Idly scanning through some of the photographs made this year I came upon this one. It was taken late in the spring, after a warm afternoon spent scorching meat and drinking cider.
All but one of the females present on the day are in the picture, one little girl having scampered off to my left before the shutter caught the others.
As you can see by the faces and the body language, the North Sea was not at it's tropical best.
Typing this I can just hear the ocean roaring up the beach as the wind blows it up the beach a couple of hundred yards from the front door, how quickly the intervening period we call summer has passed. The chilly Briney was briefly less so through August and September, but a glass of something warming was still the best way to recover from wetsuit clad foray into the waves.
Thinking about this has made me determined not to let the onset of autumn and winter make me hibernate.
I have found the last few winters very hard work. They have not been particularly inclement, I have just failed to deal with the lack of daylight, and the fact that shorts and sandals have to be forgone if hypothermia is not to be a constant companion.
The move to a warmer studio, with the prospect of exciting new challenges and the ability to work two minutes by iron horse from home, coupled with the need to exercise the new boy, will mean less opportunity to prevaricate.
I'm hoping the end result will be a step on for the work, and more finished vibrant canvas' for the newly available shop window.
