Bitterly cold day with a wind biting from the West. Went up onto the hill and took my daughter Rhiannon with me.
We decided to get out of the wind by going to the top of the hill where there is a sizable depression in the ground where two Ash trees stand. The wind was lighter up here and we enjoyed the best of the sunshine while it lasted.
There is a lot of bracken growing up here and I have learnt that when this has died back, the stems that are starved of light have a dark, almost burnt look to them and that this contrasts with the russet brown of the stems. I decided to make a simple sun shape with these stems with the dark roots to the centre. Working with a stem that had been blackened by a lack of sun to create a representation of the sun seemed appropriate. This wasn’t the harsh, hot sun of midsummer, but the thinner, watery sun of the winter.
This seemed to work but care is needed when pulling the bracken form the ground as the fibres cut the hands very easily. Time was taken to clean the base of the stems of mud so that the full effect could be gained from the difference in colour.
I finished of the sun with some old nettle stalks that had been bleached white as they gradually retted on the hillside.