Tuesday 30th July

Today I got cold and wet - it rained, nearly all day.

Which was an unfamiliar sensation after the last week or so.

Still, that means a break from watering the garden. We have been harvesting tomatoes - so far at least half a dozen. Oh my word, so sweet, so juicy, such flavour, such fragrance...

I did have a sunflower growing in among the spinach plants in one of the vegetable tubs, but along with the vicious rain there were fierce gusts of wind, which caused the sunflower to break off just a few inches from the soil. So that's that.

I'm adding this book to my wish list... I'm not sure if the title is a promise or a challenge.

Friday 26th July - Summer Holidays week 1

The first week of the Summer holidays is nearly over.

It is slightly horrifying how quickly the time disappeared... although a lot was packed into it.

Checking through the photographs on my phone is one way of finding out what happened - that only works if I actually take any, of course.

James has come and built the raised flower bed, and filled it with earth, but will plant it up later in August. It has been a very protracted project. To be fair, we do have other projects that have been going for even longer - the bathroom and loo springs to mind. Part of the problem with finishing off the loo is that the bare plaster is actually quite an attractive colour - a sort of gently variegated terracotta. The other problem is that neither of us want to do it.

I've picked up an entire tub full of apples that have dropped from our over-burdened tree. That was on Wednesday. We've been having a heatwave,

but under the apple tree was darkly shaded and relatively cool.

I'm going to have to learn not to put my fingers too close to the lens when I take pictures with the phone.

Sorry, I've been diverted from writing this post by being shown a news item that our new Home Secretary, also works as a consultant for a company that provides products and services to the Government, earning £1,000 an hour. Quick calculation - I could live for a year on just two week's work at that rate of pay, live comfortably on a month's work, go some way towards solving homelessness by donating six month's earnings... I try and keep politics out of this blog but at the moment it is very hard not to be thinking that we are all off somewhere very hot in a handcart in this country. It is not helped by our Church Book Club's book of the month being Proverbs. It is tempting to send a copy of chapter 13 to every politician and civil servant in the country.

There was a twitter row on my timeline the other day after the Archbish of Canterbury called upon us to pray for our leaders. Many responders would rather see them all go straight to hell; well, whatever our personal feelings, as Christians we are instructed to pray for our leaders whoever they are. The time has come, however, when I am wondering if just sitting here and 'liking' various tweets, or shouting at the radio and television - well, not actually shouting, but getting cross with the various interviewees, is a sufficient response to the current shambles. 'All that it takes for evil to exist is for good men to stand by and do nothing.' That's a call to action if ever there was. But how to act?

Abrupt change of subject.

I'm still doing painting and drawing, and reading about painting and drawing, and watching youtubes about painting and drawing. It's a sad truth, that all the reading and watching in the world won't improve anything - it's the getting on with it that makes things happen. Likeise with acquiring sketchbooks and brushes and paints and the rest of the paraphenalia. Sooner or later marks have to be made on the pristine paper. Did I tell you that I start at the back of the sketchbooks so as to avoid spoiling the first page?

Yesterday we went to Wakehurst Place. We didn't get to see more than the cafe at the entrance, as we were taking my father to meet up with some Australian family connections who were over on holiday. He had a complicated plan involving this lunch meeting, followed by up to London for a meal with another friend... his complicated and split-second plan (normal for him) would be made considerably easier and more likely to be achievable if we acted as a taxi service. Our reward was to meet and spend a great couple of hours with people we would never have met otherwise. Our departure was delayed when I discovered that the husband had bought a harpsichord - yes, A HARPSICHORD - when he retired in order to fix it up and get it working, and then learn how to play it - that would have been good for another hour's conversation but we had to leave to get my father to the station...

I would be so tempted to take up their invitation to visit them in Australia... and not only for the harpsichord!

 
Oh well. This year, next year, sometime.... never say never!

Today it has clouded over and rained - oh, you probably can't tell that it is still only 7.40 am. I woke at 5, and read my kindle for a while - it has a back light so I can read without turning the light on and waking himself. The clouds and cooler weather are a blessed relief.

It will be a full schedule - I need to try and track down a pair of shoes for my godmother - her feet have swelled up - heat? or worse? - and then meet up with colleagues for a Summer social. We have a Book Club BBQ to go to this evening, to discuss that book of Proverbs - we were asked to bring along a favourite. I think I may stick with


"Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath; But a grievous word stirreth up anger. 

Proverbes 15:1 Une réponse douce calme la fureur, Mais une parole dure excite la colère."


Did I mention that I am reading an interlinear English-French Bible to try and brush up on my French? It has made reading Proverbs (very repetitive) much more interesting. 'But a hard word excites rage'.
   

Friday 19th July - Summer Holidays begin

It's arrived, at last. There are two more days left of term, Monday and Tuesday next week, but this afternoon I taught my last lesson until Saturday 7th September.

The holidays arrived in the nick of time - last night I was writing up my page-a-day diary and stopped, mid-word, after barely two lines as I discovered that I couldn't manipulate the pen or write a coherent word...

So, twelve days since my last post, in which time I have attended a school concert (two of my pupils playing piano solos), supported the remaining seven pupils taking piano exams - I withdrew two others beforehand as there was not a snowball's chance in hell they would be ready, lead a concert by the class that I have been teaching guitars to all year, and, today, sent in inventories and registers and my pay claim.

I've been given two bunches of flowers,

a dinky little pot plant

a bottle of wine (not drinked up yet), a little box of Guy Lian chocs, (eaten) an large box of malteaser chocs (also eaten), a voucher and some lovely, lovely thank you notes from pupils. 

What else? Do you know, I would have to look it up in my page-a-day diary (which I brought up-to-date this morning) to have the faintest idea.

We've been (well, mostly himself) watering our border. It is a riot of colour, mostly purples, dark (clematis and salvia) and light (verbena), and reds (another salvia, I think). We saw some on a market stall and checked out the labels)

I dug over a weedy patch which has been annoying me for a month or so. I plan to throw a packet of poppy seeds at the bare earth and see what happens next year.

I had a go at 'paint a fantasy flower using wet in wet'; it looks rather a man-eater. 'Just load the brush with plenty of water, and plenty of pigment,' she said, 'and move it freely on the paper.. Add sweeps of different colours...'. So I did.

There was a trip to Chichester to collect some clothes we ordered from the internet. I 'accidentally' found myself in the art shop, and came out with a few insignificant little purchases; half pans of cadmium yellow, sap green and the wonderfully named quinacridone gold, oh what a beauty, what a superb colour;



I have been neeeeeding some ever since I first saw it being used in a youtube demo

Here are some more flowers 'painted from your heart, don't think about it too much,' after I bought the qunicridone gold:

Not thinking about it too much totally suits my current state of mind... isn't that quinacridone gold lovely?

I've been giving a lot of thought to how to manage the art materials I want to take to France. With a bit of fiddling around I have managed to arrange things so that the colours I want are all in my smaller box (which I bought about 40 years ago when I first wanted to paint).

I'm practising and practising until we go....

Sunday 7th July - A Day of Rest

A Day of Rest, during which I've got quite a lot done, things I've been waiting to do, wanting to do...

I've brought my Quotations Book up to date, including these drawings, copied from a website (I've just spotted I need to add a few more lines to the ridged pattern)

and this poem, discovered on twitter

That poem - it is remarkably difficult to copy something accurately. I've accidentally added a full stop after 'smooth back her hair', and now can't easily cover it up. The errant full stop has a significant effect on the meaning.

I think there is something exceptional, memorable, in nearly every line of this poem.

Then I've done some more on the top I am sewing.

 The pins are marking out a felled seam that I am in the process of sewing around the arm hole, to conceal the raw edges, instead of just using the pinking shears to finish them.

The fabric was previously used as the kitchen curtains (or was it the bathroom curtains - I can't remember). This top is a trial run for making it up in a pretty blue embroidered fabric I bought earlier this month.

The pale lemony-creamy background really doesn't suit me, so I plan to dye the whole thing 'tulip red' once it is finished... we shall see how that turns out! At least it will only have cost £3.60 for the dye and rather a lot of time.   

This is the fabric I really want to use;

The dark blue with the bright white pattern is the 'right side', but I like the 'wrong side' so much I want to try and make the top reversible, which means deep thinking about how to manage the seams.

Before I could do any of this, I had to tidy the table - this is a recurring reality. I wonder if recurring realities are worse than recurring nightmares?

Tidying isn't really that bad - pick it up, put it somewhere (where it belongs, or in the bin, or in a stack hidden on a chair) and repeat...

All this achieved by ten o'clock - and I even had a lie-in beforehand!

I'm still in the midst making preparations and practising for doing painting when we are on holiday. Today I started thinking about what colours to use. It is so much more complicated than it seemed at first. It's not enough to buy choose pretty colours for you paint box, or 'palette' as I am learning to say. Oh no, are they warm, or cool, transparent or tinting or glazing or opaque or granulating? It makes a difference to how they react when you mix them together. The old red + yellow = orange formula is no longer subtle enough.

So I've actually done some of this; taking three colours from the selection in my box, and doing mixing trials. 

  

It has been surprisingly helpful.

All that sun shining on the sketchbook is a bit of a false lead. Those were taken around 4 or 5 pm.

When we went to have lunch at Shoreham, we left in the rain. We had Welsh Rarebit in a cafe called Tom Foolery (good, but too salty). The rain had stopped by the time we finished, so we walked across the bridge to Shoreham Beach, and followed the boardwalk. These houses sell for around £1,00,000, the ones in the street behind for £600,000 and the other houses for in the town £300,000.  

Sea cabbage is an extraordinary looking plant.

We turned back halfway along; looking back towards Worthing we could see the gathering clouds.

Halfway home, we were driving through clear Summer sunshine...

Friday 5th July - a longish week

If last week ended on the Thursday, then this week, which ends tomorrow, has been nine days long. Nine very long days long...

Friday was travelling to Leicestershire for my father's 90th birthday party, held at my cousin's house. Why Leicestershire? (It would have been in Rutland if they hadn't renamed it some years ago). Well, that's a long story involving relatives from Florida who came over for the celebrations and to visit the place where their grandfather, or maybe great-grandfather came from.

That's my father, on the right - so I suppose the photograph must be nearly 90 years old!

It was a great day, and the final part of that part of the junketing which had lasted several days.

But, there was more birthday yet to come - we took part in a sort of 'flashmob' tea party in London on the Sunday. The Floridians had already scattered in different directions, some to the Cotswolds, some to Paris, and some on a 'Game of Thrones' tour of Ireland, this this was a separate set of relatives and friends.

Monday could have been a day of rest, but I was teaching for six hours...

And Tuesday was a Brompton Hospital day - a very early train to make sure of being able to get a seat and arrive in time for 9am. The hospital checkup was very encouraging. It looks 

The Brompton checkup was very encouraging - looking back over the years, it seems that although my lung function drops a little in the winter, it picks up again in the Summer in a regular pattern. We were in and out pretty swiftly, and spent the rest of the day at the V and A;

Beatrix Potter Drawings

Huge, ancient doors

A fifteenth century French staircase

We wandered through rooms and rooms full of ceramics on the way to the display of Port Meirion china - I didn't take any pictures of the china, but this set of plates amused me

  It has been very, very warm this week. The cats can't decided where to sleep; inside?

or outside?