We’re lucky to have our granddaughter with us today, so I’ll keep my Monday post very light.
Pleased to say that I finally finished my mini watercolour sketchbook(I should post a few more pages here eventually — it’s an interesting record of those first months of #StayingHome).
Rather than buy a new watercolour book, I’ve committed to finishing the (slightly embarrassing) number I have begun over the past few years and then left with only a few pages painted. (in fact, this is true of a number of materials I’d over-stocked when shopping was easier. I’m finding these Covid days good for encouraging me to use what I have. You?) The sketchbook in which these scenes were painted, for example, was begun when we still lived in our old house (so at least four years ago). Since I began it, I’ve only filled eight pages, and the last was sketched in December 2018 — I shared those sketches in this Christmas post.
But that’s changing as of last week. Truly! Last Tuesday, I tucked my portable sketch kit (including the old sketchbook) into Paul’s backpack and then pushed my luck by adding my portable camping stool. So as we biked back home along Vancouver’s Arbutus Greenway, I was ready to settle in for 20 minutes, capturing a memory of the day.
Then yesterday, similar scenario (except that I left the folding stool at home) when we cycled out to the furthest of the Vancouver beaches, where the water had receded, exposing a vast expanse of sand flats and tidal pools. And the bike parked against a driftwood log under a tree seemed a good subject; unwittingly, I now seem to have a potential theme for filling these pages.
For now, though, granddaughter has gone home (she and her granddad kayaked the circumference of a local lake today, pretty cool eh?), and he’s serving up dinner which we’re going to eat while watching The Nest. Very suspenseful, with episodes being doled out one each Monday until August 3rd. So if you’ll excuse me.
As usual, comments very welcome. Any fun summer activities happening at your end? (Or winter ones, should you be reading from the Southern Hemisphere). Any cycling? Or sketching? Or re-stocking supplies or using up overstock? All grist for the conversational mill here. . . .
xo,
f
Lovely sketches – Vancouver must be a wonderful place to live. And good for you to “shop your closet” for art supplies! After spending weeks in trackpants and jumpers I’m rediscovering jeans and nicer jumpers in my wardrobe, along with warm scarves and jackets. Sydney winters are much milder than yours but I feel the cold! I’m also enjoying some rationalising, donating and recycling books, DVDs and CDs to create more space and lightness at home. I hate having stuff lying around that never gets used. After our winter solstice I seemed to come out of a low period brought on by the pandemic and the endless staying at home. While I’m still mostly at home, I’m going out a bit more frequently and to places a little further afield. All done within our current health guidelines but enough to feel the benefit of a change of scene.
Nice sketches. Bike riding is a wonderful past time. Fresh air, nature and the great outdoors. What's not to like… Susan
Enjoyed your sketches–especially the variety of colours.
Good to know I am not the only one with a host of partially filled journals–not to mention ones that are still untouched. Like you, trying to use them up. Stationery products like journals or pens, drawing/colouring pencils, or art brushes, etc. are usually hard to resist. But resist, I will. I've a mad stash of all the above.
Lovely sketches! The colors in the first one really speak to me.
We're shopping our pantry. Until I retired, DH was doing pretty much all the cooking and shopping, and since he never met a condiment he didn't like, we have a lot of interesting "stuff." One of my early quarantine tasks was to clear out the pantry and catalog everything, so we could start using all these ingredients. It's been fun, and a creative stretch.
Not fun was going out in our backyard today to discover one of our brugmansia had started leaning precipitously, and is going to have to come out. So my workout today was lopping off branches until the huge green can was full, which I'll repeat tomorrow after trash pick-up. They grow really well in our climate (we have 3 in the back yard) and this was is probably 12 feet high – much more of a tree than a bush. Sad to see it go.
Maria: It's so good to feel that lightening, isn't it, not just with the solstice and the easing of pandemic restrictions, but even the lightening that comes from culling and using up all that we've stored up.
Susan: Yes! It's a fun way to move.
Mary: Stationery is definitely a problem for me — I've been gradually using up my decades-old stock, and until I do I'm trying to resist, but . . . .
CarolP: So sorry about your brugmansia! (and glad to hear that at least you have three remaining). They're such a striking plant — and I say that having seen only the shorter iterations in gardens here (my mom used to have one in hers).
And yes, using all the pantry ingredients is another goal. . . not quite ready to deal with the condiments weighing down the fridge door. . .
Is The Nest based on the book of the same name by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney?
We are forging ahead into stage three of re-opening here in Ottawa. Not altogether smoothly, so we're NOT taking advantage of the new things that are open. But still walking and biking, and enjoying time on our deck. And… they are repaving the very busy main road by our house with a wide shoulder all the way into the village. Yeah! So I'll now be about to bike from home. Maybe even into the village for a coffee with a friend. Hallelujah.
P.S. Love your sketches. How wonderful they would be to illustrate a book.
great sketches–dynamic use of rich colour!!!
Sue B: No, I wondered that when I saw there was a series called The Nest, but it's set in Glasgow and features a wealthy infertile couple and a young surrogate with a dark past. . . Watching it because Vancouver Public Library arranged 4 free 7-day subscriptions to Acorn TV, where it's available. . . We're the same with Phase 3, although we've had far fewer cases here. Still, summer time and there have been a few troubling clusters lately. We're indulging in some patio restaurants where good protocols are in place and being observed. Otherwise, I'm saving most of my exposure for the dental work I'm hoping will be all done before there's a threat of offices closing again. . . yay! for the potential bike lane. . .
Alison: Thanks! My water brush makes for crude work in my hands, but I really just wanted to make myself do the plein air thing again. . .
Two things: 1. I am using up notebooks, having discovered in the course of packing up house the very embarrassing number of them I have … 2. I am inspired by you to pull out my mini watercolour kit and perhaps do a sketch a day for the few days I am left in quarantine. They will probably feature chickens 🙂