Not for the Squeamish

Today is my Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday, Mom!

Started two studies this morning and they were both drying, so I tackled Dad's pantry. Dad is at golf. Dad has a big walk-in pantry with shelves on 3 sides. I figured there was as much expired stuff in there as in the refrigerator and there was too much stuff on the floor. I once cleaned my clogged sink, I did this often in my house, but I had a party the night before and it had been clogged overnight. When I opened up the drain, the most terrible smelling goo came out and I almost vomited. Cleaning Dad's pantry was worse.

Before the feral cat, Dad had a mouse problem. The backs of the shelves were full of droppings, and the top shelf corners also had nests made of peanut shells. I found the tube part of a hummingbird feeder upside down, and in the bottom was some old seeds and a dead mouse. I put the tube outside as a surprise for Dad. When I finished I took a long shower and was grateful the peanuts are long gone and I did not eat any. Country living is not for the squeamish.

Dad wanted to go out over the weekend, I guess even in retirement he still thinks there should be weekend activities, so we went to dinner Saturday night, and to a movie and dinner, with Dad practicing golf in between, on Sunday. I suppose it is healthy for me to get out a bit, but I am not used to eating out and I ate too much and do not bother to see MicMacs, it was weirder and not at all as charming as Amelie. (Amelie is one of my favorite films.)

All this activity put me, in my mind, behind on my painting. I spent all day Monday on the drawing for Mark and Hazel, but I did most of the drawing on the watercolor paper, which I do not usually do. Watercolors mostly do what they want and if you screw one up, you have to scrap it and start over. The more you labor to save a screwed up watercolor, the worse it gets. So, I usually do a drawing and transfer it to watercolor paper, so if I have to start over, I still have the drawing to reuse. I think I was trying to save time, and tracing paper, by doing the drawing directly and now I'm sorry. The reference is poor, and although the drawing is pretty good, the painting will be easy to screw up and now I have so much invested on the paper that it has become too precious and I hesitate to start. So, I went back to studies for today.