A good day is when you get that unexpected call from a very good friend from far away. And after a long conversation, without “pretense and expectation”(quoting her words), you can put down the phone, feel inspired, have a wonderful cup of coffee and draw closer the sketching tools. 

Colette and I have shared many coffees over many years. We have shared abundance and empty purses, shopped on impulse as well as on budget. We rode challenging waves and sailed calm waters, we ate fish and chips at three in the morning and elegant strawberries at midday, we wore hats and bought hats and laughed at our own reflections, we drank champagne in strangers’ empty homes and dug up kitchen floors in search of gold. We shared freshly caught lobster on the beach and we licked our fingers from barbecues under the African moon.  And we talked. Listened. We still talk and we still listen.

This is for you, Colette. Thank you for lifting my spirits this morning; for having me cry my heart out and for leaving me with joy.

While enjoying my coffee this morning after the call, I felt The Urge. It has been a long time since I felt The Urge.  You can also call it that hit of inspiration, working of the muse, the bulb moment, the end of the tunnel, the light in the distance….You can even call it panick attack; for feverishly grabbing the paper and pencil and water and brushes, before it leaves! So I did actually produce four sketches. None of them turned out as I planned which I accept, seeing how few things in life do turn out according to plan.

I have about 3 cups of coffee a day. Starting off in the morning with a big bowl of coffee in which I can dip a chunk of bread or a biscotti as we bake them in South Africa…called beskuit(rusks). Pen and WC in moleskine.

Then moving through the day I’ll have a cuppacino in just a mug.. Pen and WC-pencils in moleskine.

Maybe enjoying sitting back after dinner with a small espresso… Pen and WC in moleskine

Leaving just enough room for that extra special cup around a fire, when the coffee is no good, but the atmosphere and stories fill the enamel mug with bursting aroma and flavour, making it the best cup of the day. Pencil and WC in moleskine.