Olga may have seemed exhausted when we got back from Broadstairs, but after a good night's sleep she was raring to go. So we went to the Heath yesterday morning and took a long walk.
We came across this guy painting en plein air in Hampstead. He seemed to be finishing up -- I think he was cleaning his brushes.
The walk went well, and on the way home we found about a million crocuses in the Hampstead Church cemetery. Signs of spring!
Dave experimented for dinner and made a real Bolognese sauce for pasta. Apparently the red meat sauce all of us think of as Bolognese really isn't -- the authentic variety is paler, with less tomato and more veg and even a touch of milk. It wasn't bad, but I don't think either of us were a huge fan. I get why red sauce is so popular!
We also did more garden cleanup. I raked the parking space in front of our house, which was full of last autumn's piled-up blown leaves and tiny bits of street litter. (Technically the parking space is the responsibility of the upstairs neighbors, who actually park there, but we own a rake and they don't, so I didn't mind doing it. Probably should have done it weeks ago, in fact.) Dave pruned our buddleia and some other plants, hopefully getting everything ready to bush out again in a few weeks.
Last night we watched "Beginners," with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. It's an earlier movie by Mike Mills, the same guy who wrote and directed "20th Century Women," which Dave and I saw last week in the theater. "Beginners" is excellent. I loved it. If you haven't seen it, download it and check it out!
This might sound weird but I have never downloaded a film (American: "movie") in my life and have no plans to ever do so. But I do own a couple of rakes. House frontages look so much nicer when the leaves have been cleaned up. I put my leaves in a big builder's sack where they rot down into leaf mould after a year.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it seem too early for Spring??? Climate change, all that blooming stuff looks lovely...It was rainy here yesterday which was no fun to be out in...Too bad you did not photograph your dinner, would have loved to have seen that sauce!
ReplyDeleteNow the poor old artist looks cold. Spring clean up here is a big job as we have much more space. We maybe don't have as many trees.
ReplyDeleteGlen's out spreading more mulch right this second. The yard is looking nice due to his efforts. It is very warm here today. As in- I need to go put on less clothes.
ReplyDeleteBeginners is the one with the talking dog? Great movie, agree.
ReplyDeleteI love the crocus, we are weeks away from what you have. Sad.
I saw "Beginners" a year or so ago and I agree. It is an excellent movie. That artist appears to be quite talented. Both of those paintings look very nice. I watched "The Arrival" this weekend. It was good too in a strange sort of way. I don't think I have the story completely figure out.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to wrap my head around using a rake instead of a snow shovel right now but I love that time of spring when the snow is gone and the crocuses are up!
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten "Beginners" but when I looked it up on Netflix I found that we had seen it in 2011 and I gave it 5 stars (out of five). Christopher Plummer makes any movie great, I think.
ReplyDeletebeautiful photographs, as always. that sidewalk artist with his easel and brushes is how i once imagined my own life. until my dad nixed my plan to go to art school instead of college, saying, "you can sit on a street corner and paint for the rest of your life if you want, but you're going to have a choice!"
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