Welcome to Scotland. Three seasons in one day. We don’t do Summer.
I blame it on being out too late last night, too late for ‘auld yins’ anyway. I also blame it on the little nightcap we shared last night, but for whatever reason, we slept like logs last night. Logs that didn’t want to wake up or get up this morning. We both took one look out the window at the horizontal snow and said “No, not this morning, thank you!”
However, duty calls and there was a lot of work needing to be done today. A lot of blog, needed writing and sketches needing sketched and of course paintings needing colours splashed on them. So it was with a heavy heart that I dragged myself out of bed, just before 10am. Scamp did likewise. A couple of cups of coffee each put us in a better frame of mind and we were soon ready to face breakfast.
After we had fed ourselves we put on boots and coats and heavy jackets and went out to survey the wilderness. The snow had stopped, but the temperature hadn’t risen much above zero and that wind was cutting. Even with my woolly hat and my knockoff Buff, the wind was still finding ways through my armour. Once round the pond was good enough for Scamp, I’m made of sterner stuff and knew I needed some photos to fill the blog and put on Flickr. I NEEDED a PoD after yesterday’s poor carnations.
We walked once round the pond and then Scamp left for the warmth of the house. I went for a walk in the woods, but didn’t find much to photograph. On my way back I found the little weed that made PoD. I think it’s the dried remains of a Yellow Rattle plant. So called, apparently because the flowers are yellow and when the seed pods are ripe, the seeds rattle inside the hard thin skin of the pod. There you are, you learned something today. I didn’t make it up either, it came from Monty Don the gardener who swears by yellow rattle for keeping coarse grass under control.
After I came home, dumped the photos into the computer and satisfied myself that I did have a prospective PoD, I started on yesterday’s sketch which had the prompt Walking On Broken Glass. I’d already decided what my take on that prompt would be and although I overpainted it, it looked like what I had in my head for yesterday’s sketch.
The next thing to do was yesterday’s blog which I wrote and posted. Scamp had claimed the rights to today’s dinner which was to be curry. A special ‘dry’ curry baked in the oven. She busied away in the kitchen making it and there were some delicious smells coming from there soon after. While she was busy with that, I started making a pizza, a Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons). Not a real one, unfortunately, but a painting. Today’s prompt was The Four Seasons. I could have done four paintings of St Mo’s if only the temperature had risen a bit above zero, but as I said at the start, we only had Three Seasons today. I was quite pleased with the painting when it was finished and I learned from my mistakes and didn’t overpaint this one.
In watercolour the important thing is to know when to stop.
Spoke to Jamie in the evening and for once neither of us had much to say. Heard a bit about their plans and gave him the latest updates on the cataract op.
In blog writing it’s also important to know when to stop and that’s what I’m going to do now. I’ve had a busy day and I’m going to have an early night. By the way, that curry was the best I’ve had for ages. Really unusual to have a curry without a sauce, but it worked perfectly. I take my hat off to you Scamp. Beautifully executed meal, and totally veggie too!
Tomorrow we have no plans.