After another disturbed night’s sleep , including drinking a mix of camomile  and melatonin tea, I was not feeling particularly bright and industrious.

However  I had a mural to paint.

Today’s  preparation  included wearing trainers( might make me feel safer on the ladder…only has 3 steps and a platform….is it even a ladder?) , packing chocolate chip biscuits and 3 cartons of fruit juice ( low sugar?) 10 sharpened pencils, full bottle of water and 2 small erasers ( couldn’t find any big ones.

Just after 8am I set off and marched steadily up into town keeping to the shadow side of the street.

Usually I enjoy looking around and finding new views ,but today all I could think was I am too old for this. I’m tired and worried and I just want to go back to bed. I thought about David Hockney and how he was still painting at 85, but decided that he had plenty of money, a partner and he didn’t have to trudge uphill carrying all his equipment and probably slept better than me too.

I did take a few photos though. It’s difficult not to.

On the way I decided that I would  work on the bottom part of the mural first and see how I got on.

That worked . And I made quite a lot of progress. Used up about 7 of my pencils and the erasers are no more.

I drank 2 of my fruit juices and a bottle of water.

I made such good progress that I put some black paint in a plastic egg tray and some water  and started to draw over my pencil lines. In fact I made everything bigger and used the pencil lines as a very rough guide only.

And it was so much fun drawing with a paint brush. All of a sudden my sketch started to look good instead  of a bit messy. I could see that with a little adjustment  this painting could look good .

I lost track of the time and only decided I’d better leave so that lunch could be made. (I’m painting in the kitchen. )

Having cheerily said ,”Buon Giorno. ” I strolled off in the sunshine feeling great. I didn’t feel at all old and even considered that I might do another mural if I was asked .

I even had enough energy to go by the supermarket and pick up some shopping.

This morning I had almost decided that murals were too much work and I was not fit enough to do any more big projects . I might as well accept that old age had crept up ……

But now, I think I’ll put off old age for a while yet….

Wine time now. Cheers 🍷🍷