More from my journal…..

We have had the ” Swiss contingent” over for ten days which has been great fun, if a little exhausting! As part of their break we travelled as a family to the Pembrokeshire coast for a couple of days sun, sea and sand and our son and his wife managed to join as well. They are both wonderful at entertaining their four year old niece; an added bonus!

During a couple of their forays to the rock pools with” little one” to search for wildlife I had half an hour to do a sketch or two. I had to work fast; apart from the time factor the sun was very hot and the watercolour was drying very fast.

The top sketch was pencil and a watercolour wash done with a water brush and my Windsor and Newton travel paints. The lower picture I over sketched with a fine line pen as the detail was not showing up enough with the quickly drying paint. I wasn’t displeased with my efforts under the exacting circumstances.

Pembrokeshire is one of favourite places and has some of the best beaches and walking in the country. In fact 44 Welsh beaches achieved Blue Flag status this year. We stayed in the picturesque town of Saundersfoot- a cluster of colour washed cottages round an old harbour and wide, safe and sandy beach. There were some reasonable eating places and enough facilities to keep everyone in the party happy. Win win really.

Anyway, we are home now; all the youngsters returned their respective homes and work as of last night and I have just put the fifth load of washing into the machine…..

hey ho ……..