What does it take to make a successful marine painting?

More on that soon, meanwhile, other news today…

A second stunning dawn in successive days today.

This morning I could not resist going out in my dressing gown to take photographs.

I’ll decorate this entry with 3 of the pics which as with all pics on this blog are clickable. 

I’ll put some of the others on Face book, enjoy.

~

A considerate friend in Israel where it is 20 C and they want for rain, asked “Are you thawing out?” ~ I replied, “yes, drinking a large tea, accidentally put in 2 tea bags, maybe a Freudian slip?

Maybe just as well I had the hot tea, I left the village for the first time this afternoon since 4 inches (10 cms) of snow arrived last Friday.

Our second bout of snow in a month, unusual for the Tarn.

Glorious sun rise here today, great light for painting this morning, a cold front coming in this afternoon. 

Yesterday morning even 4 x 4’s were parking in ditches.

Itzac ditches hill collected a Jeep, a Ford Mondeo and 2 Renaults during the morning.

A Peugeot neatly closed the road by parking broadside 1/3 of the way up the hill, so that moving forward or back meant ditch…

Could one park like that on purpose?

First car up the hill in the afternoon needed some pushing but made it. 1 up to the dear old and now classic car, the Citron CV2 in more senses than 1!”

I spent most of the day in the studio working on my marine painting to be “Samuel Plimsoll,  Plymouth Cattewater by moonlight” painting, adjusting the composition and tones.

~

Today I received a doom email from a friend, scientist, who has been working with computers for some 30 years.

VERY URGENT – PLEASE READ – NOT A JOKE
THIS IS NO JOKE

The gist of the email was:
IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON ( MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from “uk.mc285.mail.yahoo.com” claiming to be MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from “uk.mc285.mail.yahoo.com” claiming to be SIMON25@HOTMAIL..CO.UK ) CONTACTS
YOU THROUGH EMAIL DON’T OPEN THE MESSAGE. DELETE IT BECAUSE HE IS A
HACKER!!
TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM
THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST. HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID
COMPUTER ADDRESS,  etc etc yadiyah…

Quelle Horreure?

I checked with my brilliant web master Dr Michael Baker and guess what he replied?

What do you think he replied?

“Just by looking at the subject line it looks like a Hoax.

Reading the content – it looks even more like a Hoax.

Checking on Google confirms it is a Hoax – http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=”IF+A+PERSON+CALLED+SIMON+ASHTON“.

~

This afternoon some of the road to Gaillac was still very treacherous and more than 15 kph not wise, road to Cordes worse.

We have nice warm wet rain this eve, a hot 1.5 C so the drive back was easier.

Floods tomorrow???

Oh, and today’s sunrise?