early morning view

The past few years I have reversed my long-held habits and have become an early riser, usually while it’s still quite dark. A quiet time to sip a cup of hot tea, read, or play a word game on my phone. Our corgi, Butters, and one of our cats, Bardie, love to go explore outside in the morning before it gets light. This is the view we had one morning last week, a wee sliver of a moon over the Arizona cypress tree we planted a few years ago.

The teacup and saucer are the only real cup and saucer I own; I normally use a large mug. I don’t usually use tea bags, but I bought a gift tin of Yorkshire Gold tea bags just for the tin, which features ink drawings by Yorkshire artist John Harrison. The bags have no string and tag; instead, I use a beaded chain with a small clip to hold the corner of the bag.

(watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil in a Seawhite of Brighton travel journal)

✳️ A bit of artistic license was employed in this sketch: the oak tree, which still has some brown leaves hanging on, was moved closer to the cypress to fit the square format and the crepe myrtle we planted was completely ignored. Those pine trees in the far distance are actually much taller than I drew them, and I left out the long driveway with its 12 live oaks and some additional fencing. Trying to simplify!