good afternoon all
4.5 yesterday and 4.6 today
long day yesterday,
I started off the day by deciding that I was going to make ice cream to go with lunch at mum's (first time this year), a mixture of sweetened fruit puree, extra thick double cream, full fat yoghurt and real egg custard all sweetened with a mix of erthritol and truvia
when we got to mum's it was hot so we ate outside and with the threat of thunderstorms from the forecast got out the lawnmowers and spent the rest of the afternoon cutting grass.
Katy was staying with us last night because she had an early appt. with the clipper in Dornoch this morning, by the time we'd walked her round the village I was jiggered

sat down and fell asleep, didn't even get to doing any art other than a quick little pencil sketch during the afternoon.
Out early today with Katy, she is much more 'sveldt' this afternoon than she was this morning
Made some more jam this afternoon (blackcurrant and gooseberry), I find the smell that pervades the house nostalgic but very sickly sweet. so all the windows are currently wide open
Hope your day is treating you kindly
@ianpspurs - do you find making your own almond milk easy? I have trouble even grinding almonds properly myself, probably I'm using the wrong equipment
@dunelm - your 'sketches' always have a strong graphic composition and flow

the trees against the sky have such a feeling of the light in it
@gennepher - hope you're having a peaceful day today

.
two impressive pieces of art, lovely blending in those backgrounds, very atmospheric both of them, one very serene and one quite brooding
@Muddy Cyclist - interesting and solid progress on your trees and I like your pencil sketch very much it has a great sense of the place

sounds like it was a magical day.
Art bits -
thank you for the art compliments, it's a very encouraging and supportive group we have here
my sketches tend to be details of foliage or flowers rather than full landscapes but I do intend to try plein air
no 1 - trying out a couple of Derwent coloured (water soluble) graphite pencils, not one of my better efforts, the pencils didn't handle as I expected, I did a line drawing first then added a couple of other colours but when I used a wet brush to try blending the original lineart almost disappeared and I had to quickly sketch over it again
View attachment 43243
no 2 - a small letterbox in my usual style
View attachment 43242