*** Daily Wash Monday 23rd May 2011 ***

[Afriqueen]

Hello washgang from a beautiful autumn morning in Pietermaritzburg.
Temp set to rise to 29C this morning and a strong Berg wind blowing which heralds a cold front on the way. This is our season for CRRRRRAAAAAZZZY weather! Hot, hot, hot one day and then freezing the next. (Berg wind is the term for a wind blowing from the mountains [berg] towards the sea)

Took this shot of the sunrise sky from our lounge window at about 6.45 am. What do they say about a red sky in the morning?



Well, got another heavy day of studying ahead of me, so better get on and get my day started. Hope you all have a wonderful day. Hap - you and Annie are still in my prayers. May God give you both strength and peace.

BBL

[Lulu]

WOW!!!! that is so beautiful Gill!!
All the very best with your exams.

You know, I went to England because photos posted in the Wash whetted my appetite to see it all with my own eyes (and to meet the people who took the photos!), you never know I might get to Africa because of the same!!

Hap and Annie are in my thoughts and prayers too.

[Yorky]

Good morning Gill, Lulu and all to follow.

Beautiful dawn Gill.

Still very breezy here, Scotland and Northern Ireland are getting the brunt of the gales.

Two rooms almost ready for the decorator, much clearing out to do, sadly I packed up most of my books on Europe and foreign languages for disposal

Curtains and curtain rails to take down next ....

Doug

[shipbroker]

Lovely picture Gill.....

Not like that here,dull,has rained, and is blowing an absolute 'hooley' at moment....BUT did have 7 hours sleep so something is well with the world...

geoff

[UNK]

Went up north on Friday to open up the cottage and studio at the lake. Had to come home again - some %@@#&## stole 60 feet of my water pipe into the lake. Imagin someone doing that -simply cut out the 60 feet and buggered off with it. It's not so much the cost, but more the frustration of trying to get more in such a remote area. Bad cess I say!!!!

Will have to spend what's left of the holiday weekend at home - practicing what I learned in the Qyiller workshop - limited pallette, use greys to rest the eyes and so forth.

But did manage to get a rather fine sunset at the lake on the one sunny evening.





UNK

[cloudchaser]

Good day all,
Well it is blowing an extreme gale here today and is forcast to be windy all the week , so as I get to work by bicycle and travel 5 miles each way I don't think I will make it there this week.
Beautiful photo Gill, fantastic colours that nature produces for us to enjoy, glad you captured it for us to see!

Geoff, I love your part of the country and look forward to revisiting it in the near future, especially the north Yorkshire railway trip, just magic!!

Good luck with the decorating Doug, not my favourite task but nice when it's finished

Hi Lulu in foreign Cambridge

Wishing everyone a trouble free day and better health for those in need

Tony

[Yorky]

Morning Geoff, Wilf and Tony.

What a blaggard Wilf stealing your water pipe

Lovely sunset.

Just delivered 4 bags of old CD's etc to the local tip. Cassettes and videos next?

Doug

[Lulu]

Doug, do you know what old CDs are useful for? Hanging on fruit trees to stop the birds eating the fruit! (they swing around in the slightest of breezes).

Wilf, that is terrible!

Hello Tony in far away Cambridgeshire

Geoff, I know a different meaning for hooley! lol

Better be off to bed, it should be nicely warm now Uschi!

[ReggieS]

Good morning all! I have been busy this weekend and didn't get to read the wash. Raining here today after a gorgeous day yesterday!

Hap and Annie- my prayers are with you!

Wilf - sounds like you had a great workshop!!

Gill- gorgeous pic of the sunrise there!

GM Doug, Geoff, Lulu and Tony and all to come! OFf to shower and then to work!

Have a great day all!


Reggie

[Flattwo]

Hi to All

Was out early this morning and the wind is horrendous, the car was buffeted around like a tin can! 80mph gusts, very dangerous!

We are due dust from the volcano erupting in Iceland, the last time my car was covered in the grey stuff, I think this time I will send the Icelandic government a cleaning bill, the stuff gets everywhere

Doug, I would have paid the decorator a few pounds more to do the wallpaper stripping, he has got the easy job to do!

Henry

[CharM]

Good morning Everyone!! We awoke to a pleasant surprise this morning... it's not raining... it's breezey, and the humid air feels like it has rain in it... yet... for now, though, the sun is shining and the birds are happily singing their hearts out... I've opened windows and doors to take it all in...

Yesterday's family gathering at my Cousin's home was really nice... we were able to sit out on the patio and enjoy the warm Spring afternoon...

I have Students today, despite this being our Victoria Day holiday. Because my Son was home last week, I cancelled those classes... I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to in my absence!

Gill your picnic visitors were fun to view and this sunrise is just gorgeous! Happy studying...

Hiya Lulu (I'll take lots of SW Ontario pics), Doug (purging our *stuff* is a good thing) and Geoff (yay sleep!!!)...

How awful, Wilf... that kind of thievery makes me so angry... your sunset was a beaut!

Hi Tony... so is the terrible wind keeping you from work? You'll have to paint, or something...

Have a great work day, Reggie!

Are you getting that ash again, Henry? Will it be grounding planes again?

I've made the coffee and will get my breakfast out of the way... I have stuff to do before everyone begins arriving... So, I hope you all have a very happy and creative day!

[Yorky]

Just heard about the tornado in Joplin Missouri? How awful and waht terrible loss of life. I feel for everyone affected.

Off to the nursing home now.

Doug

[painterbear]

Good Morning all,
It is just about 8:15 a.m. here in wet Oakwood. Rained with thunder and lightening earlier this morning, so I had to shut down the computer until it was finished. Will have more later this afternoon according to the weatherman though. Hopefully it won't be until I am home from my art class.

Horrible tornado yesterday ripped through Joplin, Missouri, and several other towns. The damage and loss of life is horrendous and the town is 70% flattened.

I'm working on my class for Wednesday. We'll be painting a color wheel and talking about things related to it like color schemes and color harmony, etc. I'm digging through my old stack of paintings to see if I can find examples to show them.

Yesterday Larry and I drove north to Troy (close to where Anita lives) to see the Ohio Watercolor Society's traveling exhibition. There were 40 paintings and it was fun to see them and look closely and try to figure out how they were painted. Here are the top three winners, although there were several other "special" awards from organizations like Cheap Joe's, M Graham Paints, and Watercolor Artist Magazine. I was happy to see two of my friends and classmates had paintings in the show.

Char, Enjoy your nice weather....since you seem to get ours a day later, we are supposed to have rain every day this week. Have fun with your class. I'm sure they are eager to show you what they've been working on too.

UNK, at those nasty thieves. People are so selfish, they only care about themselves and what they want and the heck with everyone else. Looking forward to seeing your Quiller-influenced paintings.

Doug, We had to remove wall paper that had been on our walls in a couple of the bedrooms for who knows how long (the house was 60 years old when we bought it). We used the little gizmo Johnny described to score the paper and then soaked it with a special solution we bought and then scraped and scraped to get it all off. It worked very well, but still took a bit of doing. After cleaning the walls, we painted. Much cleaner and nicer IMHO than wall paper. Larry's little office space still has floral wall paper on the walls, but we ran out of energy before we got there and he said he doesn't mind it.

Lulu, If I thought old CDs would keep squirrels out of the garden I'd have them hanging from every pole.

Gill, What a gorgeous sunrise and great way to open the Wash.

to Geoff, Tony, Reggie, Henry, and all who are on their way.

SYL,

Sylvia

[Uschi]

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Another lovely day in the making.

Since this is a public holiday there is no table tennis today. My neighbour, who is a professional artist is coming over to sit in the garden and paint tulips with me (her idea )

She paints mostly acrylic and oil but also loose watercolours. Yesterday afternoon I was over at her place to watch how she paints lilac, looked like she was playing - little doodles here and there, no drawing, lots of water and yet the impression was that of a lilac. The interesting thing is she wants me to teach her how to paint realistically (tight), she says she cannot do it

Unk, that is so dreadful. Lovely sunset!!

Gill, LOVE your photos from your picnic and your sunrise is so beautiful too!!

Geoff, 7 hours - WOOHOO!!

Char, glad you are having a nice weather morning!!

Henry, I didn't know that the Iceland vulcano was erupting again, yes , the dust must be nasty.

Doug, wonderful that your part of the redecorating is almost done. Didn't take that long, did it.

Reggie, wimpy Lulu , Tony to you and wishing you all a good day!!

P.S.: Sylvia, I just heard of the tornado on the radio, terrible Thanks for the link, that top painting really does look like a photo, amazing.

Uschi

[Ellen in Ont]

everyone,
It is grey and raining on and off right now. Tonight it is supposed to go down to freezing with ice pellets and snow. I'll have to bring in the plants that are waiting in their pots to be planted. Another month before it is safe to put them in the ground.

Yesterday we went uptown and I bought some of the product called Stone Effects to coat our front steps. Now I just need a couple of days of nice dry weather to put it on. I also looked at products to get ideas for redecorating our kitchen. Apparently to order the quartz counters I want you have to remove the old ones so they can measure and then wait 10 weeks for them to be delivered.

Nightshift again tonight and we will be working short (again). I'll have to have a nap later to build up some energy.

Beautiful photo Gill and loved your picnic ones.

Wilf - another beautiful photo. How awful that they stole your waterline!

Char and Sylvia - your students are so lucky to have you both as teachers. They will learn so much.

Terrible news about the destruction and loss of life with the latest tornado. I am lucky to be living up here where very few natural disasters can happen. My thoughts go out to families affected by all the disasters lately.

I have things to get done so I'll just wish everyone a happy day.