Primula

I watched some Youtube videos by Bill Lupton on painting people in a landscape.  These are people off in the distance so they aren't detailed.  I was so impressed with his skill with a brush.  It felt like I was watching a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. I haven't attempted to copy his technique yet but it's next on my list.
We went to see Hidden Figures , a movie about African-American women who worked for NASA during the space race.  It was really interesting to learn about not only these women, but also all the other who did calculations all day.  Ironically, they called them "computers".  One of the women, who specialized in calculating orbits and entry points, is still alive today and, at 98, is sharp and engaged with the world. Another one of the women became an aeronautical engineer and the third women featured in the movie became the supervisor of the mechanical computers.
I'm always on the look-out for movies based on real life events as I find they are more interesting than fiction.

Landscape

I'm still practicing watercolour painting.  I challenged myself a couple of days ago to do one based on a nice photo of my horse's head, but alas my drawing ineptitude was all too evident.  Just couldn't get his eye properly placed and if that's not right the whole thing looks wonky. I also followed a video by the frugalcrafter on doing a human eye.  That was very instructive and I think I managed the colour not too badly on the practice effort, but again the drawing...sigh.  So today, I decided to just slop some paint around and enjoy the colours.
I hope your winter hasn't been too stormy.  We are getting pretty benign weather which I'm thankful for. Mulling over if I will start any plants and, if so, which ones. Perhaps some basil to start with as it does well in the low light.

Trying to do some Watercolour

Funny how one thing leads to another.
My daughter was telling me that she was watching old shows by Bob Roth, the painter, on PBS as his soothing voice helped to put the baby to sleep.  That got me reading up on Bob.  He was very prolific and figures he probably painted 30,000 paintings.  Wow!  OK, he had a formula, but still that's many hours at the easel. He was on PBS  doing how-to shows for years. He felt too many people were intimidated by painting and he wanted people to be able to learn a simple way to paint that would enable them to make a passable picture. By the way, he started painting when he was in the Air Force in Alaska.  He had lots of time in the winter, I guess.
Anyway, all this about painting got me on Youtube and I found a whole lot of really helpful videos on watercolour painting especially designed for beginners like me. Great ones like "5 (or 10 or 20!) Mistakes Beginners Make". Very instructive.  So I've been watching lots of these instructional videos and signing up as a subscriber for my favourites.  And I am attempting to put paint to paper. I'm quite enjoying it. I am not obsessing over all the mistakes I am making and just assuming that with time I will improve.
 Isn't that what old ladies do? Take up watercolour painting :)

Lots of Snow

  The weather hasn't been terribly cold but we are getting lots of snow. Even with some meltdown, the snow is  at least a foot deep.  More snow is expected to come this week.  Today is bright and the snow is sparkling.

The snow on the surface is very flaky this morning.  I know, snow is made up of snowflakes, but I mean the snowflakes are very flat and flaky without the classical snow crystals. I tried to capture it with a photo but no luck.  I find snow very hard to photograph.

The hemlock branch is weighed down with wet snow that froze as the temperature dropped.  Quite a few people lost their power because of branches leaning on the power lines.  We were fortunate and only were out for an hour, but others were powerless for a day.  We have a propane heater so even with no power we have heat.  We always have extra water in the house so it's not a big deal if the power is off. Inconvenient, but not difficult.

Happy New Year

Hope you have a year full of a rainbow of blessings:

Red: the excitement of new adventures
Orange: gardens of flowers and vegetables
Yellow:  the warmth of family and friends
Green:  good health
Blue: time spent on or near rivers, lakes , oceans
Indigo: peace and hope
Violet: fun creative activities

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and wishing you all a very good New Year.

Shortbread

Years ago I did lots of Christmas baking. The kids helped, too.  I often bought a magazine that featured Christmas cookies and other goodies, and we would decide what yummy stuff we would make. The kitchen would turn into a disaster zone as we listened to Christmas music and made our masterpieces.  Some of the baking was used as gifts, the rest we enjoyed over the holidays.

Now the kids have all moved on, and my husband and I don't really need the extra calories of Christmas cookies so I have given up the Christmas bake-fest - except for shortbread.  It's such a simple cookie but, oh so, delicious. I will probably make some extra and tuck it into the freezer so I can have a little piece in the depth of winter when I need a treat.

For the first time since we've been married, we won't spend Christmas at home.  We are going to our daughter's home where everyone will get together.  This year we have three new additions - a new granddaughter, a new daughter -in-law, and a new significant other for our other son.

I'm looking forward to being a guest, instead of a host.  Just a little more wrapping to do and I'll be ready.   Right now I am listening to the podcast of the CBC sing-in that happened in Montreal last week.  Lovely music.

I hope you  have special moments over the holidays, and if it is a sad time this year, I hope you have happy memories of other years.