Azalea and Inktense

 A ladybug found the celery plant on the windowsill. For a lot of people around here, the ladybugs can be a real pest in the house - landing on your face, biting, and being very stinky if you squash them. However, we don't get very many, and it felt very springlike to have a little critter cruising my plant so I was happy to see it.

My husband got me a very pretty azalea plant for my birthday. Certainly cheers up a room.

It has quite a few buds so it should bloom for a while yet. Unfortunately, it won't be hardy outside so it is strictly a house plant and I'm not that successful with keeping azaleas going long term. But for now I am certainly enjoying it.

Also on the birthday front is a new box of 24 Derwent Inktense pencils (conveniently on sale). I did a quick trial last evening and I really like them.  They are an ink/acrylic blend so when they dry you can't rewet them like regular watercolours. The colours are more vibrant than regular watercolour pencils. This photo is not doing justice to the bright colours. It's going to be fun to experiment with using both the Inktense pencils and either regular watercolours or watercolour pencils together.  Apparently Derwent is the only company making an Inktense type pencil.

Spring is just around the corner.  Can't wait.