Jane Aston, painter.

 I have been busy trying to do springlike things. As you may know the rain has been deterring many of us from normal routines. I have benefited from my little plastic greenhouse. It's been cold, even in the day, we are still burning wood. The night temperatures are only just hovering above freezing. I have been able to keep the courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and seedlings alive just. I lost a few purple basil and a couple of other things have given up trying. I took a few photos over the weekend because we had a lovely warm day. The water meadows around us are largely unworked except for a few grazing cows that are usually there only a few weeks of the year. The warm weather brought a flurry of activity around us though, hedgerows were being tidied up and bits burnt. I mow some areas in the hope of creating more of a garden with a few small trees and fruit bushes. I have overgrown my garden beside George's shed. It's become full of things as well as blackcurrants, gooseberries, rhubarb and more flowers. I put a layer of paint on the metal table after scraping off some of the peeling white paint. I'm not a fan of painting everything white so at this stage I just wanted to hide the white. So the table is a dusty pink, all I could find while the sun was out. I am trying to work out how to fit wooden broken slats on old cafe chairs. They have metal studs normally, these rust solid and the wooden slats break off. I also need to find suitable wood to use, they original wood looks like it could be oak. I went to one brocante on Sunday, we had a lovely cross country drive to arrive. I came back a new way and we came across this wonderful, old 2CV. The farm house with the 2 towers is a traditional style.
The lower images are of the exhibition, the light was difficult to take many photos. The work shown is not mine. Mine were in quite dull light so I couldn't really capture them.

Home made cold frame, I must remember to remove the lid when the sun shines it soon overheats.

Bugle, very good plant here, the geese leave it alone and it provides beautiful foliage all year  round, doesn't mind long periods of frost and the flowers are intensely blue. It can be pulled up, split and planted elsewhere to cover dull ground areas. I am beginning to collect different varieties so I can start a small collection. It's related to mint and grows wild here.

I've been playing with the buttons on the camera, I still don't really understand what does what. I like these 2 impressionistic style.

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I'm worried about bees, I have been trying to take photos of all the different kinds, easier in theory especially when my camera seems slower than the bee.

Below are a few photographs from  Differences, the exhibition I took part in. There were many more artists involved too.

Robert Pommery, not very good photo sorry. Do look him up though for better images.

Still Life or Nature Mortes by a dutch artist, I need to check who. J. Makkinga

Bronze Torsos on marble plinths by Anneke Oosterkamp. She works nearby in a tiny hamlet. 

Tiles hand painted. I love the idea of handmade tiles. There was some lovely ones again I need to check who made them.

The view from the school house where the exhibition  was held. Normally  people hang around after the preview chatting in the garden but it was like this all weekend. I was still surprised by the numbers of visitors.