Spring Week: Spring Nest ATC

"If I ruled the world

E'ryday would be the first day of spring,

Every heart would have a new song to sing,

And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring. . ."

-- from "If I Ruled The World"

Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse from the musical, "Pickwick" (1963).

Today is the First Day of Spring and I've had the Tony Bennett/Celine Dion duet version of "If I ruled the world" playing in my head for several days already. Here in Michigan we will probably have a chilly First Day of Spring. On Saturday, as I'm writing, the temperature is 34 degrees in mid afternoon and my walk down the bluff at noon was cold and a bit snowy.

Today is Full Moon. Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox, so that puts Easter Sunday way late this year since Easter is the First Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. The moon will be especially big since the moon is at perigee, the closest that it will be to Earth in 2011. Astronomy Magazine's website says the Moon will be 221,565 miles from Earth's Center. (Hmm, consider that my Blazer just turned 245,000 miles on its original GM engine and that some frequent fliers log more than a million miles. Makes one think, doesn't it?)

Today is the start of the Willow Blog's Spring Week. There will be posts all week that relate to the theme of Spring. Some will be photos; some will be scans. I hope that my readers will enjoy the serendipity of this single theme.

The image above is an ATC (Artist Trading Card). The base is a white heavy paper cut 2 1/2" x 3 1/2," the same size as a baseball collector's card. I applied Derwent Inktense pencil, washed the color with water and sprayed the surface with Glimmer Mist. Two rubber stampings -- a bird in sepia and a nest using black -- were applied. Color was added with Tombow markers. When viewed in person, there is a slight glittery sheen to the artwork. Glitter and computer monitors don't go together, however!

Happy Spring, Willow Readers! May there be a blessing of something new for you in this season.

ATC Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler