J'adore les parapluies!

If you know me well you know that I have a love for umbrellas and have collected quite a few and made two (with the help of my sister Bonni). My collection of umbrellas is made up of beautiful umbrellas I have found on my travels plus a few that were gifts from friends who understand my fetish. Hence the title of this post - I love umbrellas! Coming to England I had great hopes that I would get to use an umbrella often, secretly I hoped it would be daily. In the two weeks I have been here I have only used my umbrella once and it was more to protect my face from the sun than the sprinkles that proceeded the sunshine.

I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof this morning and I had high hopes of wandering the streets with my open umbrella but the clouds moved on, the sun is out, and the sky is blue so it will have to wait for another day. However, I do carry my umbrella in my backpack every day in anticipation. In the mean time I may need to hunt for my next meaningful umbrella.

As I mentioned in the last post, this past week I learned all about  my course, Historic Building Conservation. Part of the requirements for the course is that we document what we see by keeping a sketch journal of what we observe. I admit that this part of the course is super exciting for me because I love to draw and capturing parts and pieces of architecture, interiors and details is intriguing and it resonates with me on multiple levels. The professors encourage us to always carry our sketchbooks and drawing pencils with us and draw things we see. I also need to procure a waterproof blanket so I can sit down anywhere and draw. There is never a bench or place to sit when I find interesting things to draw. Some of my quick sketches from this week are below along with a few more photos from my wandering around Kingston.
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QUICK UPDATE:
I have found a place to live which is a huge relief! I move in on Sept. 30th. The location is great, it is a furnished studio, has a washer/dryer and I believe it will work out well. I will post some images over the weekend after I have moved in.

PICTURES:
There is a beautiful and large cemetery here in Kingston. A good portion of it is deemed a wildlife habitat so they do not keep the plants and bushes trimmed. There is another portion (not shown in the images) of the cemetery that is manicured which isn't as cool as the wildlife portion.
I love the churches in the area and there are many and from different eras of time. A few years ago, while in England, my friend Jennifer and I visited St. Michael's church in Brayntree, England because we had a common ancestor buried there. We were told that to create more of a park like space they had removed the headstones and lined them up against the wall. Well, it appears that they have done that at several churches across England. I saw these headstones lined up against the perimeter of the "park-like" spaces around two of the churches here in Kingston.
​Some sketches from this week.