Travel Blog

The day was a throwback to July. Sudden, heavy squalls with sheets of rain blowing sideways across the valley, broken by sunny warm spells, all in the space of a few minutes. It makes for a very interesting vista, but it doesn't work for outdoor field sketches.

I'm trying to loosen up the little paintings. (Ideally, I should be working BIG, but that's rather difficult to do when you're packing your kit along in a small daypack. So I'm simply trying to sit farther back from the little piece of paper and not get too precious.)

Sky, Sept. 5

Gosh, those clouds look really innocent, don't they? Who'd have thought that they had all that driving rain hidden away inside them?

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Have I mentioned that Kiwi men wear shorts all winter here? Usually with gumboots. It makes sense if you're going to be outside in the changeable weather. With shorts, you don't have wet trousers clinging to your legs after each heavy downpour. If you start when you're a kid, you'd get used to having bare legs even in the colder weather. And Kiwi winters aren't really that cold. Mind you, I'm a wimpy Canadian, so I can't imagine wearing shorts in this stuff.