Category: Sketching

It Rained – 26 February 2017

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All day it rained.  It rained heavy, it rained light, it rained sleet with an outside temperature of 9ºc (!), it pretended to stop, just to catch the unwary before launching another torrential downpour.  We weren’t fooled.  We live in Scotland.  We have a hundred names for rain, just as the Inuits have a hundred names for snow.  Most of the words for rain are suffixed with ‘AGAIN!’, or prefixed with ‘STILL’.  Sometimes, in extreme cases, with both!

Lunch for me was last night’s curry reheated.  I hope you’re impressed, N D’Ag.  Not quite up to having it for breakfast – on toast, but getting there.  Actually it was very good.  Not as fiery as last night.  After that I settled down to do a sketch for 28 Drawings Later …  I wasn’t going outside to sketch.  Watercolours or even ink pens and rain just mix too well, but not in a good way.  In an experimental way, perhaps, but not a good way.  Today I went back to Trinidad, at least in a photograph.  The building is an old house at Mt St Benedict’s Monastery in Trinidad and it fair brightened up the day.

We had already decided on a Trinni dinner and that’s what we had.  It’s Stewed Chicken with boiled rice, boiled cassava and fried plantain. Definitely a work in progress, but the fried plantain, although soft was the star of the show.  Loser was cassava.  Too much of a faff.  We’ll take Madeleine’s advice and try frozen stuff next time.  We were going to have coconut ice cream, but we’re leaving that for later in the week.  The coconut has been drained, smashed, flesh peeled and blitzed and the pulp drained, so the hard work has been done.

The forecast is for a drier day tomorrow after a wet and cold start.

Dorothy – 25 February 2017

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Today we drove down to see Dorothy.  She was looking well, although her leg seemed to be giving her bother and her hand looked as if she was suffering a bit from rheumatics.  Still, she was sharp as a tack and quick to tell Colin off if he strayed too far in his stories.  A pleasant wee hour although I felt bad that we hadn’t been to see her for a long while, but there was nothing we could do about it, either Colin was busy or we were.  A case of life getting in the way again.

Stopped at Waitrose on the way home to buy a chicken and ended up with two bags full of other stuff as well as the chicken.  We were shocked that Waitrose, in addition to allowing Neds into their stores are now stooping to this gutter humour to advertise their mugs.  What is the retail sector coming to.  (No, it wasn’t me who did it, I just photographed it.)

When we got home, the daylight was still there, so I grabbed the chance of an hour in St Mo’s.  Startled a couple of deer, but chose not to pursue them because they were on the motorway side of the fence and I didn’t want to be the reason for them running across the carriageway and causing an accident.  Other than the deer and the ever present buzzards, there wasn’t much of interest.  The overnight rain had increased the water level in the pond and part of the boardwalk was under water, so that, at least, made an interesting shot with the 9mm lens.

A curry from Bombay Dreams provided dinner because neither of us could be bothered cooking and today’s sketch was a disappointing pencil drawing of my mouse.  I like the curves and lines of the mouse and felt the pencil rendered it well, but it’s a bit of a stopgap really.  Not the most interesting drawing I’ve done in the month.  Only three more sketches to go in the 28 Drawings Later challenge.  Like the Inktober challenge, I’ll miss it when it’s finished.

Tomorrow looks wet.  At least we had some sun and blue skies today.

Russian around Glasgow – 24 February 2017

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We made a late decision to go to Glasgow today.  The other option was Falkirk, but the finger finally fell (alliteration of ‘F’) on Glasgow because we wanted to buy some ‘Trinny’ stuff to make dinner on Sunday, and we didn’t think Morrison’s would have plantain, dasheen or cassava, but Solly’s African Shop in the West End probably did.  Or two out of three as it turned out.

Got the bus in because that meant we could both have a drink with our lunch.  I wanted some water based markers in Cass Art or Millers so we headed down Buchanan Street, then along Argyle Street.  Scamp suggested we should have lunch in Charcoal’s cafe on Argyle Street and I thought that was a good choice.  However, when we got there, it looked closed and although there was a sign outside, there was no lights on inside and no customers.  I was ready to head back to Paesano pizza shop when Scamp said why didn’t we try the Russian place, Cossachok.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that keen.  The a la carte menu didn’t look very inspiring, but it was open and it was busy and we’d often passed it and said we must try it.  Yes, we had to give it a chance.  I had Borscht which I’d heard of, but never tasted and for a main I had Golubtzi which was cabbage roll stuffed with mince served in a spicy tomato sauce.  Scamp had Olivie which was like vegetable salad which we both remembered having back in the ‘60s! Her main was Mama’s Blinis which was minced chicken in a thin pancake, served with a creamy spinach sauce.  I’d have borscht again, definitely, but the golubtzi was really quite hot.  Scamp didn’t like the spinach sauce because it had a caramel taste.  That said, the lunch was cheap, filling and tasty.  What else can you ask for.  Next time I’ll have Russian coffee which is espresso with vodka and whipped cream.  A strange mixture.  There will be a next time!

Got the subway out to Kelvinbridge and investigated two Caribbean food shops.  Both had most of our ingredients, but only one had the plantain we were looking for.  Neither had dasheen.  We came home with plantain, coconut and cassava. It looks like Sunday dinner will be Stewed Chicken with Fried Plantain and the possibility of Coconut Ice Cream.  Subway back and coffee before we got the bus home.  Only the advert above as a possible PoD.  I thought it was exactly what you do on the subway and exactly what I was doing.  I was avoiding catching the eye of the three Chinese (?), Japanese (?), Korean (?), yes, Korean girls sitting opposite.  They looked like three little maids from school (yes, I know that’s Japanese) and seemed to find the adverts funny too!  Good advert, well worded.

Tonight’s other picture was taken after I had finished today’s ’28 Drawings Later …’ sketch which is here.  I wanted something simple to draw and paint and the two sheep worked well for that.  I needed something to recreate the mottled finish on the salt & peppers and decided to try out the salt technique where you sprinkle salt on a wet wash and allow it to dry before dusting it off.  According to the books, it works with sand too, but I’d never tried either.  I did a quick test using salt from my mum’s old bakelite salt cellar and the result was exactly what I wanted.  The photo shows the tools I used for the painting including the salt cellar.  Remember it anyone?

Yesterday’s snow and this morning’s ice is nearly all gone now, so I think we’re going down to visit Dorothy tomorrow.  Strong winds forecast for overnight, but hopefully they should have calmed down by tomorrow.

Storm Doris – 23 February 2017

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We didn’t actually have Storm Doris, we just had the snow that she was dragging with her.  Woke to a winter wonderland.  Lovely white snow everywhere.  Unfortunately Fred and Val and I were supposed to be going for coffee this afternoon, but when Fred sent me a text at about 10am, I knew it was bad news.  He couldn’t get out of his estate and as there is no bus service there, we agreed to postpone.  I phoned Val to tell him the bad news, I don’t think he was all that impressed, but if there’s one thing that retirement is good for, it’s not having to go out when you don’t feel like it, and we didn’t feel like it.

Sat around for a while watching the snow quickly turn to slush. Put the cases up in the loft.  Defrosted a couple of loaves and set them to rise.  Had the rest of the soup for lunch.  Walked over to Condorrat and then back through St Mo’s but found little to photograph, eventually settling on water droplets on the trees.

It was a bit of a wasted day, really.  Finally settled on snow as a subject for today’s sketch.  Even that took two attempts and by that time the snow was almost gone, but a bit of a watercolour wash rescued the few pen lines I used and made it look decent enough.

Bread looks as if it’s baked well.  Made one loaf into rolls and they look and smell a bit like Jaime’s Hop Bread.

Sitting eating Jub Jubs – sweeties from Triniday.  Jub Jub was my mum’s word for gums or jellies.

Tomorrow we will, hopefully, go out.  Somewhere.  Anywhere.

Out to Lunch – 22 February 2017

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It was another beautiful day.  Cold, but beautiful.  After seeing the fun the birds had at Madeleine’s birdbath in the garden in Trinidad made us decide to get one for our wee postage stamp garden at home.  Today we set out to see what was available and at what price.  We could also have lunch.  Two birds, one stone, no killing was done.

I’d initially thought of driving to Dobbies near Bearsden, but decided to change our destination to Oakwood Garden Centre.  We’d been there before and the food was good.  You can see now that the real reason we were going was for lunch.  Bird bath was just a ruse!  Enjoyable drive through the countryside just north of Glasgow.  Got there and the cafe was full, but they took our name and we were soon seated, with Scamp getting the good view out the window across the fields to the hills.  Food was good, maybe mine was not as good as last time, but that’s being picky.  This place serves real coffee.  Strong, rich Columbian.  Just the way I like it.  Browsed the bird baths available and although I liked the one with the two cherubs, Scamp scowled.  It will be a plain one, I think.

Drove home and dropped in at Lidl for some veg to make Minestrone soup.  With it simmering away and Scamp ensconced at the ironing board, I went out to get some photos at St Mo’s.  Thought of doing a sketch of the front / side of the sports barn, but it started raining, so I walked over to the pond instead.  The rain didn’t last, so I attempted a sketch of the rear / side view and that’s what you see here.  I think I should have stuck to the front view as the perspective gets a bit dodgy here.

There wasn’t much to photograph at the pond or in the trees, but I did get the shot above which I quite like with the contrast of hard and soft textures.

Salsa was good, if exhausting tonight.  Almost the whole of a level 2 class, followed by an advanced class.  I think I’ve finally mastered El Niño, but I won’t know for certain until Monday night when it will be put to the test again.

Storm Doris is heading our way – didn’t it drift our way when we were in Trinidad?  Maybe it got lost.  Anyway, amber alert for snow for Central Scotland tomorrow!  Don’t think I’ll be going far, except possibly a walk to St Mo’s again to get some photos if all goes well.

No Dough – 20 February 2017

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Scamp was at the physio this morning. I started a wee watercolour of the hills at the back, because the light was wonderful with wee floating cloud shadows drifting across them. It turned out better than I anticipated.

I’d taken a frozen chunk of dough out of the freezer last night and left it to defrost and rise overnight.  It did defrost, but it didn’t rise.  I tried to encourage the yeast to start working again by warming the loaf tin in some warm water, but it resisted my attentions. I eventually turned on the heating and put the embryonic bread on the radiator to warm up.

By then, Scamp had returned with her ankle strapped up and we had lunch before she went out to get Gems.  I was swithering whether to go out on my bike, go to the gym or go for a walk.  I’d a pain in my back and any of these would help.  However, as the sun was still shining, I decided that the gym was out, and as there was a gusty wind, maybe cycling would be a bit difficult.  So, by a process of elimination, a walk was the winner.  I was looking for somewhere that would produce a photo and also a sketch.  I finally settled on the railway again, because it’s near the hills and I quite fancied a photo of those cloud shapes on the land.

I got the photo, but saw nothing that encouraged the sketchbook out of my bag, then I saw the old house that I’d sketched before and that became my SoD (Sketch of the Day).  It’s a strange house, with dormer windows, extensions and an old, old wall round it.  There’s ivy too clinging to the gable end.  The sketch is quite representative, but I think the chimney is a bit out of scale.

Salsa tonight was hard work.  Hard work remembering the moves and hard work keeping going for a full hour after three weeks of lazing around.  Still very enjoyable and although we only stayed for an hour tonight, we may go for two hours on Wednesday, all being well.  Surprisingly, all the moves had names tonight!

No real plans for tomorrow, but we’re probably going food shopping.  Oh what fun.

The bread?  Oh, it rose perfectly, then it stuck to the loaf tin and just wouldn’t come out.  I should have realised it had its own plans for the day when it took so long to rise.

A More Frugal Day – 19 February 2017

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Milky white sky but mild.  Not really a day to encourage you out.

Lunch was a frugal scrambled egg on toast and dinner a baked potato with fish fingers and tinned spaghetti.  Neither of us felt like eating all that much after last night’s feast.

I made another bow tie and it took me half the time the last one did.  It was still a bit short, so I’ve made what I hope will be the final adjustments and may make one more just to be sure, but I’m going to use different material this time. Onward and upward!

Managed to get Scamp’s “illegal copy of Windows” back into the fold.  After consulting with Val and downloading Magic Jellybean – daft name – I found out that the CD key used for authenticating Windows was totally wrong.  So, all I did was type in the correct one from the label on the bottom of the ‘puter and, hey presto, it was licensed and we were legal again.  I have no idea how or when that got changed, but it did.  I also took the opportunity to remove what seems to be a dodgy Windows update at the same time.  It’s amazing, just how many people are complaining about this problem on the Internet.  This is the first time anything like this has happened to me, either with legal or not so legal Windows OSs.  Anyway, I hope it stays fixed and doesn’t revert to the dodgy side in a few months time.

Went to the Sunday Social tonight and enjoyed trying to remember the moves we were learning a few weeks ago.  We didn’t stay that long as I had a real nagging headache that simply wouldn’t go away.  Back home, and after swallowing a couple of paracetamol, it disappeared. Like the Windows problem, I don’t know where it came from, but unlike Windows, I couldn’t just type in the correct CD key!

Today’s PoD was seen in a doorway in Pitt Street in Glasgow.  Strange instructions.  Today’s sketch is of our new dressmaking scissors.  I think this is the first time I’ve used Promarkers since I left teaching. They gave a bit more depth and realism to the sketch.  I’d intended going out and doing a sketch in the wild, but it wasn’t happening today.  Too dull.

So I finish today’s blog where I started it, talking about the weather.  Nicely cyclic.

Carrigan’s – 18 February 2017

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I went out for a walk along the railway in the afternoon.  A dull day with little prospect of any photos, and that’s how it turned out.  I took one photo before I went out and that was my PoD.  It was of a plantlet on the spider plant that lives in the downstairs toilet.  It reminded me of the Trinidad jungles!

On the way back along the railway, I stopped to sketch the house beside the canal with it’s extensions and odd angles.  It was a better viewpoint from the one I’d done a few months ago and it was looking quite good until the rain came on.  As I was closing the sketch book I realised that I was blotting the ink, but by then it was too late.  When I got back to the car and took a look at the damage, it actually looked quite good.  The rain had added texture to what would have been an empty page!

We were meeting Margaret and Billy Kent for dinner tonight in Carrigan’s in Hamilton.  It was a great night. Just nattering and eating all night. Right now, I’m feeling pretty full.  I may never eat again after a heavy three course meal, the star being the tablet ice cream!  Peppermint tea to settle my stomach then bed, I think.

Happy Anniversary – 17 February 2017

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Today we got the bus in to Glasgow.  The X28 no less, the real express bus that doesn’t touch the hovels of Moodiesburn or the ice cream dungeons of Muirhead.  No, it just goes straight down the M80 into Glasgow, after picking us up in Condorrat of course.  We were going to celebrate out 44th anniversary.

After a coffee in Nero watching the tiaras and bouffant hair pieces sauntering past, we walked up Sausage Roll Street because I thought I’d seen a drawing book in the book shop there, but I was mistaken, it was in Waterstones at The Fort.  The girl in Waterstones checked for me.  Meanwhile, Scamp was in M&S getting a bargain – a new swimsuit.

Me disappointed, Scamp delighted, we walked down to Argyle Street to get some more of the bowtie print, bowtie material, some dark grey thread and a pair of dressmaking scissors.  Now don’t get excited Hazy, the ballgown is still a little way off yet.

Lunch was in Sarti’s and it was delicious.  Mine was shin of beef done in Italian beer.  According to the waiter, the secret is to marinade it for 48 hours and slow cook for 2.  Scamp had seabass cooked in orange and honey.  She said it was ok, but the spinach mash and the lentils was the star.

Walked back up to Sausage Roll again to buy Upwords.  It’s a game I’ve been playing on the iPhone.  It’s a bit like Scrabble but different.  There, that explains it totally.  Anyway, I went in to WH Smith to get a magazine to read on the slow bus home and, there was the book I was looking for!  Bought it.  That will save me a trip to The Fort tomorrow.  I bought the magazine too.

Went to get the bus back home, like I said, the slow bus.  That is when we re-met the hair pieces and hair extensions and little tiaras on legs.  Spray tanned legs on little Irish dancers.  Ten year olds, made up to look like midget twenty year olds.  All of them chaperoned by seriously overbearing and totally focused mummies.  Apparently today was the semi-finals of the dancing competition.  I think we’ll be going anywhere but Glasgow tomorrow to avoid these distorted little girls.  Childhoods stolen.

Slow bus home.  Today’s PoD was of a sunflower fixed into a crack in the new pavement being laid in Union Street.  Also, today’s sketch shows that I did learn something from the new book.  Curvilinear Perspective is a strange beast.

Jet Lag – 15 February 2017

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This is the first time I’ve experienced Jet Lag.  You don’t get it flying from European airports.  You’re only out by an hour, two at the most.  Flying from Triniday, it’s a ten hour flight and then there’s a four hour dime difference added to that.  My wee brain just couldn’t handle that.  Added to the Jet Lag was the howling wolves next door for a couple of hours in the morning.  Not good.

Scamp went to Tesco for essentials.  I went to St Mo’s to get some photos and to get today’s sketch done for 28

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Drawings Later.  Scamp got the messages.  I got the photo(s) and I got the sketch done, then wrote the wrong day on the sketch.

That’s about it.  Other than finding that some little rodent has been helping itself to the bird seed in the cupboard.  I’ll have to get the mouse trap out again and also block up the hole too.  I hate doing it, but we have to be realistic about health issues with mice in the house.

That is it.  Tomorrow will be a stressful day and hopefully the Jet Lag will be behind us by then.