A warm spring day. I sat among the cow parsley and nettles by an old split willow on the bank of the Great Ouse. The sun was going down. The blue triangle of Oasis loomed through the trees - Bedford's pleasure pyramid of fitness and leisure. Swans and geese flew past. A paddle-boarder glided downstream and then back upstream. Dog-walkers who had descended onto the water meadows from cycle route 51, passed close by. The elder was coming into leaf. Dabs of green appeared on every branch. This split willow, though hollow, was by no means dead. After all the acrylic canvases, it was good to return to ink and watercolour on paper. |