We've reached peak buttercup

A cool balm from the North for those in the sweltering South

Hello friends

Midsummer. Early morning. The wind has dropped. The suddenly quiet air is full of bird calls. Lark, starling, curlew, tern, oystercatcher. Brightness encircles the whole day now, scarcely dimming in the wee small hours before it’s broad daylight again by 3.30am. The lingering chill of this cold, wet Spring has eased, at last, to a soft mildness. There’s none of the stifling heat that’s engulfed the south this week.

In this glut of light and gentle warmth, plant growth is an eruption of green, spiked with the firework colours of wildflowers just come into bloom, their fragile petals not yet battered by salt winds. Pastures are carpeted with creeping buttercup. Flag iris blooms in the ditches. Red campion and thrift fringe the coast in pink. The hillsides are an undulating patchwork of variegated greens as, field by field, the first silage cuts are taken.

Summer here in Orkney is all too brief. It must be seized upon before it slips away. So today, I am downing tools. I am going for a walk.

If you’re stuck sweltering in the heatwave hitting the south of the country this week, come with me and bathe for a moment in the cool brightness of a Northern summer.

Back in the studio, last week’s paint mixes have dried in their little dishes. Summer’s colours have followed me inside.

OK. It’s time, I think, to get back to work.

Work in progress details

Join the Life Raft Creative Co-Working Session

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until next week!

Sam