Colour therapy

November . . . the clocks went back at the weekend . . . we can't deny that the winter months are here.

I love winter walks, the bare fields and skeletal trees open up the views; animals and birds are more visible – running over the furrows and wheeling across the pale sky.


I like walking through woods and hearing the leaves falling onto the ground; the late afternoon sun, low in the sky, slants rays of flickering light between the tree trunks. We were lucky and saw deer bounding past, like a magic lantern show.


The leaves cling on to the oaks, colours just starting to turn from greens to ochres before they fall when the next frosts come. The meadows shine with an intense lush greeness.


I find that I work on my prints more intensely in winter; the images, gathered in my mind out in the winter landscape, come alive during the late afternoon dark cosiness in my studio.

I know that for many the winter months are difficult to endure without sunshine and bright vibrant colours – Emma of Silverpebble has blogged about this and has a remedy – she's created a place to pop into for a little colour therapy, a collection of beautiful vibrant images in her Splash of Colour flickr pool. She'd love lots more people to join in, so if you've some bright colourful photos you'd like to share, please add them to the collection. Or just have a cup of tea and browse through a colourful world.

On the subject of splashes of colour – there is one image that lifts my heart when I see it in the hedgerow on a sunny autumn day, a Field Maple in all it's buttery yellow-ochre glory against a bright blue sky.


Looking closely at the Field Maple leaves I noticed that some are peppered with tiny paprika-red galls.


Here's one of the images I added to Emma's Splash of Colour collection – apples that I helped my Mum to pick last Friday. They are Bramleys – yes really! The Bramley apples on our tree are mostly green, eventually getting a rosy cheeked blush just before we pick them. Our tree is in a cool Suffolk valley, in my Mum's garden her Bramley tree stands under a big Fenland sky – the sun shines on it from dawn to dusk and the apples glow the most vibrant of reds!


Apples that Snow White would not be able to resist! Sweet and juicy, just waiting to be baked and transformed into a fluffy soft delicious pudding!