I've been VERY busy for weeks now.
I had been working on a new pic, but then I met my sis and she presented me with an armful of rhubarb from her garden. If I had had any room in my freezer, I would have just stewed it and forgotten about it for a few months. But the freezer was packed to the gunnels. So I had to make a big batch of Rhubarb & Strawberry Jam! No further artiness. Chasing my tail.
Next my yoghurt-making kit arrived, so I had to try it out. I've now made about 3 pints of yoghurt. I bought a few extra 250ml Kilner jars to make individual portions, pimped up with fresh fruit & nuts, flavoured with a good pinch of cinnamon and sweetened with runny honey. It's very yummy, but alas, no artiness.
Then someone gave me a Smiddy Dumpling - a cake using flour, as opposed to a Clootie Dumpling using suet + flour. It's like a Canadian Fruit Cake, using boiled fruit plus carrots, so the result is a very moist cake. But very heavy! So it needed to be sliced up and put in the freezer - or else I would soon end up like Ms Roly Poly. (!)
But no room in that pesky freezer.
So I had to defrost a pile of last autumn's Rowan Berries. Nothing else for it but to make Rowan Berry Jelly. I should have added more water to the boiling, 'cos it set quickly and solidly, and took on the consistency of strawberry jelly cubes straight from the wrapper. I think it will be tasty added to a meaty gravy - if I can first hoick it out of the jar!
Chasing my tail. Still no artiness.
Then Daughter2 phoned to say both grandkids wanted to visit prior to our family-of-9 holiday. So I had roughly 10 days to sort out my pic and get it framed and out of the way, before their arrival.
It's amazing how a deadline can put ideas suddenly into sharp focus!
And the painting was completed and framed by the deadline. No time yet to add it to Gallery1 before the main family-of-9 holiday tomorrow, 'cos I'm still chasing my tail.
Suffice to say: it's called, And then a memory is released; it's very red; and there's a collage of pressed wildflowers within the pic. I'll add an image to the end of this post, and add it to Gallery1 on my return.
Me and Hebe-the-dog had an eventful week with Grandkid1 (10 years) and Grandkid2 (6 years). Daughter2 left them with me and returned home.
My day was full-on from around 7am, when Grandkid2 arrived in my bedroom with a huge grin, announcing he needed porridge! If he dozed off, it was only for less than 15 mins, with his legs splayed across me, so there would be no extra dozing for me. Then his sister tottered sleepily through to the kitchen about 8am, and then we took Hebe-the-dog out for her first walk.
The after-lunch walk was longer and usually involved a picnic.
My familiar walks were all renamed. Eg: the Aldie Burn Walk was called the Pizza & Cake Walk, 'cos we first went to Lidl's to buy a pizza slice and a cake-of-your-choice from the bakery dept. Then we scoffed the pizza at the picnic table at Aldie Burn carpark, and then ate the cake in a wee open hut, half-way round the walk.
The Camore Wood Walk was renamed the Square Walk, 'cos the forestry track takes on that shape. Two years ago it might have been called Grandkid2-falling-off-the-bench Walk, 'cos Grandkid2 - somehow - managed to fall off, or through, or under the 3 picnic benches scattered along the route!
The Brora Beach Walk was called the 2 Ice Creams Walk, 'cos we had one flavour of ice cream from Capaldis before the walk, and another before we went home.
The Golspie Beach Walk was aptly named the Jellyfish Beach Walk. There was a hopscotch of jellyfish splotched everywhere - on the sand and in the sea. So barefeet and paddling were off limits.
That said, our walks were mini adventures, with stick weapons searched for and found, and taken back in the car as trophies, to be left on my front doorstep. To ward off any potential danger, I presumed.
But now my adventurers have returned home. And I've still got holiday shopping to do, a bag to pack, washing to hang out, plants to water etc etc.
Still chasing my tail.
Oh, to find time to relax and recharge! Time for a holiday.
Only one day to go!
Below: And then a memory is released
