The other day I did a very silly thing. Liz and myself went to La Ronda, an amazing house on the River Ex estuary. The idea was to relax, have some lunch and for me to sketch a little.  The relaxing and lunch bits went fine, it was the sketching bit that went pear shaped. I took my paper and drawing board with me, but when I looked inside my bag, I had forgotten to include my pens, inks, paints, brushes and pencils. Silly old me. After a growl, I managed to scrounge a blunt IKEA pencil stub from the gift shop, with no means of sharpening it.. Not by any means a perfect tool, but it did the job. 

So the day wasn't wasted, we relaxed, had a nice lunch and I was flexible in my artistic endeavours; not a great piece of art, but good fun. Don't take yourself to seriously!

We have just had a few nights in Sidmouth, again; we love the place. As usual we went sketching in Beer, see above. No pencil, straight in with the pen; if you look closely you will notice the rain (drizzle) drops in a few places with very small blots in some areas. Well, maybe with the water splodges on it, it might not qualify as a masterpiece, but I think the blemishes add to the work and give it a strong reality factor. So don't be put of by the weather.

As usual when out painting I met some lovely people. Firstly. a very pleasant if rather strangely unkempt and unwashed individual with well worn clothing, a thin totally unkempt beard and a hat, which for originality would win any competition. It started as a cowboy hat before it was destroyed by the weather and many years of use. Then it was covered by badges of many music festivals; only ones where he could manage a free entry, he does not believe you should pay to listen to music at events. But the crem-de-la-creme was a small plastic model toilet glued to the top central part of his hat. I did enjoy listening to his philosophy on life for a few minuets, the details of which I will not bore you.

Then a lovely elderly lady trundeled past with her wheeler. A nice lady totally out of touch with reality. She just can't understand how the economy was tight and how ordinary people did not have enough to live on, thereby finding life hard. Sometimes there is not point in disagreeing, so she wandered on in her own little world with a smile.

This week I relaxed and could not be bothered to argue.