The last day of 2017.
I do not intend to do a round up of all the doings and achievements of 2017.
Suffice it to say that I am still here, so is the DP, and all our kids, their partners and their kids, and not to forget their pets. That is achievement.
The weather forecast was all doom and gloom. However. I went. No wind, no rain, was fine. So I walked.
On the horizon a boat that would have taken out a container to one of the oil rigs. Hope they get back to harbour in time for the festivities. Scotland shuts down for the next two days.
A Black Headed Gull was the only bird on the beach.
Home again and to the shedudio. The wind had begun to pick up and gust as I returned to the car.
I did another pen and ink Oystercatcher.
Making a collection!
When I returned to the house I noticed strange cloud formations.
On the horizon is a Rainbow Cloud.
And in the other direction a beautiful sunset.
A satisfying end for Nature for 2017.
Onwards and upwards 2018.
I met up with an old friend today, on the Prom. "How are you?" he asked. "Struggling." I replied, always honest me. "But you are out!" Indeed. He has Parkinsons. He holds down a job, indeed he was on call from Christmas Day til 8 a.m. on New Years Day. As a joiner for the Council. So... I will battle on.
Weather it is one thing you cannot rely on! Today was sunny. No wind. Okay it was cold. I can cope with that although the lungs struggle.
There were 3 Surfers. They make it look so easy. Well this one did.
Oystercatchers.
Great Black Backed Gull.
Black Headed Gulls. There were others but this lot posed.
Another friend on the beach. Ace photographer. I snapped him. And he snapped me.
I need to buy a new hat.
Today's art work. Oystercatcher. Of course. When one's inspiration disappears paint in the comfort zone. Pen and ink.
Managed to watch the rest of the Jurassic Park dvd. It has now gone into the charity bag. I still do not know whether the good dinosaur survived or not. I expect there will be a sequel.... If I am still here.
Right I will deal with the New Technology first. We were gifted by one of our four daughters the latest in the Jurassic Park dvds. I certainly enjoyed the first three - not sure about the rest - but the latest was on my wish list. The music by John Williams is so fantastic. So we sat and the DP pressed all the buttons and it began on our new dvd player.
In French.
I will not go into all that he tried for an hour which included a telephone call to the gifting daughter. The worry is that he does not know what he did for us to be finally watching it in English.
Hopefully I will get to see the rest of it tomorrow. Although so far it appears to be very silly.
I gave up.
So today my other battle with New Technology was, I think, updating Windows 10. So before lunch I agreed to do this. It did say it would take some time. As I left to go to the Prom and my walk over an hour later we had got to 2% updated.....
At the beach.
This morning there was ice, frost, snow on the ground But there was no wind. So I went . So cold. I could feel my tubes to my lungs shutting down.
Lots of Gulls, Oyster Catcher.
And some daft people.
More Gulls.
When I came home the computer told me there were more updates. By this time I had lost the will to live. But basically it wanted me to find out, discover all the wondrous things it had provided me with. So I pressed enter and got back to what I was familiar with.
Basically I cannot remember all my passwords.. And I am quite happy with what I have - without bloody updates.
Rooks, Crows, Jackdaws and Starlings. Masses of them settling in the field to the front of the house and then en masse going to the field at the rear of the house. They must have been watching Hitchcock.
I have not walked today. A fairly normal day in the Winter for North East Scotland. Wind, rain, hail, snow, temperatures below freezing. I can cope with this but not all together or just as you think it has eased and the sun comes out, back it comes. Battering on the windows. The forecast is for less wind speed tomorrow. So one less I can cope with the rest and intend to walk.
The birds went up from the fields and lined up on the wires.
There were also masses of Wood Pigeons in the fields. But they do not line up on the wires.
Today's painting - in ink. Need to sort out it's pink leg. More red than that.
I am now itching to get rid of all the Christmas Decorations. As I always do. But the DP will not allow, although I have him convinced that 12th night is the 4th - and I do sneak some out before then.... The Christmas Tree from Aldi has done amazingly well and hardly dropped a needle. It will be turned into photogenic perches for the garden birds and eventually chopped up for the wood burner.
We still have Hogmanay to come. The Press were claiming today that no-one knows the words for Auld Lang Syne. Do you?
Thankfully I remembered I had a hair appointment today for a cut and blow. Good job I happened to check the diary.
So my ears have been lowered. But the style was better before I pulled on the woolly hat to brave the 30 mph winds, rain snow and sleet and venture on to the prom.
Actually when I got to the prom after the hair do the sun was peeping out and I thought if I dont get a lungfull of sea air I will expire. So I got out of the car. The chariot had its first airing with the extra bling.
But there were no people to see it!
Jeez it was cold. As I had gone to the hairdressers where most of the customers are very well dressed and a lot more glamorous than I , I had not worn my waterproof, windproof trousers over my leggings. So the legs gave up and went into spasms within minutes. But I managed to get to the railings.
Over the railings on the beach there were the Oystercatchers.
One flock of.
And another, smaller, flock of Black Headed Gulls. Sheltering.
And a supermarket trolley.
Sith cat is totally thrown by the change in the normal daily routine.
But from now on we are back.
The whole of Scotland shuts down at New Year, unlike at Christmas when it is the day only. But here we will carry on!
What an awful weather wise day. Drip, drip, drip. From grey skies. No walk. No shedudio even.
However. My chariot received some more bling.
It did cross my mind to put my telephone number on and say I am available. But there was not then room for me to put 'for art commissions' so I thought better of it. So this is it.
I also got some new slippers. From Sith cat. Who, by the way, is totally thrown by the change in the daily routine and is still asleep on the bed, which does not bode well for the rest of the evening. Or night....
And lots of other goodies.
Earlier we had a group video meet up. With all 4 kids and us. Which was rather mind blowing for most of us. Particularly the younger set - and the older set. One of my grandchildren tried to destroy the screen that was split into 5 and I do not blame him.
But we have survived.
I look forward to tomorrow when the wind is back into double figures. It is not raining. The chariot and I will hopefully terrorise the Esplanade.
And - who knows with the amount of new painting, drawing, stuff I will be inspired to create, on my return to the shedudio.
Hope you all had a good time today and will no doubt continue tomorrow. Whilst I welcome back the 'thank god its over.'
Mild. It rained. It stopped. I walked.
Oh look I walked as far as the Dunes!.
But I drew the line for walking up the path of Doom.
The Oystercatchers were gathered.
Posing ready for me to draw and paint.
There was surf. And surfers.
Who seemed to know what they were doing.
As they enter the sea they do warm up exercises, which I always forget/ignore for my pulmonary exercises. They run on the spot and then run into the sea.
Thought this might be interesting for you all. Below is the caravan park. Above that are the boats out for dry dock repairs. Where they see to the bottoms of the fishing boats. Which is why you see them way up. Fish factories to the right and left and the caravans/statics below.
I have read recently that the reason why artists lose their flow is down to not decluttering their workspace.
Well-I have to take that on board.
Hey ho tis Christmas Eve.
