Watching for Yeast to Bloom
Read MoreSaturday, Jul 6 at 7:43 AM
Dear One Most Special: the books are PERFECT! Hard to choose which one will be most loved. It's a toss up between the three books: Picasso and Pikelets tie for first place but Portraits will hold their attention, as well. Am very eager to begin with the Picasso book this morning. It will be just the thing to loosen them up with the color (and comedy) of the project in order to banish the doom and gloom of impending rain this morn. Very dark here, now. Glad I got out of the boat early in order to get here to have a quiet moment before Ludy arrives (god help us...it's laundry day!) and then I have to focus on unpacking the boxes of supplies I bought in town yesterday before the kids arrive and I totally lose focus...
Sunday, Jul 7 at 7:56 AM
Dear Patricia - it was a mind-boggling day, begun at 4am. A Good Day, but dizzying. We also had rain but it only tentatively resumed in the evening as I was staggering around, closing up the house, so I put it in high gear, forewent the shower, double-wrapped the bulky fresh laundry in plastic, left the laptop and camera (minus the SD card) there, and just made it back to Pilar in time to avoid the full downpour. Drank two glasses of wine (heavily laden with melting ice) while fixing a salad and reading a book during dinner...then crashed into deep sleep by 8.
It is a glorious morning, am wonderfully rested and about to do a bit of sanding/sealing on the skylight, but am too eager to download the photos of the kids with your books, yesterday, to wait any longer to send them to you!
We never did manage to make the recipe for pancakes that Daniel (6 not 7) had chosen but I did capture this dismaying photo of Renato’s adorable, totally forgivable daughter (not yet 3), marking pen in hand, with the open cookbook and the broad sweep of her drawing visible on the page. Sigh.
However, by a fiercely determined force of will, I gathered EVERYONE around the table; armed with ten, quarter-sized papers and a box of pastel sticks, we began copying the whole first section of Picasso’s paintings of Faces. Standing at the head of the table, I held the book up and covered the original on the facing page so they had to follow the line-by-line steps for each drawing. Fascinating madhouse as the frenzy for “Where’s my YELLOW!?!!” etc., etc., filled the air, and I rued not having the ability to take photos, until the very end, that is, when I finally propped the book up so a couple of shots could be taken while they did the last one.
THEN, amid the groans because it was almost time for cake and ice cream, I dumped the big bag of colored paper scraps on the table, gave them 15 minutes and a single, full sized (8-1/2 x 11) paper, and told them to make a Picasso-style face with the found scraps. Several tried to revert to cutting out an oval with traditional facial features but that idea was squashed. More groans.
Did manage to have Resty Joy send you a Thank You email but by then Daniel’s father had returned and the kids were drooling on the refrigerator so everything was swept away and, frankly, when the birthday song was sung, cake eaten, chocolate ice cream mustaches & blotches on the floor wiped, the dishes all washed....a tired but smiling mass exodus ensued.
That’s about it for now. Will send more, later, just wanted to be sure I sent an update.
Oh! The maybe best part came first thing in the morn, when Christian arrived, saw the Picasso book, immediately brought his drawing pad & pastels to the table, and proceeded to copy possibly 12 or more of the lessons. He’d gone past faces and was into birds, last I saw. So of course he was pretty cocky when it came time for everyone to attempt the drawings. Gratifying, to see his sense of competency.
Thank you for that!
Now will close, with love as always for your support and deep friendship.
D
P.S. a video of the whole day can be found in here, in SATURDAY ART, titled, DANIEL'S SATURDAY BIRTHDAY, and if confused about the title for this post, check July 28th's HOME page for clarification.
