Flower of Scotland...

Heather yesterday, thistle today :-)  

One of my favourite flowers and probably the one I've painted the most! 

Didn't set my alarm this morning and woke up with that lovely feeling of having had enough sleep.  It was 8.38am, earlier than I was expecting.  

My friend Alison was meant to be coming for lunch tomorrow but has had to postpone.  I had planned to make soup and Empire biscuits this afternoon for our lunch so now had some unexpected spare time.

After lunch David headed off to his singing rehearsal.  Extra rehearsals being held on Sunday afternoons in the run up to their concert on the 9th September.  We're away for a week to Loch Tay starting this Friday so he'll miss next Sunday's rehearsal.  In fact he'll only make one more rehearsal on Tuesday evening as we return from Loch Tay on the afternoon of the concert.  Here's hoping he knows what he's doing!  

I took myself back to the studio and painted the background of the large tulip watercolour I'm working on.  When I say painted the background, I sprayed the paper with water and using a large brush, spattered yellow, pink, purple and green paint over the entire area and let it all run together.  Great fun.

While it dried I found an old watercolour paper pad that I've had for over 20 years.  It contains very cheap paper and explains why I thought my work was so terrible back then.  Wrinkles at the slightest touch of water and reduces all the vibrant paint colours to dull, blotchy versions of themselves.  Yuk.

Given how awful it is you'd think I would have just put it straight in the bin, but nope, the masochist in me decided to use a sheet of it to do a bit of a mindfulness painting - basically I drew random lines and squiggles and coloured them in using watercolour paint.  It took ages but was completely  absorbing and I really enjoyed it, the purpose being to enjoy the physical feeling of painting, rather than to create.

David returned just as I had started to doodle on the abstract shapes with white gel pen.  It was almost 6.30pm!  I lost all track of time...but I suppose that was the point.  

Stopped to make dinner and since then the evening has run away with me. Not sure if I will ever complete it, although I suppose I can keep it handy and when I feel the need for a little mindful exercise, I can start doodling on it again.

Decided earlier that since I have the ingredients for the soup and Empire biscuits that I'd planned to make for tomorrow, I might as well go ahead and make them.  I can freeze the soup then it's there for the taking, and D can take the Empire biscuits to his singing rehearsal on Tuesday evening.  They were a massive hit the last time :-)

So tomorrow suddenly got busy.  Better set my alarm! :-)