Happy Spring!

Today is the Vernal Equinox: what people in the US call the first day of spring, though in the UK I would say that most people consider spring to have started once the first snowdrops emerge and the crocuses open.

Either way, it’s spring! And even though I’ve been making these for my Zoomorphic project on Patreon (to raise money for publicists), fuck it, here you, have these for free today because it’s good to feel good.

First up is foxes and swallows playing for sheer joy. The ‘fox’ is a figure I adapted from the Book of Kells (folio 325v—very heavily adapted!) and the swallow is something I made up entirely based about that simple interlace pattern that joins it body and tail.

Fox and swallow chasing for fun to celebrate spring

For more on the fox figure, you’ll have to wait for an upcoming Patreon post (“The Cats of Kells,” scheduled for Saturday, 3 March).

And here is my idea of an Early Medieval hedgepig—not adapted from anything, just made up, but using early medieval-style eyes, faces and feet. It is emerging from hibernation and delighted by the sparkling freshness of the world. Today, I hope you are, too.

Hedgepig emerging to the delights of spring