... on little paintings for friends.

Aaah you Sunday morning! A cup of milky tea and a salty hard-boiled egg, a home-grown passionfruit and the sun making the curtains glow. A paintbrush among the toast crumbs... paintings for friends.

... on weekends of bliss.

Last weekend, it was my birthday. There was cake, and there were candles, and both were had in the very early morning.

Later, there was a long drive up into the mountains, car loaded up with C and woollens and wine and a wagyu roast, to this place. It was lovely to see dear family friends, Richard and Rosemary and Madeleine, and Madeleine's two girls, Millie and Sophie.

There were walks over dry-grass hills and through vineyards and olive groves, log balancing over the creek through the rainforest, a Very Special marshmallow roasting bonfire, and only one leech.

Thoroughly wonderful all round!

... on motivation.

I got a parcel in the mail this week. In it is a blank Moleskine notebook (the brown-cover sort) and some instructions. See, I've joined The Sketchbook Project, where I get to hold on to this Moleskine for a few months and fill it with stuff, which I then send back to America. It meets lots of other sketchbooks filled with stuff and tours the country. It's even themed - mine is 'The view from up here".

I'm not sure why I was attracted to do this - after all, you have to pay to do it, and I could have gone to the shop and bought the same Moleskine to fill and keep if I'd felt the urge. Maybe it's more about being sent a notebook and being expected to fill it - it's a motivating factor. I wouldn't be filling a notebook otherwise - and creatively speaking, it's promising!

How promising is a blank notebook? I can't resist!