Lola the Lifeguard...

Between one thing and another I missed all my hydrotherapy sessions last week, and I will miss tomorrow's due to an appointment, so decided to go in this morning.

Set my alarm for 7am and when it went off, I switched if off and promptly fell back to sleep.  Thankfully David woke me at 10 to 8 so I was up and in the pool by 20 past.

It was a beautiful morning, blue skies and the sun was shining but cold enough for a hard frost so everything in the garden was glistening.  The roof lights in the pool were covered in frost too and when the sun shone on them it looked as though garden faeries had sprinkled silver glitter all over them.  Well that's what it looked like to me :-)  

I've had quite an active few days so my hip was a bit achey but the warm water, stretches and pool dancing soon got me loosened up.  

After lunch I went to the studio to try out my new paints.  Oh my...I LOVE them!   I had an idea of what I wanted to paint with them and got started on a piece of 140lb watercolour paper (medium weight) and loved how well the paint glided on.  I got the first wash done and was delighted to note the colours were still as vibrant when dry (watercolour paint lightens considerable once it dries)  I put on a second wash and wanted to create some texture so spattered some clean water onto the surface and it did exactly what I wanted it to do!  I am a happy bunny :-)  

I left that to dry and will complete it tomorrow.  Here's hoping the third and final wash doesn't ruin what's already there!  If I am happy with the end result I will try to recreate the same painting on 300lb watercolour paper, which will be a real joy to paint on.

After that I got two paintings mounted.  The seascape from yesterday's blip and a little line and wash sketch that I created a few weeks ago from following a you Tube tutorial (in extras)  It was destined to go in my sketch folder but David likes it a lot so I mounted it too.

Other than that, not much achieved today.  

Alan had a pool session this afternoon.  I went in to chat from the sidelines, followed by Lola.  She is desperately keen to get in the water but too scared ( if it was her mum Lily, she would in the there like a shot! )  

Alan quite likes Lola being at the side of the pool but she gets too excited and starts to bark, which is very loud and echoey in the pool room, so Lola and I were politely asked to leave!  lol

Alan's support workerJordan came through a little while ago saying Lola had brought him a pressie.  It was my little line and wash painting!  The wee madam must have gone into the studio and taken it from where I had propped it up on the floor beside the paintings that are waiting to go on the wall.  Thankfully it was in a cellophane bag and there's not a tooth mark on it!  Proof  of the famously gentle mouth that Golden Retrievers are renowned for.  

I still gave her a row! 

A year today we got our first covid vaccine.  How time flies!