My first sketch... In over a year

I know I am beginning to heal and come back into myself... Because I started.. And finished my first sketch.. Just a quick half hour one.. But it felt good to have a pencil in my hand and feel that creative rush.

Its a sketch taken from my favourite photo of a very good friend of mine, Michael. I haven't  *quite* captured his mischievious grin... So room for improvement on a few things.. I'll post the photo and my sketch.. So you can be the judge of it..

Am hoping to sketch some landscapes when the rain eventually stops..

The things you find cleaning up!

Guess what we found half way through our day of cleaning up part of Penny's yard?  A sword!!  I thought it was just a replica junky thing, so we played with it a bit and then showed Penny when she got back.

Very offhand she shrugged and said, "Oh that old thing, I haven't seen that for years. Its an 18th century cavalry sword from one of my ancestors."  Good Grief!

Granted now its extremely rusty and pretty much past it, but it seems such a shame to have had this in the garden beds for so long and pretty much had it.

New home for a bit. Battle HelpX

After a pretty shocking day of rain and driving across the country, we arrived in Hastings - well - in Battle to settle into our new home for the next 10 days.

The kids and I are doing a mixture of "help x" - where you go and live with people and work a few hours a day for them for no monetary exchange - and in return you have food and lodgings... and house sitting - which we did a bit of in Australia - where people go on holidays and need someone to come in and look after their gardens and pets while they are gone.  There are positives ( and negatives) for both - but I think it gives us a well balanced way of getting around the place on a shoestring budget.

So - lovely Penny has a rambling cottage, with a very vocal cat called Bertie and a horse called Murphy.  There is plenty to do here as things have gotten alittle ontop of her as far as organisation goes, so we will be busy every day assisting with tasks.

We've made friends with Bertie and settled in. Its extremely cold here, so am glad of the thermals I popped in.. brrrrr