Posts Tagged: family

Sketchbook 65

Second Lockdown and thereafter

We had another lockdown. I drew less than at any point in the previous nine years. I’ve included a few of them further down, for completeness, but I lost the habit really. I just worked. I got back into it when we were allowed out. This is a key worker on the tube.
A temporary Covid Test Centre, a feature of many community car parks.
And of course, vaccine roll out. This is my first. Alongside our lockdown dog.
Meeting people in gardens. This is father in law Michael.
And again.
My mum.
When we were locked down, I tried to draw the local place, the highlight was this church on our High Street.
Local bins, marginally less interesting than…
…than a local bridge. (It is quite interesting actually, clearly two bridges which you’d never realise from above.)
On the positive side, here’s Craig’s first day back at work cooking lunch. 28th April 2021.
The first work trip to see a site in York. Handy for meeting the London team, who we haven’t seen for months.
The May board meeting, the first of the year to be held in person.
Hotel view.
Running into interesting looking people as we travel again.
Me.
I’ve learned some things from Lockdown. One is how much I enjoy a cycle into work and the other is you can attend presentations anywhere. I now pass these cottages everyday so I stopped to draw them, while listening to one of our Friday morning masterclasses.
Otherwise, life is similar to how it was. Saturday and Sunday mornings involve football. This is Lochend’s scenic pitch.
Jac’s H Type Citreon in Victoria Park. Supplier of coffee to many locals and the parents watching Spartans across the road.
More classic French design, and my attempt to render some shadows.
After football: Fraser on the couch playing XBox.
Julie on the couch texting. This is one of the lonely lockdown sketches. It’s from February. I think I only drew two drawings that month, when normally there might be ten.
Isla feeling ill on the sofa, in January.
The only other January drawing.
The dug. He’s on the sofa already, and he’s only just got here.

Locking down: March to August 2020

COVID 19, Sketchbook 62

This sketchbook was all about lockdown one and the easing we had after it. I stopped updating sandysdrawingroom during that time: there was a lot on I think, and the website stopped working. I’ve fixed that, and for the sake of continuity I’ll add them all here. I’m writing this in October 21, now on sketchbook 67, so there’s a lot to catch up on.

The sketch above is on Leith Walk, a couple of days before lockdown one was announced. I’d just been on the phone to my partners discussing what might happen and looking at the sketch brings back all the feelings of uncertainty.

The next day: people are working from home and the pubs are shut.

24th March. The remaining food rescued from the HTA fridge and the first day in fifty years that HTA hadn’t made lunch for everyone who was in the office.

Time to get used to working from home: straightforward enough as it turned out. The sketch shows our first go at producing face shields for the NHS, the government having found itself short of suitable PPE. Eventually this grew into quite a collaborative effort and my colleague Richard Foxley won the British Empire Medal for his work.
Time to be at home. There was a lot less time than I’d imagined, but the weather was fantastic and I broke the days up sketching the following from my surroundings.
Paying attention to the garden, in this case one of the rocks that sits to the north of the house.
The sketch below is annotated to show where the above plants are located in my garden.
It was a period of being outdoors when ever possible.
Fixing the bike.
Eventually we were allowed some visitors again, outside.

In the house, it was like this:

My workspace.
The hall.
The garage.
Hanging out with the family. We were aware that we were lucky to have company.
Fraser
Isla
Julie
Julie
The boys doing Scouts and Cubs on line.
Isla, in a mask our neighbours were nice enough to make for us.
The new way to visit the shops.
Lots of time working at home, and drinking coffee.
Keeping up with colleagues online.
The end of the day. After a while we were allowed out again. I’ll cover that in the next one.

Christmas 2015

In reverse:

Daddys Birthday - 3 January 2015

The last event of the break, my dad’s 88th birthday.

prowe band - 1 January 2016

New years day, a brass band in the livingroom.

Andreas - 1 January 2015

AndreasAngus - 29 December 2015

Angus visited from France.

QAHS Reunion - 27 December 2015

Catching up with old school pals in Dunfermline. The same as we were, a little more tired but a little better at communication.

christmas 2016

Innes hid behind the sofa for the Queen’s speech.

 

Fun Box - 23 December 2015

Fun box was fun.

 

plane alone - 22 December 2015

The only person on a plane to London City the week before Christmas.

Actually these are the things I did in between riding the bike and painting portraits, in preparation for cycling from London to Cannes in March. I’ll show you the portraits next time.

 

My new house – 27 October 2015

In amongst the boxes, waiting for the removal men to turn up and take us out of Fettes Rise. “Will we take the windows?” asked Innes.

moving out - 22 October 2015We have more stuff than I had imagined and, five days later, it’s largely unpacked and I have a new view from the sofa.

moving in - 27 Otcober 2015Here’s the place we left behind.julie in fettes - 27 September 2015 In a world of laptops and wifi most of the stuff is redundant, but we took it anyway. Unpacking the boxes helps make the new place feel like home. tilda1 - 30 October 2015

Sketching interesting people on the train.

 

The boys – 23 November 2014

Innes & Fraser asleep after an afternoon in Fife.Fraser & Innes 23 November 2014

Fraser reading.

Fraser - 23 November 2014

Heisker – 16 November 2014

Heisker is a wee island off North Uist, and a new face at Gran’s for lunch.

Heisker - 16 November 2014Before that, reading some funny French words.

reading - 16 November 2014

3 Places – 8 August 2014

A week in London, and 3 nice places to spend some time

1.  London’s public space has had a makeover since I lived there.

innes 7 August 2014The focus is kids and the device that gets them active is fountains you can play in. People used to point to Spain to show how kids playing could be a welcome part of civic space, but London does it too now. This one is Princess Diana’s memorial, swishest of the five we came across on our travels.

2. Ben’s shed. I spent some time looking at it and thinking about spaces to be creative in (with some help from the White Stripes*).

bens shed 8 August 2014

This might be what Ben would describes as ‘rus in  urbe’

julie and eames chair 4 August 2014

3. Eames lounge chair 670. You need somewhere cosy to relax after a day in central London with three under fives.

*

http://www.whitestripes.net/songlyrics.php?id=49

 

North Uist Part Three : Who was there – 1 July 2014

These are the people who turned up and made it a memorable week. With the usual apologies for unintended insults!peter

Why we are all here: Seoc’s grandson, Peter Keith Morrison, my dad.

ruari and mairiRuari and Mary Morrison, my mum.

jane and julieJane & Julie

catrionaCatriona (sort of)

flora and alastairFlora and Alastair

david and marcMarc and David

keithKeith

jenny and calumJennifer and Calum

douglas and elizabethDouglas and Elizabeth

rachelRachel

fraserFraserisla

Isla

Andreas and InnesAndreas and Innes.

As it happens, my kids got them all, except Elizabeth (Rachel) and Catriona (confused looks, no guesses).

 

Cars & Girls – 1 June 2014

Mini, Volvo, Porsche. Parked in Covent Garden.KM_C454e-20140603105342Mum & Isla. On a Sunday afternoon at Craigcrook Road.Mum Isla 1 June 2014

 

Edinburgh Castle- 26 May 2014

Edinburgh Castle: a painful place to visit the day after you’ve run the Edinburgh half marathon. The half marathon route is down hill, and you feel that in your calf muscles on the countless castle steps.

Edinburgh Castle

Below is the Edinburgh 10 mile four weeks before. It had a much better route through the middle of town, starting and ending in the same place. The finish is overlooking Holyrood House, where the royals went when they realised the houses being built in the new town had better rooms than their old home in the castle.

Running 27 AprilLot’s of exercise in the last few weeks and I’ve learnt that a strict rule of running is that the ladies wear lycra and the  boys don’t. Perhaps cycling could learn from that.fraser 10 May 2014Fraser feeling better.