I spent the early part of the week admiring sunrises, painting soffits, cleaning windows, painting sheds and re-roofing one of the sheds. Consequently having convinced myself I'm as agile as I was in my forties and I've ricked my back and the rest of the old joints are as stiff as a board.
Will I ever learn? Well on the basis of this week's performance the answer is a categoric no. Needless to say the boss just gives me that old fashioned 'I told you what would happen' look and has made me come to halt on the heavy duty projects.
My strategic plan was to get the jobs out of the way to clear the path to uninterrupted fishing but the cunning plan hasn't quite worked.
Our ever expanding flock of starlings, the Upwell wing, continues to grow but it seems that there are social outcasts or socially distanced birds in this group too judging by the way 'Billy-no-mates' is always treated by them, or maybe he just likes to perch with his own company.
The signs of autumn are really in the air now. In the ever shortening evenings there are flocks of Swallows and House Martins heading south to the warmer climes of West Africa. We haven't seen a Swift for three or four weeks so those high speed birds obviously caught the early train for their winter holiday.
Having knackered my back I'm catching up on some outstanding print work. An order came in from a client in the Netherlands for a copy of the float box so I have printed all of the the line work and the main background area and I'm now hand colouring the small areas of the print. I'm using some beautiful Japanese water colours that the Boss bought me for Christmas. Anyway it's a work-in-progress at the moment and there are a lot of hours to put into the image before it can be considered finished.
Lots more of my prints can be seen on my other Wordpress blog www.johnrichardsonlinoprints.blog if you have a passing interest.
In one of the boxes were four or five interesting volumes including two produced and printed by, in those days, His Majesty's Stationery Office. I just love the illustration on Bomber Command, a dreadful scene but a very atmospheric illustration.
OK, back to the float box.
