A problem with painting

A room with a view

 Ann sits by the window reading as she sups her wine. The sun is streaming in, and it's hard to believe the world is not to rights. I did a little more work this morning, meaning I clipped the hedge back. The garden is so green and peaceful, Ann couldn't resist taking a photo to record these days of confinement.

I cannot believe painting is so fraught with problems. I expected it to be a peaceful, relaxing task to fill an hour or two during our lockdown, but there always seem to be complications to the simplest thing. A couple of days ago, Ann painted a modern skyscraper scene with a background of bright stormy cadmium yellow (please note, I am beginning to learn the technical details already!). Our painting set has quite small tubes, and I had used a lot of titanium white, so we ordered some replacements. The tubes are no bigger than 15 gm, so we tried to order a slightly larger size. Today, the yellow arrived with a note saying they were out of our order, so they were sending a substitute. It is a two litre tub of the stuff, enough to equip a whole art school for a year or two, I should think. How I am supposed to pour a drop or two onto my palette to mix in with some other colour I do not know.

We plan to have our second quiz night tonight with the children. Even that is not easy; it has grown more popular, so more of our extended family want to join in. However, HouseParty can only host 8 groups, so we tried a new one: Discord. I can only say, its name describes its problems. I logged on with Matthew to test the system, but even the voice channel kept breaking up to the point of being inaudible. I think we will have to revert to HouseParty, and take turns to drop out each week.

One helpful bit of news: we have identified the shrub I asked about yesterday (see Art and identifying shrubs). Robin was quite right: it is Red Robin. A neighbour of ours has planted some for his hedging, and seeing him outside today I was able to call across and ask him. Further verification came from a fellow villager in Hundon, who sent a comment to yesterday's blog also identifying it. Now we will try to order some for home delivery. Thank you all for your help and support in these difficult times.