Friday 28 October 2011

St Tropez

Paintings displayed at the quay at St Tropez. I visited here for the first time this year in October. As you can see the sky was intensely blue. I visited a day when there was a Porsche weekend. Not my thing at all but to see the whole spectacle was quite curious. The yachts apparently were on the small side. They looked beyond enormous to me.








This large yacht registered in London was one of five in a row
the other four were all painted in this white with gold sign writing



Tuesday 25 October 2011

Grimaud


Michel Sauval's Gallery in Grimaud. He has a gallery overlooking the  village square. His  paintings 
are very freely painted with additions of pieces of bits of wallpaper, carpet even. I love his choice of palette, he didn't seem to have a particular make of paint he preferred when I asked him. He described his atelier as a 'Catastrophe' with narrow walk ways between his work and things.


The rugby was on while I was in Grimaud.


View of St Tropez from the castle.


I have had trouble posting lately, I broke my trusty laptop, and have been having trouble with my camera. I limp along......

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Serres





This is Serres old town. Our van had to have a new starter motor so we were here for a few days. It had a lovely old town that like Dieulefit was wrapped around a big lump of rock. We had a couple of days of grey weather and rain and then some sunshine so while we were holed up here we went to an amazing outdoor swimming lake in the mountains that was free.






This is me reflected in the lens of sunglasses. I have begun wearing glasses for reading now. I have been tending to wear sunglasses and reading glasses at the same time. It's so much more complicated having to wear glasses to read small print.

Saturday 1 October 2011

We are having the most wonderful weather here. I have begun a new painting which I am enjoying a lot.






The lake is a little low.


The cats come in to the kitchen that has these clay floor tiles. My little cat with 3 legs likes to sprawl out. He likes the coolness. We have strong morning light and then in late afternoon the sun comes around the back. Flubs is quite sociable for short while in the mornings, then he likes to sleep.

We went to the shops yesterday and to visit the market in Autun. The drive home through forests and farmland is
magical.

My veg garden. I have a lot of flowers, Cosmos and Nasturtiums and Morning Glory this year.

I have ducks to feed, these ones come up to the backdoor for maize 'concasse' Indian Running ducks are a bit timid and jumpy. I have persevered to get to know them and now I have 2 that are really quite brazen.

I have so many squash and pumkins, my friend Dolly tells me they like to be sun baked before storage. I am surprised at how orange they can be.