Mrs. RWP begins a new hobby

The beginning of a new year brings with it, to our house at least, a new hobby for Mrs. RWP. She had dropped a few hints to the children before Christmas that she would like to have an adult coloring book. Get your minds out of the gutter, people. She didn't want an adult-content coloring book, she wanted an adult-difficulty coloring book. These are all the rage this season hereabouts.

No one acted on her hints. Our children pooled their fortunes and presented us with the joint gift of a new computer. From now on I will be composing these posts on a Hewlett-Packard "All-in-One" PC with Windows 10 instead of a 16-year-old dinosaur with XP. I missed Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 altogether. The new computer came with a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard. I went out on December 31st and bought a new wireless printer/scanner to go with it, replacing the unbelievably slow but still-functioning HP-812C that I've had since 1999. But I digress.

Mrs. RWP went out to an art-supply store one day last week and bought a coloring book herself along with some "artists coloured pencils" (hey, look, British spelling!). On December 30th she began working on her first project. If I had been thinking, I would have shown you the page before she began, but as usual, I was not thinking. (Note to self. If I had been thinking, I would have given her the coloring book.)

Here's how the page looked when she had filled in half of it:

And here's how the page looked on December 31st after she had finished it:

I think it is very pretty.

Mrs. RWP says doing it was very relaxing because she had to stop thinking about everything else and concentrate on the coloring. If I tried to do this sort of thing myself, it would make me tense and frustrated, and perhaps I would go stark raving mad.

They say opposites attract.

To end on a somewhat melancholy note, here is Kitty Kallen singing “My Coloring Book” (3:18) from 1962.