You'd never guess that I'm really interested in colour - sitting here in my Country Cream & taupe lounge (with different natural textures & patterns, and including a bit of sparkle). I even blend into the scheme in my fawn jeans and off-white top!

I'm reminded of Josef Albers and his Homage to the Square. However, it wasn't the shape of the square that interested him. Instead, he analysed the effect of particular colours against each other (see above). 'To put two colours together side by side really excites me. They breathe together like a pulse beat.' He was so engrossed in the relationships of colour within the square, that he devoted 20 years of his life to this one exercise!

I am less devoted but I love using colour. My pastel collection is mostly composed of vivid colour sticks - I don't like my pictures looking faded! The word, Pastel, makes most people think of fifties twinsets in sickly tints of washed-out colour. But pastels come in the same bright pure pigments as oil paints. Oh, I should be out in my studio. I'm so enthused! And it's been tidied, hoovered and de-charlied. However, there is a problem. I'm awaiting a cataract op, so doing artwork is hopeless as I seem to have a variety of lines available in my vision to follow (which makes drawing a challenge), and there is an annoying haziness (which makes painting unpredicatable and random)!!

Thwarted from producing anything arty that I feel certain about, I've taken to crochet  - and making Granny Squares! Funnily enough, (and I find it highly amusing that I immediately thought of Albers), yarn can be bought in colours akin to pastel brights. I have become absorbed in seeing how, row on row, the colours interact. I don't suppose this will engross me for 20 years but it is an interesting bridging experiment! Maybe I can combine crochet with my next pastel?

So my thought of the day is that there is no excuse for not being creative; no reason not to improvise when the usual routes are blocked. Hopefully, once the op is done, I will be out of the starting blocks and ensconced at my easel in nano-seconds!