the running wave

There was a window of opportunity today to take a walk in some winter sunshine.  We have seen little of it over the past two or three weeks.  All the snow has melted now.  We didn't have very much in this part of East Lothian although the Lammermuir Hills to the south are still white in the distance. The winter countryside is almost completely colourless, grasses washed out and branches only just showing tiny new buds. There are occasional splashes of vivid colour. But there are also those longed for, magical, first signs of Spring and new life!  Wonderful! It was a good walk!

When I retired last Easter I was given some wonderful departing gifts by my work colleagues. One was a gift voucher for Leith School of Art .  This is a little gem of an art school in Edinburgh - well, Leith actually.  It is a place which is very close to my heart so I may have mentioned it before but make no apology for that!  It has been very much a part of our family life since we moved to Scotland and I hope it always will be.   My gift voucher has enabled me to attend a number of weekend workshops. The first was on the use of charcoal which I love to draw with.  I much prefer drawing to painting. The second was a two day course on lino cutting.  On the first day we had to dream up an image rather than use a still life and as I have a bit of a thing for Traprain Law, a volcanic hill in the middle of the East Lothian landscape, I decided to try and conjure up something from my memory.  Traprain Law is quite a distinctive shape and I see it every day so it shouldn't have been t

A Happy New Year to you from the running wave!  I hope 2013 is a happy, healthy and peaceful time for you and yours. I am not quite sure what happened to November and December!  They have been and gone in a twinkle!  I was busy with all the usual  buzz of everyday life.  Also I stayed with my very dear friend 60goingon16 and then my brilliant cousin Sue down in the south west of England.  That was a great visit and I took lots of photos with the intention of writing some posts about this and that, but it didn't happen!  I got caught up in the all the pre-Christmas stuff which seems to be so time consuming and expensive!  Anyway, the festive season arrived and it was all very nice!  Quiet though, because the tribe next door were down south with relations so Mr Gaucho and I had Christmas on our own for the first time since 1975.   So a new year now!  It's sunny today, 1 January 2013, and we are heading to the beach for a walk.  The children, dogs and adults have been coop