I’ve written before about my inability to make watercolours work for me. I won’t give up on them because I love some of the effects you can produce with them, especially at the delicate end of the spectrum. I tried a thing this evening and I thought it was going to be OK but it turned out looking so crap that I won’t even put it up here.

I ended up just doodling and playing with water and pigment.

A friend sent me a YouTube link on acoustic guitar playing and it’s made me more determined than ever to learn to finger pick. I’m just going to choose a style and go for it. I reckon 10-15 minutes a day over the summer should give me a good start.

Speaking of acoustic guitars, the same friend brought me to a gig in Whelans on Tuesday. A band called Tir na nOg. Pioneers of a kind of progressive folk with an Irish flavour in the 1970s, out of the same sort of stable as Scullion. I can just about remember them. Two members, Sonny Condell and Leo O’Kelly, both in their late 60s. They played some beautifully mellow melodic music – very calming. Nice guys and lovely musicians too with amplified acoustics, using alternative tuning.

I need to go here …