Hard to believe... Maree

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Winter on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

It’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago the grass on our smallholding was dead and yellow and that these trees had no foliage … Now we've had our first rains and the landscape is once again smiling!

.

A beautiful fence - Maree

“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land's inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”
― Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food  

Ink sketch and colour wash in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Last month, on a public holiday, I took a drive with my husband to a customer's farm to go and have a look at a classic car the gentleman was selling and thank goodness we were in my husband's 4x4, the road was atrocious! 

I've got a thing about rickety old fences and asked hubby to stop so I could do a quick sketch. I added the colour once we were home again. The day was fruitless as far as buying anything was concerned but I was entranced by the natural beauty of his farm and managed to get in quite a few sketches while the men were talking cars.

::

View from my Studio window - Maree

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.  

~Doug Larson 

We've had some lovely Autumn days, but I think winter is now really settling in. And when it's too cold to go outside and sketch, the next best thing is the view from my studio window. I've used some artistic licence here and left out the tractors and implements I sometimes have to stare at (but it is our bread and butter, so I don't really mind!) and instead enjoy the Dandelions and birds that forage around in the grass.

  

::

After the rain - Maree

All was silent as before -
All silent save the dripping rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We've had some beautiful rain to end the season - for the past couple of weeks we've had heavy afternoon showers virtually every day and the ground is so saturated that puddles collect next to all the farm roads. We've had this before, with rains carrying on well into May and even June, which is peculiar for us, as Gauteng (South Africa) is a summer rainfall area.