Newsletter - December 2021
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Plant of the Month

Mistletoe

I'm very proud of my mistletoe. Last year I had one solitary berry, this year there are lots! It's taken a few years but its been fascinating to watch it grow from a tiny twig. I am grateful to the RHS for it's advice. It worked!
I couldn't resist one final look at the Autumn colour. It has been beautiful this year but on this particular morning I went out in the garden when it was still quite dark. A brilliant red sun was starting to rise behind me  and shone straight onto the rich orange Fuji Cherry. It looked incredible, such intense colour in the dusk, and all the surrounding trees were glowing. There were no filters used in this photograph, this is how it was. Early morning is one of my very favourite times to be out with my camera. It certainly paid off that day.

Artisans Corner News

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St.Mary's Church, Capel-y-Ffin is so pretty. A tiny church, it was restored some years ago, retaining its well-known  lop-sided belltower. It is set among ancient yews and old tombstones, two of which are carved by Eric Gill the well-known sculptor who lived in a reclusive art community nearby. 
Inside it has a narrow staircase to the left leading to a tiny balcony for the congregation. On the the right is the small altar behind which is a plain glass window beautifully engraved with the simple words "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills..."
It was a favourite venue for my Landscape Summer School students and on one occasion we were amused to discover an engraving on the back of a tombstone reading "Better to smoke here than in the hereafter". It gave us all a giggle but we wondered if it was commissioned by a relative or friend of the deceased? Or was it the work of a mischievious stonemason!

This original and several of my other plein-air pen and watercolour studies are currently on sale at Artisans Corner Penarth at around £170 framed. For more information please contact me using the Contact Diana form on this website.