Torrential Rain this afternoon

I wanted to revisit the reservoir at Wortley Hall this afternoon where I was sketching last Thursday.  I wasn’t really happy with what I achieved last week, so I’ve decided to try and explore this a little further.  The original watercolour sketch covered the area that is slightly greyed out but after doing a quick iPad sketch from memory last night I decided that the image needed the right side of the water.  We’d had a bit of rain after lunch, but the weather wasn’t looking too bad, so we set off for Wortley Hall only to arrive five minutes later in the rain.  So a coffee was called for as we sat out the immediate rain cloud in the bar.  It seemed to stop, so we tried again but the rain was spotting again by the time we reached here (fortunately I’d been drawing beneath a huge and ancient oak tree which provided some shelter).  I managed a few photos and the quickest iPad sketch imaginable and then the rain came down heavily (and it lasted for a good 15/20 minutes.  So my iPad had to be put away.  The sketch wouldn’t make any sense to you, so I’m not sharing it here, but it did allow me to think about the colours in the scene. A photograph does tend to merge the greens into one overall colour,  so it will be a useful reference drawing for me.

This morning Tai Chi, followed by an hour and a half in the garden clearing the shrubs that have become very overgrown.  Merv is going to rebuild the garden wall.  Something said on a tv gardening programme last night made me realise I could use the clippings from our very sharp and spiky Berberis to line the cats hiding place among the perennials.  I found another dead baby blue-tit in there today!  I watched him approach the spot where he usually hides and saw him hesitate and then choose a different route after he saw the twigs.  I hope this might solve the cat problem for a while.  We have lots of baby birds on the feeders again at the moment and he’s an absolute nuisance!