Sunday, 18 March 2018

Swallows.

Well, hey - they may have been swifts, but you get my drift.

Very good news in the skies.

Weather forecasts. We have them instant on our phones these days. What makes me laugh is that Dutch people use a forecast from Holland, Norwegian people rely on a Norwegian forecast, German people check out the weather for Lisbon in Portugal on their German office post. It is the same meteorological information, just presented in different ways. But, surely, local knowledge counts for something.

When the skies turn grey, I look for the gulls. They tell me I have 3 minutes to pack up and find a dry place.

Swallows and sunshine! They may have been swifts, but they are good news regardless.

I use the BBC weather site ;)


Saturday, 17 March 2018

When it rains - it pours.

Another rainy day.

Sat in A Padaria Portuguesa making small sketches from postcards to sell tomorrow, because it is going to be sunny tomorrow. YES it f****** well is. I am not listening to anybody else who says otherwise. I have reached critical point.














That's about 30 days of rain so far. Not a single dry day!


Friday, 9 March 2018

1000 Umbrellas.

The city is littered with dead umbrellas. The rains persist.

Whenever it rains this much, whenever I see streets full of broken umbrellas, Two things come to mind. One is a work of art I saw first in Bilbao. A street sculpture with a very poetic written description explaining how "umbrellas sprouting like mushrooms" became representative of the Artist's city in spring.














The other thing that always springs to mind is a couple of songs from Skylarking by XTC. Ballet for a Rainy Day, and 1000 Umbrellas. A timeless album.

 

Now I know what March is all about in Lisbon, I will do my very best to ensure I am not here this time next year. It is very, very, very wet. Relentless rains with still no end in sight.


Thursday, 1 March 2018

Oh - The Rains.

Nobody in Portugal has any right to moan, but... :D

This is unworkable for me. I am extremely grateful to be very busy with orders. Absolutely nothing I can do about the weather, so I have bolted down in Nazare until the forecast looks a little brighter. Working on small sketches from postcards, and doing a bit of painting :)

I really hope people don't mind, but we're just going to have to wait for the much needed rains to pass. I'll be back in Lisbon before Sunday.

This is Nazare looking very sombre. I like it. Peaceful, content, possibly even melancholic - a hide away from Atlantic storms.