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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

Here is Lordship snuggly asleep next to big Ted...

I am resting now after the excitement of apparently a drone crashing in my back garden yesterday evening, and the man just over the road (the boyfriend of the woman that lives there) because he explained it had gone out of range and crashed in my back garden!

He spent an hour and a half looking through my jungle of a back garden.

And didn't find it.

And I am thinking that is not a very good range for a drone...

And I am also thinking he shouldn't have been flying that drone over private property...

But I weighed up pros and cons to letting him through my bungalow (no other access to back garden), and I do have a job that will need doing soon at the front of my bungalow which is well out of my reach. And I have noticed he is quite the handyman on his girlfriend's property...so I might be calling on his services soon...

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Lovely day ruined by one of my neighbours having contractors in to cut his 200 feet long Conifer Hedge, noise. :banghead:

Sat in garden and finished my yesterday's watercolour, because of the layering it's taken 2 hours but a lot of time spent waiting for layers to dry. A4 size, rough Canson Paper. Sherbrook near Devild Dumbke Cannock Chase.. Note the dark on the left is a shadow on the paper not the paint. Water not quite how I would like it to be, need to do more water scenes.

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Could not sleep and so the second watercolour was done very early from my Campervan looking over Birches Valley from Tackeroo on Cannock Chase, Plein Air A4 about 20 minutes outdoors then finishing touches this afternoon in garden about 45 minutes in total, wet on wet Arches cold pressed paper and some messing about later. Some artistic license as the sky was not really that cloudy.
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@gennepher nice Pastel, the figure is fine and gives depth to the composition. It was your pastel sunrises and sunsets that inspired me to get out there and have ago.
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
Lovely day ruined by one of my neighbours having contractors in to cut his 200 feet long Conifer Hedge, noise. :banghead:

Sat in garden and finished my yesterday's watercolour, because of the layering it's taken 2 hours but a lot of time spent waiting for layers to dry. A4 size, rough Canson Paper. Sherbrook near Devild Dumbke Cannock Chase.. Note the dark on the left is a shadow on the paper not the paint. Water not quite how I would like it to be, need to do more water scenes.

View attachment 41482

Could not sleep and so the second watercolour was done very early from my Campervan looking over Birches Valley from Tackeroo on Cannock Chase, Plein Air A4 about 20 minutes outdoors then finishing touches this afternoon in garden about 45 minutes in total, wet on wet Arches cold pressed paper and some messing about later. Some artistic license as the sky was not really that cloudy.
View attachment 41483
Click to expand...

A tremendous amount of depth to your first painting @Muddy Cyclist
There is a lot of work in this painting. Water is not easy.

I have to say I prefer your second painting, but that is a personal choice. I love the colours and the sky.
 
dunelm said:
Kefir - well the grains that had been festering in the fridge, swimming in milk for a few months have had to go. They insisted on working far too fast even when shoved into far too much milk and became acidic. So, thawed some out from the freezer and we are now back into production.
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Great that you had back up kefir grains in the freezer.
 
gennepher said:
Pastel for today's daily painting challenge.

This one was from some pastel paintings I had cut out of a book on how to paint pastels. I was running out of space for my books, and so about 10 years or more ago, I chose a pile of books I wasn't so bothered with (some I gave to friends, but I was still left with some) and cut out the pictures and photos I liked in them, and then put them in a shoe box....it was a couple of shelves worth of books. Some of the printed pages were cut out as well to make drawings and illustrations on them. But I never got that far, they are in the garage somewhere.

I chose this one because I wanted to try a person. People are not my thing...as you can tell. I worked on this figure half an hour and then gave up. I seriously do not like people in my paintings. Pastel took nearly 2 hours overall. I used Canson pastel paper again.

View attachment 41461

I need to go and put the washing out now. Then put the parasols up, and try and keep cool out there...
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Stunning painting.
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
Lovely day ruined by one of my neighbours having contractors in to cut his 200 feet long Conifer Hedge, noise. :banghead:

Sat in garden and finished my yesterday's watercolour, because of the layering it's taken 2 hours but a lot of time spent waiting for layers to dry. A4 size, rough Canson Paper. Sherbrook near Devild Dumbke Cannock Chase.. Note the dark on the left is a shadow on the paper not the paint. Water not quite how I would like it to be, need to do more water scenes.

View attachment 41482

Could not sleep and so the second watercolour was done very early from my Campervan looking over Birches Valley from Tackeroo on Cannock Chase, Plein Air A4 about 20 minutes outdoors then finishing touches this afternoon in garden about 45 minutes in total, wet on wet Arches cold pressed paper and some messing about later. Some artistic license as the sky was not really that cloudy.
View attachment 41483
Click to expand...
I love these paintings today.
 
Had a good day today. Did lots of admin but also spent time sitting in the garden reading.

Will start my new book shortly once I have re-read the last few pages of the book I have just read to make sure I have understood the ending.
 
gennepher said:
A tremendous amount of depth to your first painting @Muddy Cyclist
There is a lot of work in this painting. Water is not easy.

I have to say I prefer your second painting, but that is a personal choice. I love the colours and the sky.
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Thank you, I agree with you, lots of work in first one but I also prefer my quick sunrise, just needed to be a bit tidier where the colours bleed together, but it was just supposed to be capturing the moment.
 
good evening all :)

4.1 yesterday and 4.1 today

missed posting yesterday :sorry: we have Katy with us for a few days after her op and tooth removal, she was pretty sorry for herself yesterday but is much more lively today :joyful:

Katy's currently sporting a tailored onesie the vet recommended rather than the 'cone of shame' because she's so small ;) very fetching :hilarious:

We took her with us to get the shopping this morning and took turns to stay with Kate in the car then went over to mum's so she could see that Katy was perking up.
It was such a lovely day we ate dinner outside in the garden, very relaxing, then decided that because it was so warm and dry we'd mow some grass. I didn't have any gardening togs with me and I'll leave the picture of me in mr. gee's spare gardening boots to your imagination :D

Hope your day is treating you kindly :)

@JohnEGreen - sorry for the delay in replying :sorry: I use full pans and I bought a set. there seems to be two schools of thought, one is that you should limit your pallet when learning so as to learn to mix colour, the other seems to be let rip with the colours and learn how to avoid 'mud' as you go :) (that seems like more fun to me :D )

For myself I don't have enough experience to know what colours I will enjoy using most regularly yet so I chose to buy a set with a lot of colours, perhaps when I have developed my own list of 'favourites', I'll move over to buying tubes, tubes are cheaper per volume but, of course, more expensive each.

@gennepher I like both your most recent pastels, your sunset skies are inspirational :joyful: I'm with you on 'figures' but it seems to work well here :) The canson paper is working out well too.

@Muddy Cyclist - I enjoy both your pictures and really appreciate the work that went into the first, I find water an interesting challenge (and often a hit or a miss) and I've never managed such detail as your work and the light in it is wonderful. I'll confess I absolutely love the second artwork though, such lovely singing colour :joyful:

Art catch up -

no 1 - a slightly abstract landscape of a small loch.
upload_2020-5-20_21-17-33.jpeg

no 2 - Katy ;) done from a photograph

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geefull said:
good evening all :)

4.1 yesterday and 4.1 today

missed posting yesterday :sorry: we have Katy with us for a few days after her op and tooth removal, she was pretty sorry for herself yesterday but is much more lively today :joyful:

Katy's currently sporting a tailored onesie the vet recommended rather than the 'cone of shame' because she's so small ;) very fetching :hilarious:

We took her with us to get the shopping this morning and took turns to stay with Kate in the car then went over to mum's so she could see that Katy was perking up.
It was such a lovely day we ate dinner outside in the garden, very relaxing, then decided that because it was so warm and dry we'd mow some grass. I didn't have any gardening togs with me and I'll leave the picture of me in mr. gee's spare gardening boots to your imagination :D

Hope your day is treating you kindly :)

@JohnEGreen - sorry for the delay in replying :sorry: I use full pans and I bought a set. there seems to be two schools of thought, one is that you should limit your pallet when learning so as to learn to mix colour, the other seems to be let rip with the colours and learn how to avoid 'mud' as you go :) (that seems like more fun to me :D )

For myself I don't have enough experience to know what colours I will enjoy using most regularly yet so I chose to buy a set with a lot of colours, perhaps when I have developed my own list of 'favourites', I'll move over to buying tubes, tubes are cheaper per volume but, of course, more expensive each.

@gennepher I like both your most recent pastels, your sunset skies are inspirational :joyful: I'm with you on 'figures' but it seems to work well here :) The canson paper is working out well too.

@Muddy Cyclist - I enjoy both your pictures and really appreciate the work that went into the first, I find water an interesting challenge (and often a hit or a miss) and I've never managed such detail as your work and the light in it is wonderful. I'll confess I absolutely love the second artwork though, such lovely singing colour :joyful:

Art catch up -

no 1 - a slightly abstract landscape of a small loch.
View attachment 41517

no 2 - Katy ;) done from a photograph

View attachment 41519
Click to expand...

Thank you for the lovely compliments @geefull

I absolutely love your small loch painting. I like the way you do the hills, near and far.

Katy is lovely, she looks beautiful!
 
geefull said:
good evening all :)

4.1 yesterday and 4.1 today

missed posting yesterday :sorry: we have Katy with us for a few days after her op and tooth removal, she was pretty sorry for herself yesterday but is much more lively today :joyful:

Katy's currently sporting a tailored onesie the vet recommended rather than the 'cone of shame' because she's so small ;) very fetching :hilarious:

We took her with us to get the shopping this morning and took turns to stay with Kate in the car then went over to mum's so she could see that Katy was perking up.
It was such a lovely day we ate dinner outside in the garden, very relaxing, then decided that because it was so warm and dry we'd mow some grass. I didn't have any gardening togs with me and I'll leave the picture of me in mr. gee's spare gardening boots to your imagination :D

Hope your day is treating you kindly :)

@JohnEGreen - sorry for the delay in replying :sorry: I use full pans and I bought a set. there seems to be two schools of thought, one is that you should limit your pallet when learning so as to learn to mix colour, the other seems to be let rip with the colours and learn how to avoid 'mud' as you go :) (that seems like more fun to me :D )

For myself I don't have enough experience to know what colours I will enjoy using most regularly yet so I chose to buy a set with a lot of colours, perhaps when I have developed my own list of 'favourites', I'll move over to buying tubes, tubes are cheaper per volume but, of course, more expensive each.

@gennepher I like both your most recent pastels, your sunset skies are inspirational :joyful: I'm with you on 'figures' but it seems to work well here :) The canson paper is working out well too.

@Muddy Cyclist - I enjoy both your pictures and really appreciate the work that went into the first, I find water an interesting challenge (and often a hit or a miss) and I've never managed such detail as your work and the light in it is wonderful. I'll confess I absolutely love the second artwork though, such lovely singing colour :joyful:

Art catch up -

no 1 - a slightly abstract landscape of a small loch.
View attachment 41517

no 2 - Katy ;) done from a photograph

View attachment 41519
Click to expand...
Thank you for your appreciation of my paintings. I need to become less controlled and more abstract but not quiet as sloppy as the painting in the sunrise. I'm going to stick with the water theme for awhile see if I can get the picture in my mind onto paper, so lots of sketch book painting for a day or two.

That lanscape is a success, the layers of hills and like you say abstract feel is very well executed as is the sky, not easy to get that happy medium between abstract and convincing impression, well done.

Liked the way you executed the shadows in Katy's painting and rememberd that all important light in the eyes.
 
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