The Aramex delivery van pulled up at the aging artist’s house. Yes, here was the beechwood plein – air easel that he had ordered online! To be honest, it wasn’t as if the aging artist needed another easel, he already had more than one. It was just the look of beechwood that made him do it.

Strangely, the artist didn’t open the package. He let it stand in his studio. For a week, and then another week. And a few more. The unopened package leaned in a corner of the studio, its bright yellow stickers glaring at him.

Autumn came and went, and then the winter rain started. The view out of the studio window was anything but inspiring.

It was then that the aging artist with his sore knee remembered a place, a place to go to if the sun ever came out again.

It was a farmhouse near Napier, on a road called “Oskop Pad.” Yes, this farmhouse set in the wheatfields and now deserted, this would be the first place to set up the beechwood easel. The sore knee went away. The artist was ready. All he needed was the sun.