Seaweed 1

As promised, here's the first installment of my holiday creations and sketches!

First up, a collage of scrap paper and a poplar leaf.  There is a bank of poplars behind our tent pitch, and they get quite noisy when the wind rustles the leaves.  In fact, you can predict the weather that will greet you before sticking your head out of the tent - the amount of rustle indicates the wind strength (it's never not windy in Brittany) and the lighthouse foghorn tells you everything else you need to know....

and then another collage, which has been festering in a clingfilm sandwich for three weeks now and has developed some alarming spots.  Probably a bit of a biohazard now...could it be cured by ironing it?  That would mean finding the iron...There is a piece of ripped paper in the shape of some seaweed in the middle of the collage, but its almost impossible to spot.  I was going to do some more work on it, but I'm not so sure now. 

And then some seaweed.  I was fascinated by the hexagons formed by the overlapping branches.  This is not as "free" a drawing as I would have liked, I was distracted by a leggy French teenager in a bikini who stopped to chat and watch me draw - I hate people watching me draw, and thought I'd found an out-of-the way perch on the rocks, but she actually wandered right over to come and see what I was doing.  Also, I cannot converse that easily in French (see previous post, no. 3 on the list) so I didn't know the gentlest way to suggest that perhaps she didn't watch and just went away, please.

And then some more seaweed, using Gina's technique of sponging over a masked shape - in this case, some paper ripped up to make "seaweed" (the real thing proved to be too slippery and curly).  I sponged the background over the seaweed shape (which then got stuck onto biohazard collage above) and then painted in the pink seaweed into the white space and added some white crayon.

Finally, some shells.  Hard to do as this was a hot day and the paint dries so quickly in the sun.  Well, it's either that or a wet misty day (a day of foghorns) when the paint doesn't dry at all...I wish I knew how to make shells look 3D.

My favourite sketches are my paddling knee deep seaweed sketches in my tiny sketchbook.  I'll scan them tomorrow. 

Now, I'm off for a restorative cup of tea.  Remember no. 7 on the list of resolutions - sleep on a firm surface?  Well my wishes came true last night. 

The Whippet has decided to be a Very Naughty Boy about bedtimes.  He went to Granny's house last week while we went to the wedding, and at Granny's house he's allowed to jump on the sofa and sleep on the bed...ahem.  All was well for a few days, but on Sunday evening when we gave him a bicbic and left him in his crate in the dining room - perfectly normal practice, have been doing it for two years - he kicked up a right old row and cried ALL NIGHT.  And he did it AGAIN on Monday night. 

Perfectly fine all day, happy to sleep in his crate whenever, JUST DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WHILE YOU GO UPSTAIRS TO BED.  Last night, I thought we could just leave him loose in the dining room and he could take himself to bed.  Which lasted about 2 minutes, because he STARTED EATING THE DOOR! 

So in the end, because Mr Gonecycling had to get up v. early for work, it was approaching midnight, and we were worried the neighbours would start to complain, I got a yoga mat, a blanket, a spare duvet and my pillow and slept in the dining room, on the floor.  I had enough of sleeping on a firm surface at about 4.30am and the Whippet was snoring, so I went up to bed.  He woke up and found I'd gone a bit later, snickered for a bit, but then settled himself and slept until 8am.  HOPEFULLY normal service resumed!