Bikecast!

I have wanted to take a typewriter for a ride for a long time, and finally got around to it. Unfortunately a dog scared the birds away almost as soon as I sat down to type a picture of them, so I’m afraid this trio is all I can offer. However not to worry, I brought my swimming kit, so all is fine and dandy.

The water is 16.6 degrees C, about as warm as it will get this summer. The safer seas and rivers app tells me the water is also clean enough to swim in. I never venture in these days without checking. Southern Water has an abominable reputation for dumping untreated sewage into the sea, and this year was fined millions for its misdemeanours. But today all is looking pretty nice.

Keeping up the habit

I made a new sketchbook for my watercolour skies and covered it in leftover leather scraps.

Book number three under way today. The Imperial Good Companion 5 makes a nice stand for a photo too.

Summer storm approaching

hyphenated sky

The art of waiting

European brown tail moth

July sky

I’ve had the same set of watercolours in a Windsor and Newton black enamel tin since I was a first year art student at Falmouth. Over the years the pans of colours have been renewed but it’s one of those little constants I return to that makes me feel secure. I started doing quick sketches in watercolour of lockdown skies in March. I didn’t think I would need to make another sketchbook to contain them all. Yesterday it was an even pale grey all day so I didn’t bother painting it. Today it looks more interesting so I may well do several. There are no rules other than to be guided by the wind.

Time and tide waits for no one

So, I wrote my three lines of biography for Backspaces. I’m so chuffed to have my work included, and really looking forward to reading everyone else’s stories.

Elderflowers

Always make sure the rest of the household knows what is what inside your pot.

Stills from a movie, Day 37

I’m making things, not really typing, not really writing. This is from a photo we took of our shadows on a night walk last summer. Now the longest we’ve been apart since we got together and every day from now on until lockdown is over.

Thinking of you all. Keep on staying safe xx

First blackberries of 2019

Blackberries when still slightly sour have enough pectin to set without apples or lemons. It’s really satisfying to get a good set on jelly without adding in another flavour. Though I do like a mixed jam, there’s something wonderful about blackberry jelly. It’s worth getting snagged by thorns, buzzed by wasps and the waiting for the liquid to drip through the cloth.