this 'n that again

One of the reasons I have been a bit remiss about posting regularly lately is that I have such an accumulation of photos, which seems to grow daily, and it takes ages to go through them to resize for the web. Since sleep is evading me tonight, it seemed like a great opportunity to go through them, do some weeding and sorting, and generally get my files into some sort of manageable form!

In the process I discovered a whole folder of pictures from Ethan's third birthday, which was a month ago, and thought I would share a couple of highlights.

The anticipation as he opened each one was great,

followed by delight as he saw what it was.

The BMW from great aunt Charlie and great uncle Malcolm (great in more than one sense, I might add!!) was a real hit. For some reason, he has it fixed in his head that a beamer is pronounced bummer, so there was much hilarity as this one was opened.

He phoned to say thanks,

...... huh? what was that?

He has been a natural at all forms of ball games, practically before he could walk the little guy was throwing a ball with deadly accuracy, so, much to his delight, he got a mini cricket set and a soccer ball.

After lunch, off we went to the Park to try them out.... he started out hitting the cricket ball like a golf ball... then K had the bright idea of throwing him the soccer ball, he started out batting it about, and then he and J dribbled it around.... and then it turned into a general soccer game, even grandpa had a go.

(And granny, whose knee had just had surgery at that time, was delighted with a valid excuse to be official photographer, and bypass the running around!)

It is hard to believe he is already 3, where has the time gone?..

And speaking of that, here is the next impending grandchild, still a bump in C's tummy , while her mom (im)patiently bides her time. For some background on the white furball on what is left of C's lap, try this link to get to a post about her origins, from the new blog addict in the family..........

(seen here in what is now a standard position, lurking behind the screen madly adding posts and editing photos!)

Despite all the activity here, I am still trying to get some work done, so you will find some new work on the art blog, including one that I did mostly a la prima....

I discussed in a previous post the need to do more life painting, but it is hard to find somewhere around here where one feels safe sitting alone outside in the open for very long.

Anyway eventually I decided to throw caution to the winds, and decided that, if I sat outside the local laundry, where I could yell for Astrid if there was any trouble, it should be fine. Here is the photo I took as a reference, and the final painting..... I couldn't finish it in one sitting because the weather turned nasty 3 quarters of the way through, and i was eventually shivering so hard i couldn't control the brush, so i had to beat a strategic retreat and finish it at home!

And finally, you may remember that in March, there were some pretty wild seas and I showed a photo of the Port at St Francis, because i had never seen it so full....

Well last time we went down, a couple of weeks ago, I have never seen it so empty... no idea why.