Progress (and regression)

This is a flower on my little lemon tree. Everything in the garden has come into flower very early this year- the wisteria has been and gone and now even the roses are in bloom. Mark has finally shaken off his virus but I heard this week of two other 'husbands' with the same bug and a theory that because we didn't have a cold winter perhaps there are more of these bugs thriving. Who knows, but it does seem like global warming is a very real threat now rather than a fanciful scientific theory when you can almost see it with your own eyes!

What with the virus and the migraine, it wasn't the happiest start to the week. I have no drawings to show this week as I've been concentrating on watercolours. I've tried these half heartedly over the years and because I had high expectations, in hindsight I never really gave them a chance. I felt the time was right now to give them a go and applied for a class run at the boys' school. I was told there weren't enough sign-ups for it to start so I was quite surprised today to get a bill in the post. Turns out there were some last minute sign ups but someone forgot to let me know. The good news is though, that I can still join so I rang the teacher to conform and to let her know that I am an absolute beginner and she sounded so helpful and friendly that I can't wait. I've been dabbling for the last couple of weeks and with each day seems to come a new revelation, particularly about what I expect from myself. I started out doing swatches and colour tests and gradually learned to let the mind shut down and simply respond to the colour and just enjoy the process.

As I'm painting I'm reminded of these little paintings I did when I was about 5. I can still remember how it felt to play with the colours and I loved seeing how certain colours looked placed next to others. I don't think anyone mentioned to me that cats and dogs don't have blue ears and I certainly didn't care! It's been so much fun tapping into that feeling again!