Indian Summer

Is it our usual Indian Summer coming a month early, or are we just having an exceptionally glorious September with temperatures here in Gascony still rising towards the late thirties C max?  Only the cool, crisp mornings with the hedgerows glistening with diamanté dew remind us that it is officially Autumn.  Having finished my painting commissions for birthdays and weddings my French neighbour has floored me by suggesting that I do two portraits of her so she can give one each to her grown-up children!  Fortunately, I'm not so good at human portraits [animals being my speciality] so her poor suspecting offspring may yet be spared.

What am I doing now?  Well, I'm giving thought to organising my art group's Christmas party and the painting programme for 2012, which will be much more challenging and comprehensive.  And today I've printed out the first three and a half chapters of my new novel for editing.  This will get it flowing again after a short break from writing and, hopefully, I will get it finished by Christmas - well, that's my aim, anyway.  

Stormy weather

Well, we've just had one of the biggest storms ever in our twenty years living in south-west France.  Only the hurricane of 2008 bettered it [is that a word?].  Hopefully, it has brought an end to the big August heat, which traditionally ends in a big storm after a series of smaller ones.  This year our traditional storm just about washed us away.  A near disaster was the fact that I had left the big sliding door of my studio wide open.  Fortunately, not a drop of the deluge entered.  My new canopy on the terrace came close to being demolished.  I bought that especially for my stepson and his wife coming over to visit from Shanghai, but it was never used because the weather was atrocious during their stay.  The canopy I bought for outside my studio wasn't put up because we were waiting for roof drains to be installed.  When we got that out of its box it had been turned into lace by resident mice in the barn.  Husband not a happy bunny at this time as he considers all this not only an unnecessary expense but a waste of 'his' money.  Sheesh! He obviously wants to take his money with him, while I want to enjoy mine while I can.  We agree to disagree.

Having finished the goldfish painting, my customer then wanted a painting for her friend's 50th birthday, like in a week's time!  Nothing ventured, I sat down and spent some hours doing a small painting of a bouquet of flowers in a size she could afford, then she chose a more expensive one that was already on the wall in my studio.  No accounting for folks, eh.  I also spent the weekend doing a painting as a present for a little boy who may soon have to part with his pet dog.  Thank goodness I'm also an animal artist and have been for many years - animals being my favourite subject and the creatures I love most of all.