Canal du Midi

at Castelnaudary...

Today's adventure in painting challenges was an outing to Castelnaudary...where we spent a lovely sunny day attempting to capture the image of boats, boats and more boats...

To start the day, my personal challenge was to remain calm and collected. I had taken one of the big water jugs for painting out of the van and put it into my carry-all bag along with my old pocket camera, art supplies, travel journal and sketch book.... I know, I know..I should have foreseen what could happen but I didn't...When I found a place to sit and sketch, and opened the bag..yikes..water, water everywhere...Geez..what was I thinking? Well, I was thinking that a screw-top lid would not leak...wrong! Let the drying out begin..

So the day's adventure began by sitting at a picnic table with everything spread out in the sun..the pocket camera luckily rescued out of a wet camera case just in time......the books only slightly wet on the edges...not the disaster it could  have been...And as I had my journal with me in case of some spare time, I was able to get it up to date before continuing on with the sketching...Always a silver lining... 

A very hurried and unsuccessful sketch...and then home to get ready for a lovely dinner at a small cosy little fish restaurant up the street - another weekly ritual..for a delicious dinner.

I came home with a quote I liked - written on the back of the barge "Vagabond"...

"Si tu crois que l'aventure est dangereuse, essaie la routine, elle est mortelle!" Paulo Coelho

Tomorrow? Rest day!