Old picture, new picture...

It is Monday and it feels really great to be going back to art at Sheila's after weeks when, for one reason or another, we have had to give it a miss.  I will be glad to finish the picture of the pomegranates which I have enjoyed but it has been hanging around too long now and after a lot of trolling through the internet I have found a picture that I want to do for myself.

It was a bright day but the wind was really nippy so I was going to walk down to Sheila's but then I realised I was calling into Di and Rob's afterwards and didn't relish the thought of tackling Cardiac Hill with my pot of lemon marmalade and art folder.

I quickly called in on Dad - that is three days' in a row now - he will be wondering what it going on.  The rain water has all now dried up and with the sun shining the cemetery looks cheery, which I know is a strange description but it is a lovely place and doesn't make me feel sad.

Even with weeks' of catching up to do, Sheila and I did manage to get some work done!!  I finished the said pomegranate picture which is going to find a home with Clare and Les in the village which is good.  Sheila had finished the picture she was doing of a lion and a cub and has embarked on a very atmospheric picture of an elephant which will be done in sepia colours.  We have agreed that she is most definitely animals and I am more leaning towards flowers when it comes to subject matter that we enjoy.

With this in mind I have chosen to do a picture of flowers again for my next piece although flowers with a bit of a difference because my inspiration came from a picture of a clematis which is past its prime.

I loved the colours used in the original and there will be an awful lot of blending to get this to look right.  The original is just the flower heads on a stark white background and I liked that effect too so that is what I am aiming for.

It was really, really nice to be back doing some art - I would not have the discipline if I didn't take myself off to Sheila's nor would I have the pencils as she is kind enough to supply me with everything that I need!!!

And, to cap it all, I get lunch from Klaus which is always a bonus and even more so when John is away as I tend not to go overboard in the cooking stakes unless we have visitors of course.  Today he produced a lovely one-pot brunch - although to be fair it was two pots as one had baked beans in it but the other held all the other ingredients, potato, halloumi, mushrooms, tomato, sausage, bacon and egg and it was lovely.

I called in to see Di and Rob - Di and I sat out the back of their bungalow for a chat but the nippy old wind made sure we didn't stay there too long.  I collected my newly made pot of lemon marmalade and shall be sampling that with my toast tomorrow but it looks and smells nice, Rob said he thought it was a bit tart but I wont mind that.

John's visit to the UK is fast coming to an end and there is nothing left on my TTDWJIA (things to do whilst John is away) but I did decide to paint the frame of the last remaining picture in the spare room because everything else in there is in a neutral coloured frame except for the large mirror and I thing I will see whether John fancies spraying that like he did the one in our room.  I would have done it myself but it has a light fitting attached to it and removing that is a blue job.

I spent some time this afternoon in the garden doing a bit of tidying.  I still have some interesting sticks in a couple of pots but it is early days so I will leave them there for a while to see if they buck their ideas up.

We do have a very welcome splash of colour in the shape of some grape hyacinths which have come into bloom all of a sudden.  Bulbs generally fare very well here save for those I have planted in the wrong place and which had turned blind and no longer flower - I shall have to dig them up and move them and save for the fact that I use no slug pellets or other deterrents so some of the fresh green growth has been eaten.  I am hoping that these are not the shoots of the Allium which Mum gave me last year.

Although sunny out, the wind got the better of me, and in the end I had to relent and get a hoodie to put on.  When I went into the spare bedroom to take down the picture if felt positively Baltic in there for some reason which isn't good as we have Jane and John coming to stay next week and Kenna a couple of weeks afterwards.

I was joined by the cats outside - they get particularly excited if you do any digging for some reason as they like to have a good nosey in the hole - probably sizing up by way of a toilet!!  At the moment we aren't really using the outside much - a lot of the cushions are still put away and the furniture up on the roof terrace is still lashed to the railings for fear it gets blown away.  We still have the old furniture outside the kitchen which is falling to pieces and super uncomfortable but want to get that area decked before we get rid of that and replace with the new that we bought.

So I now really have done everything I want to do before John comes home - I shall see how much he notices!!!  Feeling chilly I packed up and went indoors and decided to tackle our tax returns.  Once I had got to grip with the on-line system I managed mine and John's no problem - Mum's is a different kettle of fish altogether so I am going to get an accountant to sort hers out and will try the one that Irene recommended in Kissonerga as their rates look quite reasonable and it will be one less thing for me to have to worry about getting wrong.

I could not do without the gas fire tonight - it was simply too chilly to sit in the lounge without it and once the temperature had dropped it was cool in the conservatory as well.  Neither Charlie nor Boris was complaining and Minnie-Mou was right nearby in poll position having pinched my seat on the sofa - Chivers was doing his normal and curling up on the bed which he does until I go in to sleep and then he gets up and goes into the lounge for some reason.

Jane and John are coming with Mike tomorrow afternoon and we are having dinner at Maria's in Kathikas which will be lovely.  Mike hasn't been to our house for a couple of years so I guess he will see some changes and will be pleased to see that we did change the wooden beams in the conservatory for steel ones - he was worried they would not take the weight.