What a day

3 news in a day: Portugal/Spain/France power outage and more

It felt like someone or something had switched off the mains. Not only our street, not only Porto, but Portugal, Spain, and parts of France.

For a big part of the day, we lost data connection, and suddenly, anything requiring electricity or internet connection was unusable.

See Spain and Portugal power chaos - in pictures

The data connection was restored an hour ago in our area. And I’m speedily hammering this out to you. Who knows? Just in case.

Thoughts during the outage:

Attack?
How long will we be without electricity?
Gosh. Almost everything runs on electricity.
Do we have non-perishable food in the house?
Need to quickly text our daughter. Too late. Lost data connection.
Will this be my last painting?!
Why do I care so much if my paintings are good/people like them/etc. Vs putting the priority on enjoying the process of creating?
With a snap of the finger, things changed. What is control?
What if today’s my last day? Would I want to live this way?

I know. I can be very morbid. Though I’d prefer to say I’m realistic.

News 2.
My husband told me my paternal grandfather passed away yesterday at 103. He saw it on Facebook. That’s how he found out. Ditto for me. My late parents divorced when I was a toddler. So, my paternal grandfather and I weren’t close due to circumstances, but we were okay with each other. He used to buy me sweets after he came back from his work. I’m sad I wasn’t informed of his passing. 😞 I am a dreamer who holds great ideals about families, but time and again, I can’t wrap my heart around how sadly, weirdly broken our world is.

News 3.
This was the original news I wanted to tell you before the power outage.
I’m doing a painting sprint—10 paintings in two weeks or less. Recently, I was attracted to the feelings of loose, painterly, semi-abstract paintings, so I want to paint a lot in this way and see where it leads…

Here’s the first one, loosely based on this theme, “scenes and memories of Portugal”. Painting process notes: It’s mentally difficult to paint crazy (ok, loose) and to let go of wanting to paint a “good” painting. But I love how free I felt when I danced with my brush.

I find that I like to zoom in on a scene. This was a bigger scene of a fisherman's hut? from one of my walks at Praia da Aguda (Aguda Beach), it’s also a traditional fishing village area.

That’s a wrap for April 2025! I’m still around to write and send this to you, yay! And paint!

🧡
Melinda
Website
Print and commission request
Instagram

p.s. My readers from Portugal, Spain, and France, are you ok?
p.p.s And carpe diem, everyone!

---