stare at the tulips.  If it's too warm, they fizzle. Stunted and struggling, they take on that sad this is it look.

* Tip of the day. For cut tulips, drop in a few ice cubes into the vase now and then to cool down their  toes. They love it!

Back in the day, (And a very long day ago it was--say early 17th century.) you could trade the farm, furniture, implements, and your animals for a tulip bulb. (Think Jack and the Bean stock.) Wouldn't the wife and family be pleased? Fortunes were made and lost. It sounds a bit more romantic than  pork belly futures, and once the craze hit, it hit. M-A-N-I-A! "Step right up, secure your future, buy a tulip bulb!" It's a good thing that I was not alive at that time. She did what, son? Yes, mother you heard it right. She sold the farm for a tulip bulb. Rack and ruin! 
That wifee though, she doth protest:  But, but, BUT I must have beauty!!!

 The movie, Tulip Fever will be released next month. I'll be watching.

  Here in Canada, Maple Leaf Tulips will be popping up all over this spring

               in honour of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation.  (Top row second and third from left on the link page are prime examples.) They are so pretty and were, of course, bred to resemble the flag.

Yet another reason I'm looking very forward to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa ~ Gatineau in May.                                                                                  Not until May, you say? Pity!                                                                  "Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul." Luther Burbank                            Purple for royalty. That's how it used to be. Purple cloth was too expensive                            for mere mortals way back when the dye was cast from sea shells.  Amaryllis.  A never fail winter favourite of mine. They are easy and fun to grow. Every  year I hope to find different colours.  Besides being beautiful.  They also hold the keys. 💗                               I love old keys, and have recently started a collection.  I sometimes wonder  who carried them, which clocks were wound nightly and by whom, or which house doors they  locked and unlocked.  I'm not certain the skeleton key on the right is old though, but a keeper it is.                                          After Christmas, I try to catch the Amaryllis sales. I can't resist. Such a lovely blooms and what a colour. (Looks like I may have nailed the colour  on the breast of the little bird below. Who knew? Serendipity!) * "Flowers don't worry about how they are going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light. And that makes them beautiful." Jim Carrey  I started this little painting on the wrong side of a bit of scrap paper. It's difficult to tell which  side is the right side if it's not marked, but I didn't have a plan...simply the time and the will  to create something.                       "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy."                                                                   Oscar Wilde                                                             Did he mention birds? A line drawing in basic black and white with a touch of red thrown in. Arches scrap paper--frayed edges and all.                                            "I must have flowers, always and always." Claude Monet Truly a man after my heart. 'Til next time...