Deep, Deep Snow

With such an early Easter, it was not surprising to find chilly weather. I watched the deteriorating weather through the window while I made the finishing touches to a commissioned block of a tortoise:


The snow, when it came, was the heaviest that we have had here for quite a while. We live in one of the driest parts for Britain. The garden was slowly veiled:



Out for a walk through the fields with J and Bella:



The cathedral was partly hidden:


On Tuesday, J and I attended a performance of Bach's St Matthew's Passion in the magnificent Kings College Chapel in Cambridge. the music was sublime and the setting unsurpassed. We sat in the carved oak choir stalls. In front of me, a prayer book printed by John Baskerville in the 18th Century. His name is very familiar to typographers and most of you will have read books printed in Baskerville font.

Back home, I was working on a commissioned bookplate. A trio of hares and a Celtic knotwork border:

Between them, a wreath of wild strawberries emerges from the wood:


Add young fern fronds and a field of stars in the centre, as well as some uncial script and the block is nearly complete:



This morning I printed the tortoise block in an edition of 50 copies and proofed the hare bookplate. The snow has given way to rain. All is well with the world.