Advent Begins

 First day of Advent

Advent begins, and with it a new Advent tree of fairy baubles.

Watch this space for a gentle countdown to Christmas with things bright and beautiful, good and gladsome - a gift from the fairies in their many disguises.

  

A Posy

Beauty discarded - masses of pansies were upended in a neighbor's green bin, probably to make way for new midsummer flowers from the nursery.  They were still very pretty and I picked a handful to paint,  like this:

the pencil sketch,

 followed by colour blocking and shaping.

More painting instructions from my watercolour classes are over on my watercolour blog, http://francestyrrell.blogspot.ca/.  Both blogs have been quiet of late, but I am here and working on pretty things yet to be displayed.  So many flowers, and summer so short!

"There's pansies, that's for thoughts",

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Act IV, SceneV) 

Ring out the old, Ring in the new

Photo of my son, airborne at the bike park. 

I've come to realize that BMX biking isn't only speed or tricks for the lads, it's poetry in motion, "with hope in their hearts and wings on their heels". Not a bad way to start the new year!

Oh Christmas Tree

Christmas Day 2012

Here is the tree assembled, 24 Advent windows plus a few trimmings.

Twenty-fourth day of Advent - Away in a Manger

Day 24 of Advent 

(Child in the Manger from Grandmother's Tree)

"The Child in the manger looks up through the sparkling branches..."

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Twenty-third day of Advent - I Saw Three Ships

Day 23 of Advent

"I saw three ships come sailing in..."

Twenty-second Day of Advent - Anticipation

Day 22 of Advent

 (Teddy and Dolly Darlings, Grandmother's Tree)

These very dolls are on my tree, three of Hasbro's "Dolly Darlings" that were manufactured from 1965-68.  Every little girl in the neighbourhood seemed to have at least one.  We sometimes took them along to school, safely tucked in a coat pocket.  As in Grandmother's Tree, they have been roused from their year-long slumber to take their place with the other ornaments.