This is my view ~ our little house on the hill is starting to feel much more like a home. We’ve been busy organizing, fixing things up and I’ve even been able to finish my first painting here this year.
As you might expect, spring in Newfoundland brings plenty of fog, wind and rain — the perfect kind of days to fill your home with good smells in the kitchen, especially if you decide to make a good, hearty soup.
A few days ago, I roasted up a whole chicken which always gets used to make a really tasty bone broth. As luck would have it, my friend had cooked up a big ham so she gave me the leftover ham bone because she knew I’d use it for pea soup. Feeling like a homesteader, I made two nice batches of soup between yesterday and today. The smells filled our house and the soup filled our bellies. Yum!
If you’re looking for a great dumpling recipe (I love making dumplings with chicken soup), follow this link: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/the-best-chicken-dumplings/
When making pea soup, I love using this recipe: https://downshiftology.com/recipes/split-pea-soup/
- I usually cook the soup much longer than the time that is recommended in the recipe. It helps to break down the peas for a slightly smoother texture.
- My Mom recommended grating a potato into the soup for the last half hour, which is a great alternative to adding leftover mashed potatoes (making the soup even heartier).
With all these tasty soups, I hope the rain clears up so I can go on even longer walks and burn off all the dumplings I ate!
When I haven’t been making soups, I’ve been painting — and it feels great.
I began painting this landscape using acrylics but it didn’t take long to switch to oils. They’re so much creamier, making it easy to blend and play with colours ~ it gives me so much more freedom with my palette.
I used to use nothing but acrylic paint but after discovering how much I enjoyed using oils, it’s been difficult to use acrylics. At one point early on in this process, I posted this question in a few places:
I think the best piece of advice I got involved tinting gesso and applying it to the canvas before painting. People also recommended being generous with gesso so that the texture of the canvas would be smoother, and hopefully preventing the paint pulling away from the grooves in the material. Maybe this is why I see some artists sanding their primed canvases before painting???
It’s so handy to know I can reach out to get advice from people who generously share their techniques and experiences. To those who reached out with tips & tricks, thank you! I even had some handy suggestions from people who were willing to research for me even though they don’t paint. That’s so nice! (thanks, everybody!) 🙂
If you’re on Facebook, check out my page & feel free to follow along: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573489784314
Second Wind Studio 
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