Plein Air fun

Today was warm and sunny so when I woke up I decided I wanted to try to paint outside at the top of my steps. I’m hoping to be able to do some Plein Air paintings during vacation this year too, so I figured I might as well try it in a more controlled environment and see how it went.
It started off fine, I realized that I needed to wear a hat so I could actually see my paper and the glare would stop hurting my eyes – it helped alot, I was able to actually see the shade of blue I was painting which is handy. Then there were several breezes containing absurd amounts of dust or pollen that coated my paints, and phone, and well, everything, I’m still brushing it off of myself.
It didn’t seem to affect the watercolors much though, it just sort of floated to the top, so I kept going – I wanted to enjoy the sun and soak up as much as I could before it starts being gloomy again (I’m wayyyyyyy happier when there’s sun, but I’m losing my optimism). I could have painted the lilac tree and stuff below me, but it’s not fully blooming yet, so I decided to paint something different…and requiring a bit of depth (which isn’t my strong spot), I think though, that I’m figuring it out.

 
I feel like I’m finally starting to acclimate (again). It’s 70 and I’m wearing summer clothes, which is awesome. I’m also starting to get back a little bit more energy with the sun being around – last night Alex and I walked to the grocery store that just re-opened/expanded and bought some really good local feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette and came home and made steak and greek(ish) salad. Of course with the heat coming back, I’m much more likely to go outside and do things and stay in the sun, but Alex isn’t enjoying it as much. We keep talking about buying bikes and riding everywhere in town instead of driving – saving gas, getting exercise, and it would hopefully be slightly less miserably hot for Alex because we’d be making a slight breeze? So that’d be cool.
I really like the idea of being able to bike to the beach (too far to walk, we tried) and hang out there.