Home Again

We're home - and we got here in the nick of time!  One day later and we probably wouldn't have made it - snow drifts all over the country have brought traffic to a standstill and thousands of people have had journeys disrupted.

But we got home safe and sound, though each of us brought with us the cold and cough with which we had been burdened for our final days in Essex.  As I write this, I'm still suffering badly with mine, though my husband is on the mend.  Not that the colds have kept us indoors - the weather has seen to that!  

I've been using my time indoors to paint and going to finish this very short blog with a small version of my last Essex watercolour (last for now, anyhow).  Beeleigh Lock was very close to our accommodation, and I visited it almost every day.  For ten weeks it was in flood - I'm sure it is navigable by narrowboat in summer (when it would also be much greener) but this picture is my interpretation of how I saw it - in beautiful fury. 

(I'll put a bigger version of the picture on my "Fragile Brush" page).

Barriers Send me New Ways

Sometimes a combination of weather and work commitments keep us from our bikes, and sometimes the weather alone achieves this.  During the weekend just past, it was mainly Paul’s work - not that he had to go, but that being on call he might have to go.  In the event he went three times, one of those times in the dead of Saturday night.  Neither of us felt like riding yesterday.

So from a cycling point of view the weekend was a bit of a waste of opportunity.  But that meant that I had the opportunity to spend time with another hobby, and so that’s what I did. 

In fact, for some weeks now I have been working with my watercolour paints.  I felt rusty having done nothing with them other than to store them for quite a few years, and so I decided that “practice” was needed. I filled a sketchbook with my practice, and I’ve produced a few pieces that I’m proud of.  It’s been great fun but also difficult - and a trifle expensive, as my old paints had dried up and needed to be replaced. 

It’s a great feeling, having my original artistic outlet back. It seems that my time away from home has swept aside a block I had - and given me so many ideas and so much inspiration that I just can’t keep it inside any more.  But then of course I’ve been trying to catch interesting shots with my camera for a long time - and here’s a shot I took (with my phone - some opportunities just need to be snatched) which I just love!