Having a Rest Day - Perpetual Nature /Botanical Watercolour Journal

 

                    Cosmos is germinating !  🤗🌱🌱🌱

   I've not done very much in the garden today , aching from doing too much yesterday ! 

Ricardo had a long morning at the dentist , my daughter took him , so I had some precious time to myself .

I checked all was well in the shed and remembered to add some perlite to my tomato pot/bags in the greenhouse .

It helps to get air into the compost . Glad I didn't plant the tomatoes out just yet .  

                       I gave it a good stir  .

                              I thought I might never get back up again !  🤣🌿

That mission quickly completed , I then set off to have some nice quiet time to myself doing some watercolour painting .

I  promised my good friend and therapist Hannah , that I would make time for myself , to do a Perpetual Nature/Botanical Watercolour Journal . 

I used to enjoy painting wild flowers years ago , it's very calming and I love this idea of painting something each month that I have come across in the garden or on our walks .

I have had all the bits and pieces for a long time , but just kept hitting the brick wall , couldn't get started or whenever I felt in the mood to do it I would be needed elsewhere , or there was too much noise .

I need absolute peace and quiet , nothing but the birds singing in the garden or the rain on my window .

So , at last I had some time . 

 I sat down to make a start .....but first I had to peel off all the wrappers and labels .I was originally going to do swatches of all the names and colours and numbers . And then thought that would be nice  but take forever to do .

When I was into cross stitch , I was very strict with myself to keep the labels on the skeins with all the numbers on and I have a swatch card that I made for myself all the numbers , names and colours . But now I do needle-painting or freestyle embroidery and I use my embroidery threads like paints that I choose by eye .

So I gave up with doing a paint swatch card . I will just try them out before I use them on my painting .

Rosa Gallery water colours are gorgeous !

 So are Winsor&Newton  .

But ....

           Icky , sticky and fiddly !  Next time I'm going to buy tubes instead of pans !

And then , when I was finally ready to paint . Ricardo comes home  .

Had to make my poorly boy soup and nice very soft rolls .....and treacle pudding and custard .. paracetamol and a cup of tea .....and do the washing up  .

I left him dozing in his armchair  .

    .....and went out into the garden to gather a few Violets .

It is surprising how intimidating a blank sheet of watercolour paper can be ! 

But ...

This time I smashed down that brick wall !  I could hear my dance teacher saying "Just do it !" 

            April looks a bit shaky , I might try and tidy that . 

With just one very annoying half an hour  ( he woke up ! )  being called to figure out how to make the photocopier work and make him another cup of tea and paracetamol  .

I thought I'd finished this , until I noticed a teeny tiny snail .

          I must paint him in ! 🐌🌿..... and then take him back out into the garden .

          We are very excited as our granddaughter is going to be on the news tomorrow ! Over at Goonhilly Earth Station . That's all I know at the moment . 

                 🌕  Something about the NASA  Artemis 11 Moon Mission   🚀

                                    Hope the weather is good for the launch !

                                                    Peace and Love 

                                                            🤍🕊️

                                                         Debbie x