A very cold first week of April, with snow and hail.

Cuckoo flowers are named after Pentacost here in the Netherlands, but always flower around Easter.

A week that saw both winter and summer, and March and April.

I made this illustration for a performance/concert based on a story by Dutch author Imme Dros about the wife of Pilatus: Claudia Procula.

I based the image on presumed portraits of her.

I haven't thought of it in time, so now it is over a year since I started my daily series of (nature) drawings.

Above right is the first one, a Hellebore done on March 18 2020.

Back then I thought it would be a nice pick-me-up for the weeks in lockdown, but after 100 drawings I thought it enough. Later, on the island of Terschelling in september, I got the itch again and haven't stopped since. Not always nature, sometimes objects.

How long I will keep this up?

I don't know, there's lots coming up in the garden already...

A week where the Forsythia started to bloom, you got to keep the pencil you voted with, it was much colder again, and I had an outing for the first time in ages:

I joined a friend on a trip to a nursery, where I bought more daffodils -ofcourse-..

But I painted some of them right away.

Celandine flowers all over the garden, all branches are in bud.

Forsythia is nearly out. Next week?

This book of nature poems by Suzanne Wetering is about to be published here in Holland.

I did the illustrations for this book with great pleasure.

The book roughly follows the seasons, and is aimed at the whole family.

Een krekel in mijn slaapzak, Querido Amsterdam 2021, € 14,99

Although there is a thin layer of ice on our small pond this morning, spring has definitely arrived!

The old prunus even has its first sprinkling of pale pink blossom.

I celebrate by picking tiny posies from the garden, by pruning the buddleias and by sowing seeds indoors.

And by making these watercolours ofcourse.

In this last week of February, it really looks like winter is behind us.

The whole garden is awake, and all the birds are singing.

Yesterday I worked in the garden and cleaned the windows, so yes, it must be spring!

The weather has changed to springlike.

The tulip and daffodil are shop bought as yet, but the little pansies came from under the snow unharmed.