Mad about Saffron 2013-W14

Upon my return from Texas last week, I was happy to see some old garden friends, crocuses, waking up from their long winter's nap — and now they are in full bloom.  From among the many harbingers of Spring, crocuses and robins are two of my favorites.  These watercolor sketches of each, both done from life, have been lurking all this time in My Gallery.  And by the way, that darn bird flew off before I could give him legs to stand on!

But back to the flowers.  I suppose I delight in the crocuses because we have such a short time to enjoy them.  You never see them arranged in vases in December or sprawling in pots in July, only now: clustered in sunny lawns and bursting through leaf debris in that garden bed that needs to be cleaned.  (Once it gets warmer.)

I thought I would look up some fun fact about croci, of which there are not many.  But the name appears to come from Greek / Hebrew / Aramaic / Arabic / Sanskrit words for saffron yellow.  Makes sense.  However, I'm relieved the industrious Dutch were able to coax out other colors.

Today I thought it would be nice to paint these old flower friends while I was in the company of another bunch of old friends at Salon.  Fortunately, the latter are a bunch that I can enjoy year round!

Next week I plan to start a new and (fingers crossed) fun series, so please check back to find out what that might be about.

Crocuses Guard the Border