Today was a good day

Robert just looked at me, smiled and said, "Has it been your kind of day today?"I must admit it that it was!I got to paint all day today. That was a treat. I bought 8 beautiful old maps from ebay. They range from 1928 to 1938 and are printed on something called war substitute paper. I'm not sure what that is because I can't find a great deal of info about it...except that perhaps it's not as thick as it would have been ordinarily, but it's beautiful to paint on. Smooth and linen like.I've been doing a garden clean up of sorts lately. Trimming and pruning because I won't be able to do that till December, and so the garden has to keep some sort of order in the meantime, and plants like this glory vine could easily swamp the fence in the next three months.Speaking of fence! This is what we think is a stray cat round here. Robert has named him Raymond, (even if it turns out to be a her), but Chloe and I can't live with Raymond, and so that's morphed into Raymondo and lately just Mondo. So anyway, we found Mondo sitting on the fence when we came back from a meadow walk, but he won't come to us or let us get close. This is about as good a photo as I could get of him lately. We're not sure if he's a stray or feral. He usually is out in the late afternoon/evenings, we don't see him for days at a time, he looks us in the eyes, but doesn't allow us any closer that about 15 ft. Anyone know anything about befriending timid wild cats? We left food out for him, but we're not sure if he gets it or the other four neighbour cats...or the fat pigeons round here. When we find him we usually sit by and talk to him for a while so he gets used to us. We'd love him to move in like our darling Theo did.Here is another elusive thing. It is a British jay. We almost never see these guys because they keep to the woodlands and very rarely venture into civilisation. Lucky us. I think he was after some garden plums because the acorns aren't ready yet. Think I'll paint him on the next map.The plums are just coming ripe now and so I have to think of a way to preserve a ton of Victoria plums in the next ten days!So are the apples. I want to make some crumbles and freeze them. They freeze beautifully, and these cooking apples are so sour. Perfect for a nice, tart crumble with a lovely sugary topping.Robert took some time to map the TVR engine today, (this involves computers and a test drive), and I took some photos from my studio. I think it look beautiful, but R thought the colour looked too pink. (that was probably the reflection of the blueish sky.Now these are pink! My hydrangeas in England flower so vividly pink. I love them. My hydrangeas in Vancouver flower bright blue and R loves those.And, after a full day's painting, (and not worrying about supper because I started a stew in the slow cooker in the am), I had a drive in my Land Rover over the construction site and then into the meadow.I gathered some vintage badges I was saving in Vancouver and brought them for my landi and mini. Do you think the British Columbia Automobile Association would come rescue me here in Oxfordshire? Yeah, me neither. :D Thank goodness I have a Robbie to rescue me if something should break. So far so good though. Early days yet in this restoration.So there you go. A perfect day for me and looking forward to tomorrow.Sharing with the wordpress bunch for the weekly photo challenge Today was a good day!