Some Improvement - Quarantine Down

We are doing better so far - some mending of the knee (though a bad episode with side effects of the pain killer - no more oxycodone, and Dearest is not sure she wants to try the substitute, hydrocodone, though I got it for her just in case.,.), Youngest is eating closer to normal, though both he and I have uncomfortable stomachs, even three days after this one, and the quarantine is down so I can get back into my paintings.

So I did spend a few hours of the day with a brush in my hand, and it felt great. I finished Ursas Major and Minor ("full marks" as they say in England, to Alex who spoke up about the unfinished bottoms of the trees - not that I took his advice (I intend to never take advice about my individual paintings) I had already arrived at the same conclusion - but I was quite pleased someone spoke up about it. That's an invitation to more of you to do the same. Things like, "That bit in the upper left doesn't really work," or "The blue is turned up too high," or "Nice faces, but the nose on that one looks more like a milk bottle." It won't do any good, but I'll enjoy the remarks, and sometimes it might go like Alex's remarks and be what happens. Oh, and I had to move a star in the Big Dipper's handle (the Big Dipper is in Ursa Major, so I couldn't resist). The only star I usually see in the Little Dipper (which is in Ursa Minor) is Polaris. It's the cub's eye.

And I worked more on Glee 1. This one has been interesting for me because I have to make up the effects of the lights, and I'm only gradually finding my way to things that work better. There is a limit to how far I can push watercolors (in the repentance department) - acrylics would be better for multiple revisions - but this Arches Hot Press paper lets me get away with a suprising amount.

For the later evening, that's been the hardest time each day for Dearest, we picked out a movie to rent. So we just watched Love Actually with our two oldest. We have been wanting them to see some of the stories in it for the last two years, but they are only just now old enough to handle some of the others, and the language. So many great moments in that movie. And some really hard ones to watch, too - especially Emma Thompson's silent scene to Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. The scene works as choreography for the hands as much as it works as a fine piece of acting by a very talented actress and a real beauty, in my book. I found her, for instance, to be so sexy and beautiful in Much Ado about Nothing where she spars as Beatrice with Kenneth Branagh, as Benedick. But this is no surprise, as I fell in love with a similar woman - brighter and more forthright than I am.

And that has been my great happiness.

Get well, Dearest.