Happy accidents and unusual takes on history

I would like to thank Bob Ross for freeing me to create as I please. Let me explain:

At home, we have a "smart" TV that has a channel it defaults to when turned on. After lots of trial and error, I selected the Bob Ross Channel (yes, Samsung has a 24/7 Bob Ross channel!), and it pops on every time we hit the power button.

You remember Bob Ross, right? The soft-spoken, jeans-wearing, big-haired painter from the 80s who hosted a show called Joy of Painting on PBS?

While teeing up what we want to stream (usually something on Acorn, Britbox, or Masterpiece) I often get so mesmerized by whatever it is Bob Ross is demonstrating ~ but even more so by his calm demeanor ~ that I forget what it was I planned to watch.

Bob said that "there are no mistakes, only happy accidents" and that when you paint you get to decide what's on your canvas ~ it's your own world!

Well, that certainly sunk into my subconscious, because earlier this week, when I embarked on a quick painting project, transforming a little chest that we use for gift-wrapping supplies, I was less tentative than usual when I brought out the small brushes to do a little freehand embellishment.

I let the brush take me where it wanted to go, and the process was much more fun, forgiving, and rewarding than in the past, when I have been more rigid about my designs.

I think there's a metaphor for life in there somewhere, don't you?

On a related note, what have you been enjoying on the telly lately?

Chris and I recently rewatched the first season of Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel's bestselling novels, in which Thomas Cromwell is the main character of the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn story.

It's so well-written and acted, with such great cinematography, you feel as if you have transversed time and space and are in the same naturally-lit room with the (real) characters.

The second (and, because it's based on a true story whose end we know ~ the final) season, called Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light, started airing this past Sunday.

As with most good series, Chris and I like to wait until there are a few episodes in queue before we begin.

So, while we wait, we've decided to brush up on, and learn some little-known tidbits of, British history with the show Lucy Worsley Investigates.

Lucy's questions about, and unusual takes on, different happenings in centuries past (like the Princes in the Tower, the Plague, or the Gunpowder Plot) remind me a bit of my favorite books by Bill Bryson.

Both Wolf Hall and Lucy Worsley Investigates elevate what may have first been presented to you from a dusty history book to an art form that depicts the humanity, drama, and lesser-known influences behind some of the most-trodden episodes in history.

If you are a history buff (and really, even if you're not) I highly recommend both shows.

Sometimes, truth is indeed stranger than fiction!

xo,