End of Summer (reprise)

Winter is upon us.  With the evenings drawing in, (It was almost dusk at 4.30pm this evening) I feel that it is going to be a long winter this year.  The weather has been cold for the last week, though thankfully we haven't had the wind and rain the east coast of the US got, and I am thinking it has been ages since I was warming myself in sunshine.  Can it only be a couple of weeks since I was here?

 

I invested in some Ski-wear yesterday, this will keep me warm when I am out and about.  Both fishing and painting.  It must be old age creeping up on me, but I'm feeling the cold these days.  I need to move a heater into the studio again, up until now the spot lights have been keeping it warm enough, but temperatures are dropping.   

At this stage most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, and they are becoming their stark winter skeletons.  They are interesting in a landscape even this way though, and can convey a sense of atmosphere in other works such as this autumn work from 2010.

 

 

 

This particular tree, a willow, which was in a neighbours garden has now gone, falling victim to a chainsaw, due to many dead boughs.  Now all I can see from my studio are sycamore and ash trees.  They don't have the same pictoral impact.  My own mature silver birch sits to the side of my studio and all bar the lower trunk and branches is hidden from my studio window.