Colours of the month - December

On the eve of 2013, here are my selection of the month's colours (12/12), a Decemberry tree! and a favourite poem...

In Greece many years ago I was given a book of poetry because it contained this poem.

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.


C.P.Cavafy
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

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Wishing you an inspirational and happy New Year...xx

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...from my seasonal colour sample notebook. 

Colours of the month - November

Uh-oh, I'd fully intended to compose November's colours in November and now December has barged in and Christmas is only a few weeks away!

So here, tardily, are a select three of my November favourites - New Zealand Flax and its muted Art Nouveau palette; waving madly and adding vintage winter shades the pods and berries of the Stinking Iris, leading to a prickly end with the silver, grey and yellow ochre of the Carline Thistle...

I've had my eye on some pretty extra-ordinary hips for a few weeks now and was relieved to see when I got home after such an icy weekend that they are still looking just as colourful. It should be a fabulous red for December! Watch this space.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - October

These October colours were so easy to put together, it left me wondering if maybe I'd got it wrong. When things fit together without much effort, it can seem that something's missing, or it should have been given more consideration. So, I left it for a while to get a clearer perspective, but in the end decided that this selection and composition was exactly right.

Autumnal and quite retro browns from the conker, still one of my favourite notebook drawings; The grey of the Great Tit, reminds me of stormy skies on some of October's worst days and its feather yellow of the sun on some of its best; The deep red of the Planet Rose made me smile on just such a grey day; A little more yellow from the berries of the Cotoneaster tree and Acorns which remind me that "mighty things from small beginnings grow" (John Dryden)...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the month - September

Autumn is here and it feels like the chance of an Indian Summer has probably passed, nights are drawing in and there's a chill in the air. I thought I'd focus on some of September's more fiery colours to warm myself up a bit.

Sloe black and blue, if you're making Sloe Gin or Vodka this year, now may be the time to do it; Blackberry reds, green and of course black; Chrysanthemum's burnt reds; Dahlia (My Love) whites and finally the warm brown of the Bulrush...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - August

ok - just kidding.

Putting eleven colours together can be a bit of a juggling act between selecting colours that I've found in plants etc. and which represent in some way how the month might feel to me, also how well the drawings work together, as well as keeping it simple.

I started August's colours yesterday - the day was gloomy, nothing was working and eventually I turned the whole thing into the black and white above and gave up on it for the day. While it should be noted this August has felt quite wintry and at times monochromatic - this notebook is after all about colour! So... I came back to it today (refreshed) and here's what I decided on - in all its August glory...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the month - July

You may have heard - it rains a lot here in the U.K. We may or may not discuss the rain a fair amount as a nation - but one thing's for certain, thanks to the rain it's a very verdant landscape! Highlighting a few favourite greens from my July seasonal notebook.

Meadow grass green picked from high upon the coastal cliffs; A whisper of pink and a magical green from the Clover; Tart Gooseberry greens; Summer's blue and dune green of a Sea Holly; and just had to include lots of Mint green - looking as fresh as it tastes...

If you like this post - you can subscribe to Planet Sam by email :) here.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - June

June has been very wet...a monsoon of a month! The blackberry flowers seem to be paler this year, as though the pink has been washed right out of them.

Here are a few colours and drawings I've selected to represent June. Pink seemed to be the dominant colour in the wilds of North Devon, with hedgerows full of Foxgloves, Thistles (just opening), Pink Campion (not yet recorded in my notebook), Blackberry flowers (not quite as pink as last years?!).

The deep blood red blotches from the blackberry leaves are also included, alongside the plumage of the beautiful and sad Bullfinch. Right on the edge climbs the clashing poisonous colours of the Woody Nightshade...

Roll on July!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - May

The extravagance of colour in May is always glorious! - here's my monthly selection of some of the best:

Rosa Rugosa - vivid pink in opposition to the intense green of the Stauntonia; had to include one of my favourite wild flowers Ribwort Plantain (and fire a few of its heads this month in passing); climbing around everything and smelling of vanilla is Clematis Montana (Elizabeth) and lastly the Rosa Maigold which is a sight for sore eyes outside my front door right now...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the month - February

Late edition! - In February I had other things on my mind, so belatedly I'm adding my monthly colour selection from my favourite February notebook pages.

Old and new get together with the strong red sampled from Rosa Rugosa shoots and the faded shades from a Tea Rose, marking the edges of winter and hope of spring; The fragile off white from the shell of a Heart Urchin lit up by the spirited yellow of a Spiketail; Lastly to reflect some of that February chill, the blue of the little Muscari (Grape Hyacinth).

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - April (and Eden Project biomes)

April! A blossoming month of Spring colours. Here are
some of my favourites.

Primroses because the banks are (still) covered with them
in Devon at the moment, Bluebells - the magical English
woodland variety, Cherry blossom from Victoria Park in
Bath and a Buzzard feather - just because...

...and if the weather today is making you feel gloomy,
some photos taken in the amazing tropical and temperate
biomes at the Eden Project last week - it was totally
uplifting and very very warm..!

Sugar Palm and Screw Pine...

Tropical Biome

Yucca whipplei

I can highly recommend it!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the Month - March

March colours - or a few of my favourites and which seemed to convey the fresh sunshiny month that was March.

The fragile blue and brown of Blackbird eggshell; fuzzy grey and yellow of Pussy Willow; the uplifting yellow and white of Magnolia Blossom contrasting with a black inner husk; fresh and zingy greens of Vibernum leaves and Euphorbia bracts, set against the deep bud red of the Alder...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour overview of memories...

Its good to piece time back together. Here I've brought together some memories of mornings spent with my dad, when I wasn't helping fix a grandfather or fusee clock under his very strict instruction, I would sketch and record some of my seasonal colour drawings.

Colours of a bramble, drawing while we reminisced over his blackberry wine. I'd forgotten my black ink for a snapdragon drawing and he thought it was a poor excuse not to draw that day. Acorns, him in bed too unwell to get up - so I sat and drew these in pencil on my lap.  Upset him that I didn't like begonias (but not when I spilled the ink) and changed my perception of them forever by showing me how remarkable they actually are. Felt intensely irritated with him the day I drew a hydrangea - "I do wish you'd stop drawing dead things".  He strongly disagreed with my comment that hawthorn was the new holly! and in January, when I drew some alder catkins - a drawing so dull I never used it, he reminded me "Sam - colour is everything..."

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colours of the month - January

It's well over a year since I started my notebook on seasonal colour. Intending originally to document a single year of plant colours, I've been encouraged by the increasing numbers of visitors to my blog as well as the enjoyment and knowledge I've discovered in doing it.

It's developed organically as its gone along and inevitably this continues, so here for the first time is a selection of colours from the January notebook pages to become my Colours of the Month...

The colours of Mussel Shells (January 2011 was when I first posted them!), Catkins (from the Hazel) and Monterey Pine cone make up my January selection...

Thank you :) to the people who have given me plants and other specimens(!) or emailed/told me how much they enjoy my posts - Much appreciated.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.