Oh winter! ruler of the inverted year,Thy scatter'd hair with sleet like ashes fill'd,Thy breath congeal'd upon thy lips, thy cheeksFringed with a beard made white with other snowsThan those of age; thy forehead wrapt in clouds,A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throneA sliding car indebted to no wheels,And urged by storms along its slippery way;I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,And dreaded as thou art. Thou hold'st the sunA prisoner in the yet undawning East,Shortening his journey between morn and noon,And hurrying him impatient of his stayDown to the rosy West. But kindly stillCompensating his loss with added hoursOf social converse and instructive ease,And gathering at short notice in one groupThe family dispersed by daylight and its cares.I crown thee king of intimate delights,Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,And all the comforts that the lowly roofOf undisturb'd retirement, and the hoursOf long uninterrupted evening know.
John Cowper (1731-1800), Task, Book IV, vv. 120 ff.
After having tried out the new winter collection by Essie (in
this case, Shearling Darling) and a few days of wearing only one colour on my
nails, I found myself wanting to spice things up. Since it's still winter time
- although one can hardly call our Dutch weather 'winter' at the moment, it's
more like 'dark spring' - I thought why not make a simple design based on the
beautiful patterns of the Norwegian sweater! Which is also a coincidence because in a few
weeks, I will be off to Norway for a (presumably fantastic) boat trip.
The result was this:
So I used a white
nail art pen to simply create some patterns that look like knitting. I do not
knit myself, but that does not mean that there aren't some knitted things that I personally would not
buy but do look amazing, like these:
They are so cute!
So, if you want to get creative with your nail art pen, just
try out some patterns and get back that cosy winter feeling, that the poem describes!