Could this be my favorite day?

Reading the dessert menu

preparatory sketch

red pencil, and black marker on 

watercolour paper

9 x 12 1/8 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

(Looking at Colville's work

gave me the idea to do a preparatory

sketch in pencil, then the marker,

and tomorrow the paint! Alex

Colville was big on preparing.

I thought I'd try it.)

I'm big on loving life as it unfolds, and I do
enjoy most days, but how I love Saturday, especially
when like today it can just happen --  no fixed agenda,
no one needing anything, no work appointments
for me or Steven.  That is incredibly rare.  In fact
it's been three months since that happened!

So out we went, happy as clams, listening to
Christmas carols on a CD from Starbucks in the
car, and singing.  Imagine!  Well actually we sing
together a lot.  We went to the market, and
snatched up two delicious loaves of home baked
bread.  Then decided on the spur of the moment
to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario, for lunch,
and see the Alex Colville show (for the second
time for me).  I knew Steven would be moved
because Colville's landscapes are all familiar to
us, part of our second home in the Maritimes.

 Plus I ran into a former boss who I think of
as a friend, and we made friends with a fellow
as astounded by Colville's work as we were, who
turned out to have a summer home near Lunenburg,
one of our favorite places in Nova Scotia.  What
an excellent day.  I bought my roses at the flower
shop that shows my work.  Hugs all 'round, and
headed home to write to you.

Thank you to the universe, to the art world, to
the AGO, to Colville, and to you for an excellent
day.  It just happens to be the month-a-versary of
when Steven and I met, so it was appropriate to be
moved by the love story of Alex Colville and his wife --
a marriage that lasted 70 years!

Have a loving-your-dearest-loves day.