Evening light on the hazel catkins on the allotments. You can see the backs of the houses on Aylesbury road. The hoops, bottom right, are my neighbour's. They support netting - to protect her tender crops from peckish pigeons. The clouds threaten a spring shower - I started this painting in February, seven months ago. Now, in September, the hazel leaves are crumpled and papery, ready to fall, but the harvest of nuts was good, and I gathered them before the squirrels arrived. My 'River' exhibition which opens next week at the Basement Gallery, will include a number of paintings inspired by these allotments. I thought the soil was good because it was alluvial. But, in fact, so I'm told, the Newnham allotments are on the site of old gravel pits which were filled in with the rich topsoil removed to make way for the M1. That was over 60 years ago. So maybe this isn't really Bedfordshire at all, but part of Hertfordshire or Buckinghamshire. |