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Tuesday, 3 Sep 2019

I woke up to a blue sky this morning and my first thought was, I’m going to start my blog with that sentence.

Today is my Aunt Bobby’s birthday. The first since she passed last month. My thoughts and prayers are with my cousins and my Uncle on this, the first of many firsts of the coming year. That first year is so difficult, yet necessary. I remember when my Dad passed. The first month there were many ups and downs. One day I felt like my grief was crushing me and I wanted instant relief. I wished I could fast forward through the grief to a year in the future when it was easier. But then I realized it wouldn’t be fair to him or me, that I needed this time to honour my feelings and honour how I felt about him and our relationship. To remember, to cherish, to forgive, to let go, to accept, to love. As hard as grief can be, it is a necessary step on our journey.

I didn’t spend much time outside at all today, except for breakfast on the veranda as the sun came up and a quick jaunt to get a photo of my newest sunflower this evening and one which is starting to unfurl its petals.

My second batch of soap – Oatmeal and Honey – was ready to cut today. I used Christmas Eve fragrance oil in this batch and it smells heavenly and will be very hard to wait for it to cure!

I thought I’d try something different for my painting tonight. A small wet-on-wet. I wanted a sunset reflection so started with wetting just a small area of the paper, then added the colours and watched the watercolour work its magic. It can really take on a life of its own! At first, it looked like a pink thistle and I considered keeping it as it was, but then I decided to continue with my original plan of a sunset reflection and added in some details. When I showed it to Mom, it took her several seconds to realize what she was looking at. So, I added a few birds. Let me know what you see at first glance. Is it a sunset reflection or something else?