It has been a mild and beautiful Autumn. We are getting out for walks, cooking of course, Tricia is swimming three days a week, and I am planning a workshop.
Saturday I used the Faber-Castell Matt pencils for a sketch of someplace in Provence.
Monday I did some random sketches while we were watching a travel video on Vienna. Sketching with graphite, ink, and then using an Ice Blue, Faber-Castell pen brush for highlights and shade has become a favorite for these daily sketches. One nice thing is that I don’t have to carry much.
Tuesdays, Tricia does a virtual yoga class with Alexis, who conveniently is a yoga instructor. Though I regularly did hot yoga pre-pandemic, I left them to their session and headed out for a walk, Tricia planned to join me when they were done.
My first stop was to check out River Pig Saloon, we have walked by it often but never went in. Though they are often quite busy, at 3.00 pm I was the only patron. It is a dark wood, speakeasy, western style place. With no one but me there; the bartender read a book, I did a sketch.
The week has been a varied food week. Friday we had steak with a blue cheese sauce. You can see from the photos that our steaks are pretty small, we don’t have them often, and when we do we cut a New York Strip in half. Tricia does enjoy it, yet red meat is not something she eats much of; she just reminded me that it must be grass-fed and humanely treated. We also had a French preparation of thinly sliced potatoes, layered with onion, and baked in our own vegetarian stock. The salad was mixed greens with pomegranates, pistachios, and on mine blue cheese.
Saturday Tricia made steamer clam pasta with pine nuts.
Alexis and Joe came for Sunday lunch. Tricia made the entrée, crostini with procutio, roasted cherry tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms – it is always one of my favorites. For the mains I roasted a pork loin with an apple cider sauce. We served it with mash and maple-roasted Brussel sprouts.
Tuesday Tricia made one of my all time favorite comfort foods, shepherd’s pie. Her’s is vegetarian, but even the most die-hard meat and potatoes person would find it plenty hearty and satisfying. How can you go wrong with melted cheese under the broiler?
Yes! You Can Travelsketch!
The commitment is made, I will be doing a workshop at our apartment building in January. It will be good to get back to it. This time I will be projecting my demo on the screen so it is easier to see, and so that the sketchers can follow along step by step.
Sunday I will be talking again with Alliance Françe about doing a workshop there.
In just twelve days we fly to San Diego for a family Thanksgiving gathering. We will end that trip by driving to Pasadena to visit one of Tricia’s cousins. Then we will be meeting up with a blogger that we follow and who follows us – it is fun to compare experiences.
I hope your November is going well. We do have a lot to be grateful for: friends, food, a walk, and of course capturing it in a sketch.
