My New Year card

One of the roughs for the card (on screen) – last minute adjustments to be made before I run off to the printers. It’s A4 size, to be folded to A5, so will need larger envelopes. Expensive. But they’re for friends. I’ll never not make my own cards.
There follows a rant.
Fewer cards (hand-made or other) posted year by year, more e-cards which I can’t be doing with. I value a handwritten message 100% more, no comparison. And best of all, handmade cards. And I keep all the cards and yes, I do re-read them later. Discussion with friends the other night. Two out of the four talked of cards being a waste of money they could be giving to charity. If you can afford it (they can), does it have to be either or? Really?
Grrrrr.
I do get bah-humbuggy about a lot of stuff around Christmas. But not about pre-Christmas drinks get-togethers. AND NOT ABOUT CARDS.

I was looking for a quote at add to my card, to put discreetly on one of the panes. Most of what writers, poets, philosophers etc had to say was about wishing away the deathy time.
But then I came across this: ‘I love winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.’ Andrew Wyeth.
I thought I’d have another look at his work. I’d always dismissed him as being a flat and sentimental artist (hadn’t looked further than the girl in the field reaching for... whatever). Not keen on the figures but like the spare, bleak, muted quality of the landscapes.
Found another quote, also life affirming – this time from Henri David Thoreau. One bird to another: ‘Winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.’