Very clean runner beans.

I decided to replenish my supply of home made black fly killer the other day.  Its just a mixture of water and washing up liquid as I really don't want to use pesticides.  So I mixed up a new batch and filled up my bottle. 
Unfortunately I had just cleaned the sink with home made cleaner which uses white wine vinegar, lemon juice water and washing up liquid. 

I was distracted by something (I can't remember what) and I then went outside and sprayed my beans; it was only as I was walking back to the house that I realised I was carrying the wrong bottle.  My beans were covered in cleaning solution!
I grabbed the hose and washed the bean plants off and I think there was no damage except to the black flies.  So I now have the cleanest runner bean plants in the street.

The cleaner bottle has a list of ingredients on it but now my black killer bottle is now clearly marked.

I have been to the gym 3 times this week and discovered that I enjoyed it.  But my knees do not like the exercise bike or the cross trainer, however the recumbent exercise bike is fine. 

After work I took myself off to lunch at Lily's in Wickham and had a delicious cup of coffee (not my usual tipple) and some wonderful creamed spinach and mushrooms on toast topped with goat's cheese. 

Yummy!

A Rose in colour pencil and harvest.

Life has been getting more and more stressful so my GP has signed me off work for a week and I was told to rest.  I have been up at my usual time (no lie ins) doing things around the house.  It has been amazingly soothing to just be able to concentrate on one thing and not a million.  Lucy at attic24 calls pottering around the house and tidying up "house blessing" and I think I agree; when there is no pressure on you to do the work it does feel like a blessing not just for the house but for you and your family.  Everything looks so nice when its tidy, not show home tidy but lived in tidy. 

I have taken myself out to lunch several times and enjoyed the peace of lovely food eaten while reading a good book.  I felt like I had given myself a treat.  I went on walks and did a lot of "window shopping" which I enjoyed whilst feeling no pressure to buy.   The Teen has finished school and is looking forward to a long holiday (so are we).   I cooked healthy meals full of fresh veg (for me) and have felt a definite benefit from such a good diet.

I also joined my local gym and I plan to use it before work 3 days a week; exercise should help with my stress levels and keep me healthy.  I was surprised at my gym induction to see how many "ordinary" people were using it.  It was quite heartening to see real people on the treadmills and not honed and polished specimens of muscular fitness (nice as they are to look at sometimes).  I am not fit; I managed the treadmill but when it came to the bike my legs protested very loudly - they protested even more on the cross trainer!  I didn't listen to the music on offer or watch the various television programmes that I could have accessed, instead I listened to an audio book. 

This weekend I went on a roses workshop and boy did it rain.  On Friday it stopped for about 10 minutes for the whole time we were there.  The birds in the garden seemed to enjoy it but I think the cats had the right idea; they curled up in fluffy balls around the house and slept all day, getting up occasionally and stretching and asking for food. 

I chose a beautiful dark rose to draw.  Its velvety petals were just gorgeous and it smelt wonderful.  My photo of it doesn't really do it justice.

It took quite a bit of work to get the initial sketch right, so that all the petals looked correct.  Then I started drawing.  I had major problems with the colour, once the sun came out the curled back parts of the petals had an amazing zing to them.  It was very difficult to capture that zing on paper.

The picture also looked grainy as I was using a different paper to the one I usually use.  I needed to change my technique slightly.  My tutor dealt with the first petal on the right for me as I was struggling so much - my job is now to try to get it finished. The three day workshop was, as usual, very good, with excellent teaching and wonderful food.  You can see other people's work here.

We also had a tiny addition to the workshop:

An adorable wood mouse who was obviously not very happy outside and didn't object to being brought in.  It drank some water from a pipette and ate some seeds.  The cats were too busy sleeping to take any notice of it. 

A Rose and a Completed Thumbergia

I went for a walk this morning; it was beautifully sunny with a cool breeze.  I didn't walk quickly but strolled and enjoyed the quiet.  I admired the many gardens I passed but as I was walking down an alley I saw this amazing rose sticking up from all the greenery.

It was a pop of colour amid a vast range of greens and yellows. 

I have completed my Thumbergia in colour pencil.  I am not very happy with the leaf as I think I got distracted by the details rather than seeing the whole thing.  The inside of the flower isn't quite right either.

Thumbergia Lemon

Did you figure out what my new tool was for?  I use a rotary pencil sharpener and sometimes the pencil point breaks off and blocks the sharpener.  I have to undo the sharpener and this is where I have problems.  I often don't have the strength in my fingers to undo it.  So the Engineer made me a spanner.............

It works............

............brilliantly. 

Kitchen Garden, a Thumbergia Lemon in colour pencil and a new tool

My small kitchen garden is growing well. 

Courgettes

I have had to pollinate the female courgette flowers with some male flowers I had growing in the kitchen as there were no males outside. 

Runner beans

The runner beans are now flowering.  I am fighting the black fly by spraying them with a solution of water and washing up liquid as well as scraping them off with my fingers: yuck. There are some teeny tiny beans beginning to grow.


I pulled up three beetroots to have with my dinner.  I love beetroot; the Engineer and the Teen don't, so they are all for me.

I steamed them in the microwave with some runner beans (from the shop).

Home made faggots and Slimming world chips, with home-grown beetroot.  Yummy.

I am doing a colour pencil drawing of a Thumbergia Lemon.  Its growing in my garden at the moment and I thought is was so lovely with deep purple heart and bright yellow petals. It seems to me to be a "happy" flower.

 

Work in progress

I need to deepen the colour especially in the middle.  Its not very big so hopefully it shouldn't take me too long. 


Made for me today by The Engineer

The Engineer made me two of these today (he said it was as easy to make two as to make one).  They are about 8cm long.  Can you guess what they are for?  Hint: I'll use them when I'm drawing.


Butterflies and Moths workshop

On Friday and Saturday I went along to a painting/drawing Butterflies and Moths workshop run by Sarah Morrish; her blog The Natural Year is a wonderful journey through the seasons.  Her illustrations are lovely so I was looking forward to learning a lot.

I drove to "The Holt" where the workshop was being held through the gorgeous Hampshire countryside.  The sun was shining, the day was warm and there were purple fields of flax (at least I think it was flax) that seemed to glow.

I didn't take too many pictures of the building we were in, but it used to be a tractor shed.  Not that you would believe it now, with its high pitched roof and oak beams (and there is a large fire place), it is just beautiful. 

Sarah began with a demonstration of how to draw butterflies, their wing structure etc. and then we had to choose our specimens. 

I chose this:

Bedstraw Hawk Moth

It was just so pretty.  Because its a set specimen you can see the lovely colours on its hind wings, but if it was alive and sitting naturally its fore wings would be covering them. 

I got my initial drawing done and then Sarah demonstrated how to start the painting in watercolour.  I was using colour pencil but still found it interesting.  After what seemed like a few minutes, but was in fact about an hour, we stopped for lunch.  Look where we sat to have it:

Lunch in the shade of a tree

After lunch, we carried on.  We stopped again at about 3.00 for cream tea. Yum.  Then we carried on until the end of the day.

Scones with traditional jam and cream, or lemon curd and mascarpone

The following day it was an equally pretty drive out to the Holt, but the day was cooler and I could start straight away on my drawing.  Time does fly when you are concentrating; I would get up and walk around and look at other people's work from time to time.  There are some very talented people out there.  Sarah showed us a butterfly that she was working on in her sketch book, its the kind of book that makes me sigh.  Its just so full of gorgeous drawings and paintings.  She showed us how to do insect bodies and hairs; I seemed to have picked a very hairy moth and doing all those hairs in colour pencil was going to be tricky. 

Layers and layers of colour.

I used the usual layering technique for colour pencil and tiny elipses to lay the colour, but when it came to the hairs I had to leave gaps and colour in between some of them and then use another colour for the hair.  At one point I used a Caran d'Ache pale blue for some of the hairs on the wings nearest the body. 
I used Indigo, Paynes Grey and Dark Sepia for the darkest colour on the wings. At the very edge of the wings I used some cream and then a graphite line as the edges were hairy and very light.  Its a small thing to draw but it took two days and I still haven't finished it yet. 

Bedstraw Hawk moth in colour pencil and graphite

After another break for cream tea and a good look at each other's work we packed up for the day.  Everything about the course was good, the teaching was excellent and Sarah was always on hand when any of us got stuck. The setting was just beautiful and the cream teas a real treat. 

All in all a brilliant weekend. 

Appropriate mugs.

A busy week and a Strawberry in colour pencil.

Its been a busy week in the Su+2 household.  On Monday evening we went along to the local Marriott hotel and watched the Teen be presented with her Baden Powell Award.  There were 55 other Girl Guides who were also presented with their awards.  The BP award is the highest that can be achieved as an ordinary Girl Guide and is awarded after a girl has completed a considerable number of tasks, activities and acts of service.  Each girl is then presented with a certificate and a pin badge.

The Teen was pleased to have achieved this award and was quite motivated by seeing so many other girls; some of the older ones were being presented with higher awards which the Teen now says she wants to aim for.  We are very proud of her achievement so far. 

At work one of my colleagues retired and we, of course, had a bit of a bun fight (tea and cakes etc.) with people who had worked with and for her in the hospital.  There was lots of lovely food and some speeches which made me (and others) feel quite emotional.  Everyone donated to a collection and we bought her a sewing box as a retirement gift (its what she wanted).

That evening we had a barbeque dinner with just immediate work colleagues and partners to celebrate the ending of one journey and the beginning of another. 

Its going to be difficult going into work and knowing she isn't there; she was not only a good team leader but a compassionate friend and a big support for me when life outside work got tough.  She had a wicked sense of humor and could bake the best cakes.

On Friday evening we dropped the Teen off at Guide camp.  The following morning we put a breakfast picnic together and went down to the beach.  It was gloriously sunny but very windy and the Engineer's corn flakes kept flying away.  We ate and watched the kite surfers storming along and the dog walkers throwing stones for their excited charges.  In the end the wind was so strong (and a bit cold) that we went and sat back in the car to drink our tea. 
We tried to have lunch in Lilly's at Wickham and when we arrived I was surprised to see a number of empty tables.  Unfortunatly there was no electricity in the whole of Wickham square so Lilly's could only sell tea and cakes.  We stopped for a drink but then left as we wanted some lunch. 
We went down to Salt on Wicor hard; its a pretty little café with stunning views and amazing chocolate brownies.  We avoided the cakes as we were going on to Guide camp to have afternoon tea.

It was a special afternoon at the camp as the Teen and a friend were being presented with their BP awards (again) in front of their own Guide pack.  They were able to choose when, where and how the award was presented and chose to receive it at camp and then have posh afternoon tea with little cakes and proper tea cups.

The Teen being presented with her award.

Afternoon Tea.

A beautiful afternoon at camp 

It was also the Teen's birthday on Saturday and as she was at Guide camp then, she opened her presents from us when she got home.  When did my adorable little toddler suddenly become 15? Time certainly flies!

I started doing a strawberry in colour pencil a while ago.  My plan was to do a botanical drawing and an oversized one.  But I am not at all happy with it.

I got so excited about doing it I didn't pay proper attention to the initial drawing hence my seeds are not really in the right place and the whole thing doesn't look right. There is not enough detail; when the fruit was magnified that much you can see the hairs and I haven't put them in. (I borrowed the Engineer's binocular magnifier, strawberries are very hairy).  The leaves look flat and there are no veins and blemishes visible as I haven't transferred the detail I should be able to see with it that big.  I think I will stop work on this one and learn from it.

Film night(s)

On Thursday I went to the library and picked up a DVD; the plan was to have a family film night, so I found a family film.

I used to watch Paddington as a child and loved the stop frame animation.  I also read the books and Paddington's exploits would make me laugh out loud.

So, to get ready for film night I put together some nibbles.

Guess which bowl was mine?  The Engineer and the Teen shared the Malteasers and I had the chopped strawberries, Kiwi fruit and a chopped Slimming World Hifi bar. 

The Teen also helped herself to some Doritos and dip.  I felt quite smugly healthy.

The film was great.  I was worried it wouldn't have the charm of the stories or the TV series but it did; it was so "British" and so funny.  We did a lot of laughing between munching.  In fact the Teen told me off for laughing too loudly! 

Channel 4 showed the film "Rush" on Saturday so I have recorded it; I remember watching Niki Lauda and James Hunt when I was a child.  My dad and I would sit together and he would tell me what was going on during a race, its a nice memory for me.  I watch Formula 1 today and enjoy it, but these days it seems to depend on team strategy and real time information rather than amazing driving.  That's not to say that those who race now aren't amazing drivers - they are, but it would be good to see them really be able to race rather than having to "lift and coast" to save fuel or short shift to save a gear box.  The Teen said she might watch Rush with us as James Hunt is played by Chris Hemsworth (think Thor) and she is a bit of a fan. So maybe there is another film night coming up.