On the beach

The watercolour above is another in the series I have done of figures on the beach.


When the children were young we would go on camping holidays. We like the outdoors and we could also just about afford it. I am often reminded by my son and daughters of the preamble that accompanied any treat in a fish and chip shop or café on holiday.

“You can have one drink so make it last that’s all we can afford.”

It was true and at least they appreciated it now although it did cause problems at the time. Many of our camping holidays were at Barmouth and were for the most part a great success. We had a ridge tent, which held five of us including the dog. It didn’t have any separate compartments and it wasn’t tall enough for anyone to stand up in apart from the dog.

Occasionally we were rained out. We would wake up in the middle of the night wet, with our little tent collapsed on top of us in a howling gale. We inevitably gave up and packed the car at that point to go home.

We still love the area and Alex and I go back there and I sketch and paint the coastline and the Mountains of Snowdonia. We do have a tent still but we use our camper now. That is our concession to getting older.

Today was spent sketching and reading.