Watercolors, again?

Every time I try to use watercolors, I get frustrated and vow never to touch them, again. And then… Yes, I try them, again. I love the look of watercolors and I have the hardest time using them to get the look that I want. Well, I did it, again. I watched a video and got inspired and dusted off the watercolors, searched all over and found my watercolor paper, searched all over and did NOT find my good watercolor palettes, and got started. I was talking to my mom on the phone while starting painting and when I gave out my first exclamation of frustration, she said, “That didn’t take long.” LOL!

I am reading Lark Rise to Candleford, a trilogy by Flora Thompson, and it is not really a story with a plot, but a long and detailed description of life, times, methods, ways of living, people, games, traditions, work, countryside, etc. It took a while to get into it, but after a while it got interesting. You can sort of put together a story as you read. It is a very long book and I am about halfway through it. It was originally published as three stories called Lark Rise, Over To Candleford, and Candleford Green. It is loosely autobiographical about a small village in rural agricultural England during the late victorian era. Very interesting.

At the same time, I am working my way through the audio version of The Mayflower: The Families, The Voyage, and The Founding of America by Rebecca Fraser. The reader is a little mechanical with inflections in the wrong places and, although the author appears to be sympathetic to all the people in the story, the reader does not. It may just be her style of reading. Otherwise, the book is very good. I am surprised that, in this day of rampant history revisions for particular agendas, this book appears to have no agenda and seems, to me, anyway, to report the facts. I like it and am a little more than halfway through it.

I am also slowly reading and savoring Edith Schaeffer’s Hidden Art of Homemaking, again. I love this book. Everyone in a household who is able to read ought to read this book: man, woman, or child. Art is everywhere, because God, the Creator of the universe, is the first Artist. As beings made in His image, we are creators, also. We should be creating beauty with our lives. Oh, so good! Get it and read it. I don’t know if it is in audio, but it would be wonderful if it was and Edith was reading it. It is too late for her to read it, but maybe one of her daughters…

If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation. — Edith Schaeffer