I walked through the market in St Albans the other day, through a little forest of christmas trees, the scent , so poignant. When I arrived home a blackbird flew onto a branch of the christmas tree I had decorated outside my flat. It has just grown tall enough that I could lean out of the window to put the star on the top! [ I often wondered how long it would take!]

The bird made me think of another tree, one in a little garden in Brooklyn, a precious little oasis on a corner of a street, so beautiful. With one amazing bird sitting on a little twisty tree. It was november, the last of the autumn leaves, their bright flourish before they fall, I balanced my sketchbook and paintbox on one hand and painted, peering through the bars of the fence.