All mixed up

Evening, hope you've all had a lovely day.  We've had sunshine here, but it is starting to get colder. 

Today it was time to start applying the render, and do some painting.   I just about had enough sand for the render, but I definitely need to go and get more.   I left it all to dry and cooked dinner...  I was doing a chicken pasta dish and wanted to leave the sauce to sit for a few hours.  Harvey was also happy as he got some fresh chicken!

Then it was time for lunch and to tackle the crossword,   after suffering brain freeze I decided to start painting the render.  That was the easy bit, sloshed on a bit of white, and a bit of grey.  That was left to dry while I had a cuppa and wondered if it would be wise to watch the FA cup semi final...   I decided that I may as well.  Then I returned to the painting, this time to pick out the brick work.   On a palette I put a splodge of burnt umber, raw umber, paynes grey and white, then mixed it up.  With a very fine paint brush I began to pick out the bricks. 

It is all meant to look rough, which is just as well.  With the render it is best to put on a thick layer of PVA,  this allows the sand to settle into it, and you get lumpy bits.  I liked how the brick work was rough,  so it looked as if the render really had become worn away, or chipped off over time through frost or water.   I also changed my mind about the porch and decided to use the brick mask on it, rather than use the render. 

This is the side wall,  well you can sort of tell by the pointy bit in the middle!   The bricks need more paint, need to be toned down a little.  And I need to get rid of those small stones,  thought they'd be okay, but they're not.  The render is duller than in the pic,  my camera does a very good job of improving things. 

That was as far as I got.  It was time to brave watching the semi final,  I just hoped we wouldn't disgrace ourselves too much.   It almost got off to a good start when Everton nearly scored, but the shot missed...  and then we rarely left our own half, well we did but without any real purpose.   Of course the inevitable happened and Man U scored, I nearly gave up at that point.  But I continued watching, we missed a penalty, then we scored,  a very cynical foul brought down Barkley as he was on his way to the box,  we made nothing of the free kick and Man U scored again, game over.  Felt sorry for the fans,  I knew a few who'd travelled down,  the trip wasn't cheap, so they deserved something better than what they saw.  Time for a new manager, please,  I never had any faith in Martinez,  he's just not good enough.   So a sad end to the day.  

I did have plans for a spot of gardening, nothing too strenuous, just a bit of light pruning but I was just way too sore this morning.  I'm having to take a break from the ibuprofen, I started to get stomach pains,  so I'll have to go with for a few days, that means I'm going to be very sore and very stiff.  Everything hurt this morning,  I stood under the shower, that helped a little, as did sitting in the sunshine. 

My new neighbour moved in, well sort of, she has moved some of her furniture but will move in properly tomorrow.  She also has two cats, so it will be interesting to see how Harvey reacts!  He wasn't too happy with all the banging,  well he was trying to snooze. 

All for tonight,  more painting tomorrow,  and watch all those mad people running 26 miles - why would you do that?