Bill laughed a little at Ben's comment about the temperature. "This isn't cold. That'll only kick in once it's January," he reminded his friend, and then looked down at the sketchpad at Ben's question.
"I'm gonna paint this view as a present for Mom for Christmas," he explained. "I took a load of pictures on my phone earlier, but now I'm just making a couple of sketches and drawings to see how everything's going to go together. I'll come back later and get some more photos when the light changes, so I have a few different choices about what to paint."
He lifted the sketchpad again and blew off the snow that had drifted onto it while it had sat on the rock, and gestured for Ben to sit down on it if he wanted.