The new day started lightly, with a bright sun shining through very light clouds. The temperature was pleasant for Elly, she could continue working with the window ajar.

At her request this morning Huib had brought a household ladder to the children's room, so she could reach the upper part of the wall. And from home she had brought some stuff to start applying the sky and clouds between the few large birds in a way that was new to her.

She filled the jar with water again and mixed a little light blue with white on a plate with a brush. So the result became very light blue, a bit similar to the very light lilac that Huib and Margreet had used for the window frames. Elly smiled, everything seemed to come together so nicely. With a small sponge, which she had dipped in the water and squeezed, she carefully took a little paint from the plate.

The moment she wanted to apply it to the wall, she thought of a simpler method. Using a brush, she put some drops of water on the plate and mixed it with the paint. When it was diluted enough for her idea, she went through it with the sponge, mixing the paint she already had on the sponge through it as much as possible as well. She looked at the result, tried to estimate whether it was good enough to use on the wall. She thought so, climbed up the household ladder with the sponge and began to apply the light paint to the wall.

She had never done this before. The idea had recently occurred to her, and it seemed cool, she actually expected a nice result, but that didn't take away the fact that she found it quite exciting.

After a while the sponge didn't have enough of the watery paint left to do anything meaningful with, so she went down the stairs to dip it back into the thinned paint. At the table, she turned around for a moment to look at the first result. She was amazed! It surprised her how exceptionally beautiful it looked. Pleased, she continued, crossing a large part of the wall, around the birds. At the heron 'below' she would paint water, reeds and grass. As she thought about that, she suddenly wondered, where about the horizon would be. She realized that she had gone too far down with the sky. For a moment she regretted this, but then thought that she could paint grass, bushes and perhaps trees over it. Perhaps she could first use the same technique to apply a soft, watery green over it, and then paint the grass and bushes over it with a brush. Yes, she thought to herself, that's how I'm going to fix it. But first the sky, it's still much too uniform, all the same blue. She decided to add a very small amount of white paint and some more water to her mixture and used that to add some color difference to the sky. Finally, she lightened the paint bath with more white and a few drops of water to make little clouds.

When she was almost finished, Elly was startled by Margreet appearing in the doorway.

"Didn't you hear me coming up the stairs?" asked Margreet when she saw Elly startled. "I had purposely stomped on the stairs a little more so you wouldn't be startled..."

"Oh Margreet, I was so busy, I was so completely into it, that I didn't hear anything. How do you like it getting?"

Margreet let her eyes wander along the whole wall. "Wonderful! What a special sky! And you did that with a sponge?"

"Yes, and with thinned paint." Elly explained how she had done it, mixing and thinning.

"Nice technique, where did you get that?"

"Nowhere from, or you should say it came from inside. It just came to me the other day, and I immediately had a click with it, had high expectations for it. And I have to honestly say, the result even exceeds my expectations."

"It's really quite beautiful. There is just one thing that strikes me: isn't the horizon a bit too low? No criticism though, maybe you just see it differently."

Elly looked at her, smiling: "Sweet of you to add that. But no, it's not right, you've seen that well. It did bother me for a moment, but I decided it's not a problem." She pointed to the lower part. "I think I'll paint mostly grass and some bushes here, but then first apply the same technique here with soft greens. When this blue is dry, I'm sure the green can go over it. And anyway, after that I'll go over it with a brush with non-diluted paint to make that grass and those bushes. So then that part of that air that doesn't belong there will naturally disappear under the green."

Margreet nodded, "I can see that, I'll leave that to the artist in you with confidence! But what do you think, do you have time for coffee yet?"

"Is it that late already? Doesn't matter, I've just finished the blue part, we'll just have coffee and then I'll start with a clean plate of green. I'm looking forward to it, because the sky turned out so nicely! Or even better... I'm going to add blue paint to this, and something to make it a little less blue, a little green or so, then I'll make some water here at the heron first. And then... with the soft green sponge around it. Oh girl, I'm all excited! Come on, off to coffee."

As they walked downstairs, they heard the door of the utility room. Margreet suspected Huib was coming in to pick them up, but saw no one appear. Downstairs she looked around, wondering who it had been, then suddenly she put her hand over her mouth.

"Ooooh, Elly, look! Huib was going to make a semi-circular table and a flat dish for under the tapestry... Now look, it's ready! He has already put it here! How beautiful, simple but beautiful, look at those legs, those slight curves in it make it so graceful. How happy I am with this!"

Elly put an arm around her shoulders. "Margreet, what a wealth, so much creativity here. This does indeed look beautiful. And then your tapestry comes up here... That's going to be a very special corner! Do you have any idea if you're going to put anything else in that bowl?"

"Yes," nodded Margreet, "that will depend on nature. I just want to put some little things from nature in it and that will vary per season. Many things become ugly when they are lying around for a while. So I will regularly put something new in there. For now I'm already thinking of a base of small stones. And then... I don't really know yet, I'm just going to look around me in the garden, and maybe in the woods behind here, it will be fine, it's already beautiful when empty and then with some nature stuff in it... I'm getting more and more eager to start working on that tapestry, but first I have to finish that vest."

"Yes of course, just fling that whip across your back again, girl," Elly laughed. "Would it also be possible for you to make a start on the tapestry every now and then, just at times when you feel like it? That you alternate knitting and embroidery? That vest will get done!"

Margreet laughed: "You are absolutely right, thank you, that will give some rest, some relaxation. And now coffee!"

She turned around and suddenly saw that Huib was watching them through the window. He was waving like a crazy clown and both women followed his example, laughing. Then they ran to the scullery, shot on their coats and shoes and went outside.

"Oh dear, how beautifully you have made that little table and bowl!" Margreet put her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. "Those legs, those curves in it, that makes it so lovely. Thank you, I'm really very happy with it! Have you taken any pictures of it yet?"

"Yes, when it was in the making, some process photos, but not here yet, because I heard you upstairs and wanted to secretly witness your discovery. I'll take pictures of it later, with the empty and maybe with the filled bowl. And later, when your tapestry is ready, new photos again. And then I'll just make a series of them on the website. By the way, I am curious how you will experience embroidery, whether it will be something that really has your heart and whether you will get a desire to make more tapestries. We'll see, but it just crossed my mind. We had already thought of using part of the website for Elly's photos. We could do that in the future for your work as well, if it turns out that you would like to make more of these tapestries. Plenty of possibilities!"

Elly stood enjoying watching and listening to them. Now she mingled with them as well. "It wouldn't surprise me if it suited Margreet, that embroidery. A delightful activity, nice and creative, a bit in the style of Vincent van Gogh, just letting the stitches fuse into whatever you want to see! But youngsters, the coffee is getting old, let's go to Annerieke! I also liked it, Huib, that little table with the bowl. Apparently not everything needs decoration. Just the simplicity in this is special."

"That's right," nodded Huib, "I've already discovered that with the dresser, I'm not going to embellish it. The attention can go to your mural. And in the living room to Margreet's tapestry.”

At the backdoor he invited them: “Ladies, please enter!"

To chapter 141. Cuddling parties

Or to the Table of contents