Mosaic Monday #174: Daily Drawing Challenge for Lent

Happy Easter, everyone!  Lent has drawn to a close, and for me and #1 Daughter, that is a literal statement.  You see, we took on a daily drawing challenge for Lent!  A period of time when Christians focus on spiritual purification, meditation and penance, Lent typically lasts 40 days, not including Sundays, based on the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert before starting his ministry.  I asked #1 Daughter to consider something we could do together during Lent, and she came up with the idea of the drawing challenge.  We settled on 45 days, and she pulled from several Pinterest sources to compile the prompts.  And off we went!

These 45 days have brought laughter, amazement, and learning.  I asked #1 Daughter to make some observations, and she knew full well I would share them here!

I can commit to something daily, if I really put my mind to it. This honestly surprised me. I thought I would struggle to find the time each day to sit down and draw (and trust me, there were days that I did struggle or got swept up and completely forgot). On those days, I felt horrible, but had to give myself grace and tell myself it was okay. I have always been afraid to do something like bullet journaling because it requires daily sitting down to journal. I always believed I wouldn't have time for that.

It has been wonderful knowing that I will hear from her every single day.  But it's fascinating how that expectation can make a Mom worry.  We agreed that we would not send each other photos of our drawings until both of us were done.  No copying, or influence, allowed!  Given that #1 Daughter works full-time, and lives in an Eastern Time Zone, I knew that I would typically finish first, and would hear from her in the early evening.  This pattern was well-established after a week or so, when one evening came and went without a text, I worried!!!  

#1 Daughter is a natural artist; me?  Not so much.  (She drew "Milkshake", "Garden Tools" and "Sea Monster".  I think you can figure out the rest of her work from here.)  Where did she get this talent?  Even when I look at a real object, I struggle to recreate it.  We agreed (with a few pre-approved exceptions) that we would draw from memory.  It was amazing to me how often I could not conjure an image in my mind of objects that I have seen thousands of times.  As I read somewhere lately, you have to see it to draw it!  I also had to work on my competitive nature -- it would have been easy to be jealous of her skills!  (Most of the time) I focused on improving my abilities!  We both agreed that there are prompts we would like to re-do when the challenge is over.

My Mom is SO creative and her drawing has improved SO much since she first started. 

Some words/phrases prompted immediate ideas, but I tried to go beyond the obvious.  One example is Overgrown; my favorite is Evening Drink.

It was amusing that one time, we drew almost the same picture!  (The prompt was "Exhausted".)

I also found that I tend to "see" scenes rather than just the object that is represented by the prompt.  Or maybe this is just my way of hiding my inability to draw a certain object by giving the viewer lots of distractions!

For the drawing itself, I'm a very literal person. I don't often stray from the drawing prompt or draw additional items. You want a plant? I'll draw you a plant. Nothing more, nothing less. Even on some of my more creative drawings (ie. "Rain" prompt - rain coming from under an umbrella with clouds on it), I still almost always started with the item in the prompt or something closely related to it. I find the times I have the most fun doing it were on weekends when I had a whole day to take my time and enjoy it. To me, this is very apparent in the "Summer Fair" prompt. It started with the Woodstock sign, then the trees, then the guitar and then the posters on the tree. Because I had time to build it and stare at it and let my creativity flow with ideas.

One of the things I have learned from my daughter in the last 45 days is the value of sketching.  I tend to try and draw perfectly from the first line - and how often does that happen?  But even after I am done sketching, I like to convert that pencil drawing into something permanent.  I use markers of various widths to create emphasis, as needed.  I like to use color in my pictures, but sometimes I think the simplicity of the black and white is part of the message.  

Many of my drawings are in pencil. Sometimes this was intentional, sometimes I was too lazy to color it in, sometimes I just fell in love with how the drawing looked in pencil only, sometimes I was afraid coloring it in would ruin it. I think this is due to my limited color pencil collection and I have taken a vow to change that. Aside from pencil and colored pencils, my other medium was gel pens. I loved using a simple black outline to make a drawing pop (the "Music" and "Architecture" prompts are favorites of mine, you can also see my first attempts at this in the "Overgrown" and "Camera" prompts where a thin sharpie didn't quite cut it), but I also loved the crisp clean sticker-like feeling the gel pens gave me. The "Lantern", "Rain", and "Freedom" prompts are good examples of this.

The drawing journey also brought home the joy of shared experiences.  More than once, we each drew an object/scene that we knew would have meaning for the other.  At times it was amusing, even eliciting a full belly laugh.  Some drawings documented family memories, and I was touched to know that my daughter still finds them meaningful.

But the best of all was to hear this from her:

I love my mom. She makes people feel loved through her drawings. 

A fitting summary for Lent: it is all about Love.  #1 Daughter - thanks for the idea of the drawing challenge, and bringing a new element to this period of meditation and renewal.  I love you so much!

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I am taking a break next week; please come back for Mosaic Monday on May 1.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

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Mosaic Monday #173: Cleaning out the Leftovers

Just three days remain until our flights to the UK, so it's high time to clean out the fridge, literally and figuratively!  I am boxing up last year's October/November visit with this buffet of leftover photos.  Bon Appetit! (And yes, there's more than food!) 

On our last night in Skipton, we ventured to The Royal Shepherd, the only pub in the country with this name.  It is thought to have been named after George III at the beginning of the 19th Century.  He was nicknamed Farmer George after creating model farms at Windsor, and The Royal Shepherd was named in his honor in keeping with Skipton's agricultural and sheep farming connections.

The food was plentiful and delicious.

A vacation is not complete without a little retail therapy, so we had a thorough look 'round the shops in Skipton, dodging the rain showers as we did so.  The Craven Court Shopping Centre, being enclosed, was ideal for this type of weather, and it also featured a handful of quirky stores that I adored. (And the architecture, as you can see below, was an attraction in its own right.)

I bought a necklace, and a new case for my glasses.

All this shopping made us hungry; we opted for the Three Sheep since Spousal Unit and I had eaten there on a previous trip and remembered the quality of the food.  We were not disappointed!  Three of us ordered the Ploughman's (shown below).  A Ploughman's lunch is a cold meal based around bread, cheese, and fresh or pickled onions, usually accompanied by butter and "pickle", which in Britain denotes a chutney-like condiment.  I believe this is the best Ploughman's I have ever had the pleasure of consuming!

On our way back to the car, we passed through Skipton Castle Woods, which I also wrote about previously.  Given the rainfall in the preceding week, the stream was voluminous and the waterfalls a sight to see.  Check out the videos!

It warmed my heart to see my in-laws strolling arm-in-arm; I suspect they were holding on to each other to keep from slipping on the mud!

With love - I ask you to sit here and enjoy nature

With love - I ask you to listen to the trees

With love - I hope you find peace and contentment here

            Sharon Elizabeth Kemp  (from the plaque on the bench)

At the cottage, we played Mexican Train.  And earlier in the day, my mother-in-law had discovered this cupboard on the landing of the stairs - look what was hiding inside!

 

Sometimes it's the little things that get my attention, such as the snail and the mushroom in the collage below.  In the end, I love the sights we see and the history we learn when we visit my in-laws.  But the most important aspect is investing time with them, and being with my dear Spousal Unit, free of the perceived duties at home.  United Kingdom, here we come!

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Mosaic Monday #172: Bolton Abbey

You can't spend much time in England without encountering an abbey or two, especially if you enjoy history and idyllic walks in the countryside.  On November 3, 2021, we added Bolton Abbey to our life-time list, which already included Whitby Abbey, Fountains Abbey and Easby Abbey.

Alice de Rumilly offered the Black Canons of the Order of St. Augustine the sheltered site of Bolton in 1155.  Here they thrived, despite various setbacks, until the dissolution of their Order by Henry VIII in 1539.

In the Abbey's heyday, there were 26 canons (similar to monks) and 200 lay workers.  The income required to support and improve the Abbey came from sheep farming and lead mining.

We began our visit at the Bolton Abbey Car Park, which you can see on the map at right, near the "You are Here" mark.  Upon studying the map, my enthusiasm mounted.  In addition to the Abbey, this site offered numerous walking paths, Tea Rooms and other historical features, not to mention the River Wharfe coursing among the hills.  Let's go!

In the picture below, you catch a glimpse of the Abbey in the top left of the photo.  (And have you noticed this is the second lovely day we had for touring Yorkshire?)

Bolton Hall (the picture below) is one of the homes of the Duke of Devonshire, a title held by members of the Cavendish family.  This branch of the family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century.

Of course, given the dissolution of the Abbey in 1539, we must rely on drawings to depict the buildings in their former glory.

A discerning reader will note "Bolton Priory" in the lower right-hand corner of the above photo.  Is it a Priory or an Abbey?  Signage at the site referred to it both ways; as far as I can determine, it was considered an Abbey before the dissolution, and is now referred to as a Priory.  The nearby village is also called Bolton Abbey.  And below is a picture as the Priory stands today.

The monastic landscape we see today was part of the much larger monastic estate.  There were barns, granges, workshops and orchards, together with a mill, bakehouse, brewhouse and tannery, which would have contributed to the economic self-sufficiency of the canons.   It was a monastic life and they lived under a rule observing the 3 substantial vows of poverty, obedience and chastity.  The ordinary habit of an Augustinian canon in England was a black cassock, sleeved surplice, cloak with hood fastened only at the neck and left open in the front, and black square cap.

At the dissolution, the nave of the Priory (see right, and below) was allowed to continue as a parish church.  However, other roofs were stripped of valuable lead, but otherwise left intact.  This saved the cost of demolition and for a while some of the associated buildings were rented out: the Cellarium was known to have been used as a house.  As the years went by, they must have proved inconvenient and left to fall into ruin.

As you stroll the closely cropped grass of the site, you can almost hear the quiet whispers of the canons as they went about their daily tasks.  Rustling leaves were reminiscent of cassocks brushing the stone paths, worn down by thousands of steps over the centuries.  The wind blowing gently through the open windows carries the echoes of Gregorian chants.  It is easy to be in touch with God in such a serene and gorgeous setting.

These roses caught my eye.  I do not think they grow here naturally, but if a miracle was going to take place, I can't imagine a more appropriate location.

Having thoroughly explored the Abbey, we moved toward the river and the extensive walking trails.  The River Wharfe is a spate river (read = very full, flowing fast) draining water off the peat moors, hence its brown color.  Daily management by the River Keeper ensures it provides a habitat for a wide variety of birds, animals and plants, while also offering enjoyment for anglers.  (Too bad Man with Hat did not have any gear with him!)  The stepping stones you see in the river below are an old right-of-way, linking the hamlet of Storiths with the Priory.

People are allowed to cross the Stepping Stones when the water level is lower; a footbridge is provided as an alternative, or for those who are a little risk averse!  We followed the path on the south side of the river, and it quickly passed into a thick wood.  The trail featured kids' activities along the way, such as slides or large tunnels to explore.  It always pleases me to witness these efforts to encourage families to get out into nature!!!  At some point, somebody decided to start putting coins into this fallen tree.  Now there must be hundreds!

Eventually, the footpath emerged from the wood and joined the riverside.

The bridge in the left-hand picture above leads to the Cavendish Pavilion, originally built in the 1890s by the 7th Duke of Devonshire as a tea room for the day visitors who arrived by train.  On an August bank holiday (read: a day on which banks are officially closed, observed as a public holiday) in the 1890s, the railway brought 40,000 visitors here.  We would have loved to walk further, but my in-laws were waiting for us back at the Priory.  So, we grabbed a coffee to go from the tea room, and reversed course along the north side of the river, which was populated by widely spaced deciduous trees and plentiful picnic areas.  I loved the look of the bare tree branches against the sky.

As we approached the Priory once more, the trail ascended a steep bank, allowing for a fabulous view of the ruin, nestled in the elbow of the river, with the hills beyond.

Nearby is this memorial fountain and an overlook of the cemetery.

Speaking of tea rooms, by this time we were ready for a cuppa!  We chose the closest establishment, and found the inside tables crowded with like-minded folks.  Fortunately, it was warm enough outside to take advantage of the ample seating on the patio.  And we were visited by this adorable Robin. (No, we didn't feed it, although I am sure that is why it was flitting about!)  Check out the video, too! 

We meandered the short distance back to the car park, and mooched about the gift shop for a bit.  Outside, this large map of Bolton Abbey offers additional historical information, and outlines other sites to visit.  Once again, this is on our list for a return adventure.  Finally, at the top of the map, the description helps to solve the naming "mystery".  

"The village of Bolton Abbey lies at the heart of the Duke of Devonshire's estate in Wharfedale.  It is incorrectly named after Bolton Priory whose romantic ruins complement the natural beauty of the River Wharfe."  So, there you go - the village is the Abbey and the ruins are the Priory!!!

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Also linking to Wandering Camera this week.  Check out these other photo and art/creative themed posts!  Wandering Camera – Yosemite Birthday Surprise – InkTorrents Graphics

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter