Today has been an altogether lovely day, but it must be remembered that not all times are so good. Last week was a tad rough (an infection to the scalp and left ear). I didn't feel ill, just very tired and slept a lot. But now I am well and thankful, so I wandered along to Hatchlands and did the boundary walk. Taking my camera along, a drawing board and most importantly a picnic. Liz was most certainly not forgotten, she had a book, that always makes her happy. I need to be creative in finding her comfortable places to sit whilst I paint, that sometimes is a challenge.

Two quick sketches were produced; ink is a marvelous medium, it is so expressive. They are small works, the solitary tree being bout 2 by 3 inches and the other about 6 by 2. That size means that they do not take to long to produce.

We saw grasshoppers, now I haven't seen those for years and lots of other things. We ended up at the sheep dip watching all the baby fish in the shallows. whilst in the water nearby were waterlilies. So out came the camera.

It is easy to just snap a lily, but to make it work it,normally needs something a little different. So I altered the colour sensitivity in the camera to be a little more sensitive to the reds and yellows. Checked the histogram (a graph of available light in the camera) to make sure that nothing would burn out and then with the camera well supported on a handy log, waited. The shadows from the trees were moving constantly, so when the light was just on the lily, caught it; I think it works.

Life is very much like this, hard times and good times. This pandemic is the same, at the moment it is tough and we do not like it. But God is very good and like the lily, good and beautiful things are just around the corner.

Well that is about enough for today

Duncan