IN need of family entertainment to brighten up a dull Sunday afternoon, we took a visit to the Vincent Van Gogh Alive experience in Bradford. It is billed as ‘a vibrant symphony of light, colour, sound and fragrance’ and certainly lived up to expectations. It is an immersive way to enjoy Van Gogh’s work. I read with interest about how his colour palette changed as he moved from the Netherlands to France. The earthy tones in his earlier works replaced by the vivid colours of later paintings. Sunflowers abound, varieties selectively bred over thousands of years. Their wild ancestors being from the Americas. Nature is there, too. Hedgerows, corvids and insects if you look closely.

In the depths of winter, colour can be hard to find in nature, but finding it brings joy. Catkins (pictured) on hazel seem to form early this year. Wisps of yellow among darker branches. Hazel is monoecious having both male and female flowers. A few weeks after the male catkins emerge the female flowers join. They are flamingo pink in colour, but get up close if you want to see them as they sit small and delicate upon each twig.

Birds hint at colour, too. The golden beaks of male blackbirds pierce the earth as they search for food. Sat like a ripe peach, bullfinches wait for space at the bird feeder. As we walk, the Robin with its red breast, hungry, hops around mesmerisingly close in the hope that we might have food. The call of a green woodpecker echoes across the hillside, but it remains elusive.

For six weeks a year our home misses the warmth, light and colour that the sun brings. It stays hidden behind the hill our house sits beneath. But by mid-January sunlight returns. Briefly at first, but it soon makes progress as its elevation increases. The cold weather is back, too. Although so far this winter we have escaped the snow. Snow brings light, but not colour. Frosts secure the leaves of autumn. The drudge of recent muddy walks is frozen for now.

With it frozen underfoot, we shortcut over the frozen field on the way to school. I gaze across at the brighter south-facing slopes and reflect on what colour palette I would choose at this time of year and whether it would be different if I lived north of the Wharfe.

wharfedale-nats.org.uk