What to do in a Power Outage?

We had a big wind storm here on Whidbey yesterday -- but not nearly as big as predicted. When the power went out about 2:30 pm and I was knocked off the computer, I asked myself - what now? No electricity, no water, too windy to be outdoors . . . it's still daylight - so I guess I could sketch! Here are just a few of my power outage sketches. (It was a  5 hour outage.)

I wanted to sketch the cherry tree in full bloom before the storm did a number on it. I couldn't really do it justice - my first attempt at trying to paint a white-blossomed tree. A cautionary tale in this sketch - this is what happens to a tree trunk when you leave the wire tag from the nursery on the trunk to strangle it over the years.

Hats on Stairs - This is my idea of a still life, I guess. I needed the light from the skylight over the staircase, so I artfully arranged some of my hats on the stairs. :-)

In the meantime, Dan came home (on foot through the woods because our road was blocked by fallen trees and hot smoking wires and closed by the fire dept.) He had my Payne's Gray watercolor that I asked him to pick up from Casey's Crafts. Finally, I have Payne's Gray. I tried it out here on my second hat sketch. Love it.

As evening approached and the power was still out, Dan launched into extended power outage mode --  he started the generator, hooked up the fridge to power and lit some oil lamps. This lamp was sitting right between two of our Georgia Gerber bronze mice (titled "Boys Night Out"). I thought they looked like they were engaged in some pagan ritual dancing around the flames.  Payne's Gray was put into service for this one, too. The perfect pigment for many occasions!