A tale of two dinners

Christmas over and a new year arrived – no new year resolutions this year despite the modest success last year with trying internet dating and looking for a new, foreign posting.

An email during the holidays said that I should not expect to leave the Country before June at the earliest (if then?) but with my cv flying round the planet there is still hope and in the meantime the cataloguing of my library is progressing well with now 301 books listed after setting aside volumes I have a close attachment to, and other ones that have been offloaded to the Oxfam shop in town. The next stage is the paperbacks, to be followed by the maps and then to look for a couple of booksellers who may be interested.

My four children all arrived for Christmas and we had a very good time. One offspring arrived with his huge, homemade pork pie, dishes of pate and some local farmer’s organic, hand-reared goose, which he cooked effortlessly on xmas day with all the extras to much acclaim. Not to be outdone his sister set off to the rubbish skips behind Bridgwater’s supermarkets returning with a mountain of vegetables, eggs, bananas and tins – converted the following day into a paella extravaganza and leaving supplies for the following fortnight. 

I had not sold any paintings in the pre-xmas exhibition but, undaunted have continued to produce paintings if only as a cheapskate way of furnishing xmas presents and am now working on further panels for an end of February show at the Arts Centre

With tidying the house up in preparation for working abroad I finally got round to doing something about an impossible tool cupboard by the back door – the joiner who fitted my loft ladder and the new windows came round and removed a door and wall, built up sturdy wooden shelves, now screened by a curtain and which will make it so much easier to find things (with any luck!). At the same time he removed the wood block floor in the same area and will be back to lay quarry tiles there and through into the toilet as well. As with my work in restoring decayed industrial landscapes I forgot the most essential part of the job – taking photographs before starting work so as to be able to show the astounding improvement – never mind, maybe next time!

a rural scene

skip dipping trip

Christmas Day - Mike, Robin, Rebecca, Hazel and Sarah