Spring will be a little late this year ...

Cherry tree, January 30th 2008. Same cherry tree, March 1st 2009.

There are buds on the branches, but I think it will need some warm days before we get the blossom. And not a daffodil in sight, despite it being St David's Day. Cymru Am Byth* - which is about the extent of my Welsh.

To look on the bright side - the lack of leaves on the trees has made me realise just how many hazel bushes there are in this part of the world - the catkins really show up. I now know that there are two in our garden - I knew we had one but I had never noticed the other one, hidden in the hedge. I bet the squirrels knew it was there, though...

There are lots along our stretch of the A31, as well - we noticed as we drove to Guildford yesterday to meet Babybel and her daddy for some retail therapy, duck feeding, and coffee and cake in the theatre cafe. I got very nostalgic because nearly 30 years ago I used to take Babybel's daddy and uncle duck feeding in the same place. And ducks still know that baby buggy = food ...

[Imagine there is a gap here, despite Blogger's refusal to insert one.]

Returning briefly to stamps - remember this?

Well - now it looks like this.

I hope the wonkiness is just the result of the hoop. Not sure where it is going next, but I think it needs a border. I shall have to extemporise because I have very little thread left and as it is some I inherited from my aunt nearly 20 years ago which has no label I don't think I'll be able to get any more.

If I haven't bored you to tears with stamps. you can find some very inspirational examples on Susan Purney Mark's blog. And some very inspirational work as well.

Although I have enjoyed making all those stamps. learned a lot and got enough inspiration to last me a long time - I have found it pretty time consuming. So I have decided to go back to just a picture a day, with no associated activities - at least for now. But I wanted to continue to have a theme for the pictures - colour. I wanted to feature a different colour each week , but I wasn't sure I would have enough images to last a week. Until I started going through all my photos ...

For no very good reason - except that it is one of my favourite colours - my first choice is turquoise. And here is a very smart gentleman photographed last year at Upton House in Dorset - probably the epitomy of turquoise. Unfortunately he didn't want to show us his tail.

* Wales for ever.