……experimenting with watercolour
Sometimes I’m not sure whether I should add colour to my sketches or not. This evening I took a chance and put some colour into my daffodils. Do you have a preference? Leave the sketch as is or add colour? I’m thinking of adding colour to the bouquet that I did here.
Back to sketching with ink. I love drawing. I don’t know why I’m so hesitant to sketch. This time I sketched a daffodil plant that I received at Easter and the remnants of the bouquet that my father gave me.
….even though it’s sunny and it’s milder today winter is not done with us
There are, however, clear signs that spring isn’t too far off.
…..the first blooms in my garden
….all winter I’ve been looking forward to my daffodils popping up in my garden
Okay so what happened? It’s the long weekend in May and not one daffodil in my garden has bloomed. My neighbour to the south of me has had daffodils for weeks now. Several weeks ago I took this picture of her daffodils through our hedge.
Today I spent hours in the garden and I noticed that my neighbour, N, has more beautiful daffodils along the far edge of her garden. Since we’re looking out for her place while she’s away for the weekend I took the liberty of taking some photo of her beautiful flowers. I’m sure she won’t mind.
….the only thing missing is painting
What a perfect day. I woke up early and started reading the book The Silent Wife. After a couple of chapters I made myself a cup of coffee and then started practising Somewhere Over the Rainbow on my ukulele. I’m hoping I can play it well enough to accompany the kindergarten class at this years school concert at the end of June. I then made myself an omelet and prepared fresh berries for breakfast.
My husband wanted to start planting in his new raised bed but we decided that it needed more soil and it needed to be sectioned off with string. So I made a quick trip to the dollar store for twine and the nursery for more soil. When I returned home I found that the front lawn had been mowed but now I could see where the dandelions were starting to expose their yellow heads. I donned my gardening gloves and pulled the weeds from the flower beds and the dandelions from the lawn. Then I took my trimming shears and trimmed away the long grass around the tree, at the edges of the flower beds, sidewalk and driveway and around the telephone pole…..all the areas that were missed by the lawn mower. 
It took me hours but it felt good to get out in the sun and fresh air and the yard looked so lovely and groomed. It was almost 3:00 before I finished and I had a party to attend at 4:00. I quickly showered, washed my hair, blew it dry and dressed for the afternoon birthday celebration.
It was a perfect day for a backyard get together. It was warm enough for people to sit outside and I got to meet M’s sisters and friends. M was celebrating her 70th birthday. She looked stunning and her son did a fantastic job organizing the entire affair. His friends did all the serving and bar tending. A great time was had by all.
The day’s not over yet, Maybe I’ll get a little painting in as well.
Cheers!
….maybe I should have broken these topics into separate posts
After yesterdays post I’ve had people ask me all day if I was okay. I’m fine. I was literally, just tired. I need to get more sleep and it was after all an exceptionally busy day yesterday. The headache I complained about hasn’t returned and I feel much less stressed today. Now, the kids, on the other hand were more exhausting than usual and I wasn’t the only one complaining. Is there a full moon looming? I think it’s partially due to spring fever. We’ve had a couple of warm days and it is Friday as well.
I hope everyone enjoyed the those warm moments because the temperature is about to go down again. When I got home tonight my daffodils were in full bloom so I took a few pictures before the winds started. When I went out later I noticed that some of the flowers have already been knocked off the plant.
Yesterday I told you about a new project that I started with my grade 2 students. I had these fabric crayons given to me many years ago and I wasn’t quite sure how I would use them. I knew that there were quite a few students in my grade 2/3 class that had finished the last project and the rest weren’t far behind. I packed up all the fabric I had along with the iron and ironing board and hoped for the best. I hadn’t even made a sample or tried out the crayons to see if they worked…..not always a wise move.
We took the rough copy paper we had used on the last project and on the unused side I instructed the students to make a drawing using the fabric crayons. I gave the dimensions they were to work in but I gave them free reign as far as the subject for their design went. I demonstrated how much crayon they needed to use in order to get a nice print and I suggested that if they didn’t want to draw something realistic they could draw a doodle design and fill in the spaces with lots of different colours. Away they went. Creativity at it’s best.
When people looked at what the grade 2s had done, many thought that I had drawn the design and they coloured it in. Not so. From start to finish the entire piece was their own creation. Through trial and error we discovered that we had to use quite a bit of pressure with the iron and if we went over the piece several times the print would become more intense. The other thing that we learned was that synthetic fabrics produce a more vibrant print compared to the cotton fabrics. I liked both. Each had it’s own special quality. When you see the examples, I included the original crayon drawing and then displayed the one or two prints next to it. Enjoy!
…. it seems like everybody around the world is commenting on the unusual weather
Yesterday was the first day that we ventured out onto the deck to enjoy the sun after our delicious Easter lunch. We decided to do dessert and coffee outside. As you can see from the photographs the temperature wasn’t all that warm and we donned our coats, vests and sweaters but the sun felt good on our faces as we tried to absorb some of that natural vitamin D.
Yesterday we also skyped our son in Rotterdam and spoke with him for a good 30 minutes or more. It was a video call so we showed him the table setting, and the food as it was coming out of the oven and he showed us the new blinds he put up in his apartment and then he went out onto his mini balcony and showed us his view of the street. Isn’t technology wonderful?
One of the things that B mentioned was the bitter cold they were experiencing and how the winds were relentless all week in the Netherlands. My cousin in Germany also told me about the unusual amount of snow they were getting for this time of year and my blogging friends in Dublin and Prenzlau also commented on the cold, snow and wind. None of this is that unusual for those of us that live in Canada or the NE sections of the U.S.A. but in Europe it’s a big deal because they’re usually well into spring by now with the flowers blooming everywhere.
And speaking about blooming, the mini daffodils that I bought for the table started to open today. I think one of my favourite things about Easter is the selection of all the wonderful flowers that you can purchase from the market this time of year. I treated myself to more tulips today.
When the tulips open up they should be a beautiful pink colour. The only other thing that would make this scenario perfect would be the addition of some pussy willows. I’m on a mission. Till tomorrow. Enjoy the day, wherever you are, regardless of the weather.
Cheers!
Mama Cormier 