Return to painting

Today has been wonderfully sunny, as if to remind us of what the weather can be like - just before the next rain arrives. I made use of it by washing and hanging out a load of towels first thing - they all dried, rather pleasingly. As with Pilates, I've had several weeks off my painting class - I was away last week, and before that Paddy the artist was away walking the Caminho through Portugal. So I'm still on my wee painting of Matera, and today I concentrated on all the oleanders and other plants in the pots outside the house I'd photographed. By the end of class I was left with only the cobbled ground to deal with, though we had time for some discussion as to the best way to tackle the painting of them. Before that, of course, I'll have to get the perspective right ... Also in my main photo is  a fellow-student's newly-finished painting of a wild sea - I thought it rather splendid.

I walked back home beside the gleaming calm of the sea, with a host of oyster-catchers running about and squeaking at each other. There was one bashing a shell on a stone so loudly that I could hear it above their chatter as well as the occasional passing car. I'll add an extra of the town with the tower of the High Kirk reflected in the glassy surface.

Once home, I cleaned the inside of the dining room window because the declining sun showed me how badly it needed cleaning, then set about making dinner. I thought I had some prawns in the freezer, but they turned out to be a figment of my imagination so we had a rather splendid vegetable pasta instead, majoring on tender stem broccoli and some broad beans. And then there was choir - a full turnout for a change, as well as having an additional soprano who's joining us for our next gig as the first soprano will be away. We worked hard, covering the whole programme for said gig; I developed a sudden frog (if not a sizeable toad) in my throat as we started on How High the Moon, which was a bit of a pain. 

And now it's once again after midnight and high time I wasn't here. Night night!