Poor blog, how I have neglected you this year! I am still working on things I cannot show yet, mostly for Nudinits. I have not painted in weeks, not sure why, perhaps life getting in the way and the subsequent lack of inspiration. I have started a painting this week which has sparked my enthusiasm - during the summer the hop plant I planted took off like a rocket and smothered one side of our pergola. One clear sunny day I spotted the pale lime green hops against the clear blue sky and loved the contrast between the colours, so photographed it for future reference. I started to paint it in watercolours but it was all too small and fiddly and I lost interest, abandoning it not even half done. This week I began again on a much larger Dalerboard and some bright acrylics - watch this space!
We went on a week's holiday to the Isle of Wight the first week of September. Typically, summer chose that week to come to a crashing end with torrential rain and gale force winds. We were staying in a wooden cabin by Calbourne Water Mill and for the first part of the week spent a lot of time staring out of the window at the trees thrashing in the wind (not a red squirrel in sight!) and praying for the rain to stop. We did manage to dodge the showers long enough to have a couple of walks in the woods and to take my daughter for a hilarious game of crazy golf in the mill grounds.
A cream tea at the mill cafe was definitely in order too.
The latter part of the week was dry and sunny so we did go to the seaside a couple of times - only to discover that dog friendly beaches were few and far between and the ban on dogs did not end until 30th September. So no beach for us this time, which was a crying shame.
But it was good to get away, visit with family, and we came back home feeling refreshed and ready to get going again.
I shall try to post here more regularly from now on - hopefully I shall have more arts and crafts to show soon.
