It was already dark and raining when I arrived in Pittsburgh on 15 November. We swung by Squirrel Hill and picked up some Italian heroes and then headed for home. Slept well.

On Thursday, 16 November, I moved slowly but managed to take the 61a to Oakland, make a quick visit to Top Knotch, have a good bowl of soup and coffee at the corner cafe on S. Craig Street, and then head on back to a quiet afternoon.

Friday, 17 November, the Mouse and the Bean were both home. We went to the Strip to buy some good appetizers, visit the craft museum, have a huge late breakfast at Pamela's and make it home for a Bean-nap. At around half past six we headed Downtown, to discover it was Lights and very crowded. But with typical Mouse-luck, at the last moment, we got a parking space on Liberty and joined a throng at Wolf's Gallery, part of the Pittsburgh Trust, to see some amazing light art and hear Eden whisper.

It's Saturday now, and mid-afternoon. We've been to the storage unit, the Coop, and eaten lunch. Mouse and Ness are cleaning up their kitchen.

Watercolour in Taos

For more than a month I have been trying my hand at watercolour--straight from the lofty tubes of D&R, DS, MG and a small number of W&N and one tube of Schmincke-rose madder. These are all new, and available at Artisan, and hopefully not too much duplication from among those watercolour tubes sitting in my storage unit back East.

I also have a small number of pads, blocks and sheets of watercolour and drawing paper--again not the generous lot in storage, but a sufficient number to test and touch.

I found the MG and W&N the most reliable. DS comes in third place as their tubes continue to run out faster than I can top off a plastic palette with their juicy watercolour. Also living in a very dry climate, totally different than the humid one I lived in for 10 years, I found that the DS dried on the palette faster than the honeyed MG, and the standard W&N. This has been my first time with D&R, and I rank them last. I found their pigment load insufficient or at least radically lower than the others.

But, it is paper that really gave me a full course of instruction and the start of a degree in art materials. I am contrary, and find Arches pads at the lower end of satisfactory. I just tested some water and colour on my Robert Bateman (cover series, recycled, 110lb) and it curled not at all while the Arches, 140lb. seems to want to arabesque.

Today, I feel a change coming on and perhaps a totally new direction. I plucked the 7 of Coins and gave it some thought; more meditation later.

Think about a room with Northern Light, a cheerful room, spacious, uncluttered, something like the imaginery studio you created in 1982.

Draw it, speak it, dream it, live it!

Finally got a chance to experiment with Daler-Rowney cartridge paper A5 (5x7) (something that appears rare here in the States, but which I purchased from a NYS outfitter).

It is smooth, heavy, heavy weight and a pleasure to draw on. I was able to do two quick drawings with watercolour--and no buckling. The third piece, too much water, too many colours, didn't work.

So, I'll keep these pads for quick drawings in the house or on the road.

It was a strange feeling, voting early, in my new town and then waking today knowing I didn't have to stand in line today, November 7.

I was one of more than two thousand in a community of about five thousand who elected to vote before the official date.

Some say, like Vidal, that this is one, if not, the single most important election in his life-time, and to some extent I must agree.

I'll be watching and waiting for the returns, and this time, I am two hours behind the East, and will be seeing the returns in a different light.

Yesterday I went to vote for the first time in a new town, and a new state. We had paper ballots that were then inserted into a counter. Five days before the actual election it appeared that at least 40% of the county voters went to the poll. I was number 2074.