JUNE 2022

Wednesday 1.6.22

Can’t believe it’s the first of June already.

Though the studio across the Lane  is looking rather bereft of paintings as we slowly turn it into a home for the Ukrainian family of refugees who will inhabit it, my studio here in the house is looking healthily full, mainly of works in progress

Thursday 2.6.22

We were to be going up to London to give eye to the boys whilst Henrietta and Kev have a short stay at an hotel in Kent to celebrate their anniversary. But kev had also arranged with his parents, which means we’ve been let off. So continue in the studio were I count our blessings every day thhat we don’t live under an oppressive regime or a war torn country like poor Ukraine.

Friday 3.6.22

Sent little parcel to Myrtle and Rachel in More Hall Convent enclosing small Union Jack flags with a note saying that if after waving them they slide the flags off there are two rather neat light weight drumsticks for Myrtle to use on the makeshift drum she created out of the Christmas shortbread tin we sent. Although she and Rachel are both in their nineties they still make music by improvising with a small group of the other residents. I also enclose a Jubilee Union Jack pen for Rachel to write a poem with. She taught English and poetry at the National Star College while Myrtle was head of Art there and was our introduction to the group of wonderful students she brought along to my first exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum.

Saturday 4.6.22

Richard has planted two of the union jacks in the urns on the pillars either side of the gate. He cycled down to buy smoked salmon to adorn the open sandwiches he will prepare tomorrow for the street party here that will celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. I think she and myrtle might be similar in age. The Queen, who is admired around the globe, received congratulations from leaders around the world and the archbishop of York at the thanksgiving service she could not attend due to mobility discomfort made the analogy of how good it was she was still in the saddle as horses have always been a great passion. She and the other royals have been frequent visitors to Cheltenham Racecourse.

Sunday 5.6.22

Jubilee Street Party. By the time I come down after showering and doing my exercises etc. Richard has prepared a large tray of egg and smoked salmon open sandwiches and cooked nearly fifty walnut cookies. The weather is overcast but dry. Richard spots Don and Barbara, neighbours from higher up the Lane walking down, who confirm that it is from 3pm so bearing the goodies (I’ve also bought a large union jack box full of licorice allsorts and a folding chair each, we trot down to the little cul-de-sac where the first people we see are our lovely friends Lucy and Andy with their younger son Charlie; Joe their elder boy is like Isaac, revising for his GCSEs. There is a wonderful spread that we just manage to fill in our two platters and the allsorts.between. Andy very sweetly goes back to their house to get a glass to fill with prosecco for me. I meet Lucy’s lovely Mum Doreen for the first time - interestingly she now lives in our old house in Pine Bank having turned my studio there into  large bathroom. I also meet for the first time Bethan who is a clinical pharmacist at the hospital and her husband Stephen who works for GCHQ. They have two delightful children Seth and Esmaralda. We also meet Deborah and John, he came from a farming family and he grew up in Niarobi used to teach biology at Dean Close but his hobby has always been monitoring moths and we sometimes used to see a blue light emanating from their garden that used to attract the moths at night keeping track of which varieties of the species were frequenting the area. They used to live in Pine Bank too in the old station house and so sometime their mail got delivered here to us in Priory Lane as their name is Brook and our is Crook.  I also meet a splendid little boy called Max who knows that I am an artist and tells me about the creative things he does with his grannie such as weaving wicker and threading metal strips through it and also glass engraving. He says he’s like to see my paintings so I tell him about my Open Studio and say I’ll give him some books and cards.

Lovely call from Henrietta who hadn’t been able to have the night away with Kev to celebrate their anniversary as he’d got Covid again. He thinks he might have picked it up in Portugal where he and his colleague Nick were presenting a project during the first half of the week.

Monday 6.6.22

So touched to find one of Max’s glass engravings of a bumble bee and an apple in the sunshine on which he had engraved my name on from Max and a lovely noteWe drive into Cheltenham to the bowling club for the Friends AGM at The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum has not yet opened to the public. It is already buzzing and most people are already sitting in their places, there’s  seat reserved for me in the front row next to the Mayor, Sandra Holliday who I met just over a week ago at the Rotary event in Montpellier gardens. After a brief introduction from Adrian our chairman I’m on to do the welcoming speech. I tell them I am worried as our museum has been like  sleeping giant hiding its treasure trove of a collection from our gaze and compare it to the RWA which also closed in April of last year for lockdown and a huge redevelopment scheme’Light and Inspiration’ which went through the building from the new climate controlled glass roof to glassing in the entrances, a beautiful new forecourt, huge artwork lift like a tree that climbs up on the outside of the building and can take six wheelchair users and their carers, not to mention the new changing space ad family room in the basement. And it is already up and running with exhibitions and events. I also say thank you to Adrian our brilliant chairman and his team for keeping us going through lockdown and the closure with his educational and entertaining newsletters, blogs etc plus trips and events. He is hugely knowledgable and a brilliant speaker who has guided us through these difficult times with the help of his committee of Friends trustees. We’re not only losing Adrian after four years by also John, a techno whizz kid and miraculous minute taker who has acted has secretary and Martin who edited the Newsletter with great flair and imagination and later became membership secretary. All three stayed on for a further year making a term of four years. Luckily there are now members who have been co-opted to fill their places, Ro as chair will be joined by Judy, Connie and Vanessa. I also mention how sad it was that Sophie was now retiring after thrity two years at the Museum and how wonderful it had been to have her as our contact within but also to have worked on exhibitions with her, the first being when she invited Richard and me to exhibit an outfit each in an exhibition called costumes of well known Gloucestershire people (which also included Isabella Blow’s purple wedding dress, the suit Laurie Lee went to Spain in and Kit Williams’ self made suit).

Tuesday 7.6.22

Gardening in house and studio gardens

Lovely e mail from Dr David Price saying thank you for the ‘magnificent’ little painting and sending a cutting from the Gloucestershire Echo who included a piece in last week’s edition.

Wednesday 8.6.22

Have been working on the commission for Australia trying to work out the composition.

Thursday 9.6.22

Continuing on the commission , have now almost resolved composition.

Friday 10.6.22

‘Phone call from Kev telling me that Easyjet have cancelled the flights to Rome that he had booked a couple of months ago. So whilst we’re talking on the ‘phone he manages to book flights with British Airways.

To the Hardwick campus for the degree show. We’re met again by James, the course leader and Olivia who also teaches on it. Interestingly Alex Chalke the MP arrives on his bike about the same time so he and Richard have a little chat and he says although he has moved house several times it has never felt like home until he’s got the pictures on the wall. He points out to Richard his favourite work in the show which is a large red collaged portrait head by Tom Bezuglovs. He also says that he has the exciting privilege of being able to borrow pictures from the Government Art Collection. This is a brilliant and colourful show full of vibrant works; it is always very difficult to decide who should get my £1,000 prize. There are lots of tempting exhibitions within this large display and some very clever almost bulls-eys target canvases by a Judit Duval who used to be a potter. I comment to Olivia and James that they remind me of Terry Frost or Damien Hist. Another student, Sharon Bradford had been a veterinary nurse so her installation consisted of bones and chicken wire.  One piece placed on the floor in the shape of a horses skull in a pool of black paint. A series of very nice plant life forms projected from a light box onto light sensitive boards. Charlotte Smeulders had made weaving that started out looking very like rugs but then began to contort into improvised peculiar shapes when hung on the walls or suspended from the ceiling.  The young man we ended up selecting painted smallish rather surreal paintings full of angst which reminded me of Kafka and Jung, both of who also painted and drew. We ask James what he would think of this choice and he says he would wholeheartedly agree with it. Ed Cull had been very generous to his fellow students and had hung the whole exhibition and designed the degree show catalogue. He introduces us to Ed before we leave.

On the way home I muse that of course it’s also the opening of the Fresh Art Fair held at the racecourse and wonder how it had fared seeing that there were so many people at the degree show.

Saturday 11.6.22

I’m sitting eating my leisurely brunch when I comment to Richard that I’m a bit concerned that we haven’t heard from the refugee family who are coming to live in my studio house. and he says we have this morning, they are in Aachen, Germany. Within seconds of that a new text comes through and he exclaims they are now here in the UK! and will arrive here between 5 and 6pm. So suddenly it’s panic stations as we still have lots of moving of things across the lane from the studio to the house to do, new rugs to unfurl etc. Richard busily engrossed upstairs putting up the cot whilst I was downstairs pushing furniture into position, cleaning windows and windowsills  etc.

We’re still hard at it when they arrive, the three beautiful children and their Mum looking perhaps slightly nervous. Richard asks if they would like to come and eat with us but I think they would prefer to settle in. They go down to Tescos to do a shop - we had actually put loaves of bread, little pots of jam, butter and milk, tins of soup, cookies and cereal bars etc in their kitchen and on the table. I finish clearing one of the window sills whilst they are out.

Sunday 12.6.22

Maksym the father comes over for Richard to give him directions and to show him things on the laptop while I am talking to Max outside about his scooter!.the other main concern had been getting Wi Fi so I send for an internet booster.

Monday 13.6.22

They go to London for the day whilst we finish bringing even more stuff over from the wardrobes and putting up two new single beds that I have bought for the boys bedroom etc we are still working there when they arrive back looking very happy.

Tuesday 14.6.22

I buy a couple of beautiful second hand bikes for the boys and as Richard’s going to collect them from a house in Bishops Cleeve Daria calls out to invite us to eat genuine Ukrainian borsht. it’s a lovely evening and we get to know them rather more .Dari shows me photographs on her phone of her Mothers Apartment block with it’s blackened walls and Blown out windows.

Wednesday 15.6.22

Maksym  points out that he has put up the new rotary washing line that we left there and it is full of three loads of washing so the new machine must be working and the plumber also came to connect the new dishwasher too!

They ask if we have a barbecue as they cook and eat outside much of the time in the Ukraine so Richard collects ours from behind the summer house and a bag of charcoal. They sweetly send over some of the food for us.

Thursday 16.6.22

Drive to Bristol to the RWA. We’d set out in plenty of time but there are diversions away from the city centre so we end up going over Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge and as luck would have it we are in good time

The RWA looks magnificent with its newly glassed facade and climate controlled roof and beautiful forecourt etc.although we can see the select company at the private reception with Grayson Perry and Doctor Phil Hammond etc through the door way I decline all the offers to join them saying that we would like to wait for our guest Nick Park near the entrance. Then suddenly there he is in his elegant blue velvet suit and bow tie. We work out its a coupe of years since we’ve seen each other and his lovely wife Mags is at home in Preston looking after Joe her son, who’s just had an operation. We make our way upstairs and just as Alison the Director had said, we do have the bet seats, on the top table, I sitting direct opposite Grayson with Nick to my right and Richard to my left. It’s rather fortuitous s the man sitting opposite Nick (to Grayson’s left) tells Nick that as a boy he wrote to him at Aardman and how thrilled he’d been that Nick ad written back and to top this man’s evening Nick even does a little drawing of Wallace & Gromit for him. Nick apologises to Grayson fo not being able to attend his tv art class. He seems to be doing doing a series of shows in theatres and the talk tonight is called ‘Bad Art’ and accuses a group of architects at the back for liking conceptual and minimalism. I do comment to him later that surely everybody thinks their own taste is ‘good’ taste. I’m not quite sure where he’s aiming but bi-fold doors and kitchen islands seem to come into his umbrellas of bad taste but he did admit that beauty s really in the eye of the beholder. He is wearing a most fabulous brightly coloured flared tunic dress in fluorescent stripes going in different directions which just cover is shocking pink frilly knickers which he proudly shows us is where keeps the microphone, huge bobbly bracelets and ear rings and fabulous sparkly make-up with the addition of stuck-on sequins etc. The interesting thing about Grayson is that he does actually look rater beautiful in drag but that there is no campness at all, even though his altar ego is called Claire it seems more about the presentation of tat personae than the voice of a woman. He is always very blokeish asking for cans of beer rather than the wine on the tables. He asks if I make a living out of my art and I tell him I’ve always managed to do so he tells me he didn’t until he was thirty nine and what you really need to be a successful artist is a well off partner or spouse. He met is wife when they were both at art school but she then went on to study therapy and become a therapist. He’s busy creating a musical and I’m about to mention The Producers (which Nathan had taken us to see) when he makes reference to it himself. All in all it’s a great evening, the food, the company and the setting. We offer Nick a lift home but he prefers to walk. We get home about 1am.

Friday 17.6.22

The official from Gloucestershire  County Council Housing for Ukraine scheme and his colleague who is actually fireman in uniform come to welcome our guests and run through all the things that have to be done from registering with schools, doctors, dentists, banks, the biometric passport agency, Job Centre etc

Saturday 18.6.22

Drive to Solihull to deliver small commission to Jean May who lost her dear husband Brian (who collected Bristol cars), during lockdown. The little painting is for her 3year old Grandson Arten who we meet over the splendid meal with his baby sister Lilu and their parents Greg and Rochelle

Sunday 19.6.22

Both Henrietta and Nathan ‘phone Richard as it is Father’s Day and he receives a beautiful pair of Japanese secateurs in a bag which will be put to very good use in the garden - which means I might be allowed to use his old pair with the nick out of the blade.

Monday 20.6.22

Really pleased as Panter & Hall have a red spot by Midweek Commuters. I e mail the gallery and sure enough it is the woman who had liked it at the art fair.

Richard receives a call from Joyce my lovely friend from student days, who we ad been holing visit tomorrow with Janet and David, saying that she is eager to see us all. But on Saturday I’d received an e mail saying she wasn’t feeling up to it so could e  postpone but in this mornings call she siad she didn’t want to disappoint Janet so could we all go! But then I receive an e mail from Janet saying that Joyce had ‘phoned back to say it would be better if we made the visit short as she’d had a heart attack a few years ago and her daughter had said she is ill. She’s then ‘phoned Janet back to say she was well whatever her daughter says so we were still wondering wat the best course of action would be when I get a ‘phone message from Janet, who must have tried to ‘phone at the same time as Catrin of the Star College, saying that dear Joyce was very confused  and ‘phoned again to say she couldn’t cope with us as she is very tired and unable to cope. So we sadly postpone

Tuesday 21.6.22

Send Panter & Hall  a photo of High Hats and the larger newspaper painting One Day as they are wanting to take them to the Henley Festival

Wednesday 22.6.22

I have an appointment at a specialist dentist in Nailsworth during the afternoon. It’s a beautiful hot day so it is interesting going up ad down the Stroud valleys with the winding river. Te dentist is in a former bank building; so many regional bank buildings are now closed with the move to online. We remnisce as Richard used to live here and we pass Kit Williams’ ouse en route and the large home and garden of the man who commissioned Richard to do a large painting of his estate.

Thursday 23.6.22

Went into Cheltenham to see Little Amal who I had heard Michael Morpurgo talking about some time ago. She’s a magnificent puppet probably about 12 feet high and made by the same people who made the War Horse puppets of horses. Amal is a girl with long flowing dark hair wearing red boots stockings and dress. She’s walked all the way from Ukraine highlighting the vast distances that refugees have to travel to reach sanctuary or a new home. Edward (Lord Lieutenant) had pinged us an e mail last night to tell us about her visit to Cheltenham and walkabout. I catch up with her just outside Waterstones and become one of the thronging crowd that then follow her, accompanied by a band and as she makes her way to the  the cenotaph where the Mayor and Lord Lieutenant are waiting to greet her she takes off he floral headdress and lays it as a wreath in remembrance of all those who have perished in war. Then a Ukrainian singer performs a beautiful Ukrainian song. In the crowd I’ve met Helen , a past principal at the National Star College who also has a Ukrainian family staying with her and John and a bit later Peter Horne, a director at the National Star College. By this time Richard had managed to park the car and locate me in the crowd after having already met up with Edward and Alyson and Martin Horwood (who used to be our Liberal Democrat MP.

We then go over so that I can speak to Edward and Alyson and also meet Mayor Sandra Halliday again. A very nice man comes up to introduce himself to me who is n the board of trustees of the National Star - although he had been a trustee for eight years he says he has never managed to introduce himself to me before. He is also on the board of trustees of the Everyman Theatre and of Cleeve common but says the Star is very close to his heart and is the one he would least want to relinquish. I ask if he lives in Bishops Cleeve but it’s actually Woodmancote which Bishops Cleeve runs into.

As we say goodbye to Edward and Alyson he does a beautiful tap dance sequence on the pavement specially for us. He’s very Light on his feet and I comment that it must be difficult not wearing tap shoes (and full Lord Lieutenant’s uniform) he agrees.

Back home to varnish High Hats and do some final touching up on One Day

Friday 24.6.22

After Richard’s packed the car, including the paintings, paints etc we set off for London. The traffic’s quite bad and the timing on the sat nav for arrival keeps getting later and later so I ‘phone the gallery. But we’re in luck as Matthew will be there. When we arrive we’re surprised to find Tiffany too as a Chinese couple and their young son are trying unsuccessfully to haggle over a Warwick Fuller painting which they seem to think as they are offering cash, they can get for half price. Anyway flashing their money at him doesn’t work so they depart and after having chatted to Tiffany in the meantime have a short chat to Matthew too. Then we’re off to Boodle’s where Nicky and Karin are having a drinks party to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary. R manages to park at the end of Jermyn Street so it’s only a five minute walk. Boodles has a beautiful facade being an Adam design and over the pillared portico a huge Venetian window through which you can see the sparking chandelier with faceted glass pineapple on top. As we ascend the stairs there are some magnificent paintings of racehorses and other frames with jockeys’ silks etc. We’re greeted with glasses of champagne and survey the large room full of lovely partying people, friends and family of Nicky and Karin who have six children and sixteen grandchildren. We moved along to where elderflower, water and other drinks are bing served when Nicky’s younger brother Francis (a photographer) spots us. A very amiable man who seems to smile all the time and tells us proudly that he’s wearing his father’s Guards braces.

Nicky spots us and comes to greet us and introduces us to his beautiful granddaughter Saskia who is in the lower sixth at her school and has two brothers. They are Sara’s children.

Nicky introduces me to Chichi the classical double bass player who is a professor at the Royal Academy and has her own foundation for training young black musicians. I tell her I know her cousin Trish, who trained in dementia care and is a carer for a friend of mine. Hugo (one of Nicky and Karin’s sons ) asks Richard and me to help lay out the big box of freshly printed autobiographies ‘Owls in the Ruins’ which Nicky is presenting to each of us. He takes the opportunity to show us that right at the back there is a page illustrating the little painting of an Owl  writing their names that I created for their 40th wedding anniversary.

Saturday 25.6.22

It’s nice being in the London studio again and the garden is looking beautiful with the apples forming on the big russet tree in the middle, a clematis flowering on the terrace as it climbs along the rail, the hydrangeas all about to flower, especially the climber which is making it’s way up the trellis on the wall; the palms, yuccas and New Zealand flax all thriving too.

After a lovely tuna salad lunch with Henrietta Kev and Samuel we go for a walk through The Pleasance, a small park down into Greenwich, as Kev is taking Samuel’s ‘phone in to have a new screen to replace the broken glass of the previous one. We walk through what is now the University of Greenwich, a series of renaissance building designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It’s gloriously sunny and we can hear classical music drifting in the air as it’s being practiced by the music students. We had hoped to go in and see the painted hall by Sir James Thornhill, Hogarth’s father in law, but it was closed. I think what a breathtakingly beautiful and spacious campus this would be to study at. We then walk down by the river with its stunning view of Canary Wharf with its gleaming skyscrapers, several bank headquarters and I recall going to a dinner at the Daily Telegraph headquarters at number one, invited by Sir Frank Rogers with dear Professor Ken; sadly neither of them are still with us.  We also caught the Clipper from along here when we travelled by river to The Globe theatre to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was rather wonderful. We stop at a beautiful little hospital building from the early 1800s. Quite exquisite and small for a hospital, I suspect it was for the naval pensioners and could possibly now be almshouses.

We then make our way back up through the magnificent Royal Greenwich Park with its steep hill. We notice there’s even a free open sided vehicle a bit like a large golf buggy that gives free rides people who have mobility problems. When we get to the top we walk through the flower garden which is where we used to take the boys when they were very young. They used to play hide and seek under the scots pines. We also took them to see the deer. There is an abundance of grey squirrels and also parakeets which have bred in the park and become quite a large colony. Kev, who had gone to collect Samuel’s ‘phone had made his way back separately and had already taken the white shirts out of the washing machine so that Isaac would have one to wear for his party tonight with a 1920s theme.

We go back to the flat to write some e mails and diary.  Whilst I’ve been walking with H and K Richard has been sanding a rather beautiful arched topped mahogany frame probably a hundred or so years old. He’s just primed it with white gesso when I returned to the studio next door. Then at about a quarter past eight Samuel comes round and we have the most interesting conversation. I know he’s always been passionate about football and is good at rugby too but in the summer he tells me he prefers to do athletics rather than cricket or tennis apparently he’s second best in his year at javelin, shot put and discus. The other boy who’s best is he tells me already over six feet tall at the age of fourteen and that one boy in his year is  six foot six. The ‘phone rings to tell us that dinner is ready so we all walk through the garden round to their beautiful eating area. It’s a lovey evening and Henrietta has prepared a delicious stir fry after which we all have a slice of her banana and date loaf.

Sunday 26.6.22

We drive down to Ramsgate on this beautiful sunny morning. Nathan greets us at the door with Bea who us very excited to see us. He’s been busy preparing a banquet of food, fresh sea trout which he is going to smoke in his outside smoker and boeuf sur l’os in the inside oven. He’s also made a Caesar salad  and oysters to start. Henrietta and Kev had arrived about three quarter of an hour after us both boys being otherwise engaged. It’s an amazing feast and I can only just manage the french fruit and custard tart for desert.

We then go for a walk down the sea front, Nathan on his skateboard, Bea on her lead often performing rather like a circus act there in front of a classical Grecian Pavilion. From there down the steep steps to the beach where Bea races into the sea to fetch her ball each time we throw it. Nathan said she only earned to swim a week ago. He gives me his shirt and t shirt to hold while he goes in for a dip with Bea. Back then along the beach to the centre of Ramsgate and up the ‘Pugin’ steps with their beautiful tiles to walk along the esplanade where Coleridge used to stay in one of three different guest houses. It has been a beautiful walk and when we get back Henrietta comes in with a delightful strawberry topped Victoria sponge that she has made, all alight with candles which don’t frighten Bea when she jumps up to investigate; it’s to celebrate my birthday. I then get presented with surprise gifts, a rather magnificent sculptural candle holder that looks a little like a Barbara Hepworth and a very tall twin coloured candle, black at one end ad white at the other from Nathan with a birthday card showing a present bearing octopus. From Henrietta, Kev and the boys she has brought me back a magnificent catalogue of the Louis Vuitton foundation collection and a lovely scarf also from Paris, that is in a tin with a separate print on each side.

H and K drive back to be with the boys but we stay on for a couple of hours to chat to Nathan arriving back at the flat at about a quarter past eleven.

Monday 27.6.22

Before leaving Henrietta invites us for brunch. She’s going to be writing a chapter in a book that the London Institute will be publishing, which is rather nice as they are Goldsmiths’ rivals though both are part of the University of London.

We bid farewell and drive into London to the National Gallery were we are going to see the Raphael exhibition as it ties in very well with our bedtime reading of Varari’s Lives of the Artists. It’s a splendid exhibition and exciting to see so many works we have only seen as reproductions, in their full scale reality though it does also contain a huge what looks like to scale print of the School of Athens from the Pope’s quarter in the Sistine Chapel Palace.  Although the exhibition contains many of his larger devotional works and altarpieces we are also very taken with the portraits, especially his compelling self portrait at the age of twenty two and later a double portrait of him with his chief assistant  Guilio Romano where it is thought that Raphael is guiding Guilio’s right arm. There are some exquisite drawings and cartoons in preparation for the pantings including a magnificent terra cotta coloured cartoon of Moses shielding his eyes from the burning bush which in reality appears in a roundel  Stanza di Elodura in the Vatican. He was a huge admirer of Michaelangelo who was several years his senior and also of Leonardo da Vinci and was sometimes accused of using one of their  painted poses or figures from the Sistine chapel. Of course Francis Bacon based his screaming popes series of Raphael’s Portrait of Julius II. and John Ruskin plus the pre Raphaelites were trying to work in a more primitive way that was pre Raphael with his dark and often quite uncluttered backgrounds.

Raphael has always been a popular and influential artist. By the nineteenth century he was considered the pre-eminent artist of the Western cultural tradition. Napoleon looted sixteen of his major paintings, similarly his works were highlights on the Grand Tour and held the highest priority in the acquisition strategies of private collectors and National Museums such as the National Gallery.

We arrive home about eight thirty and I am relieved to see the two bikes I bought for Max and Koliya still lying on the drive where they had left them over the weekend as they have had to temporarily return to Ukraine as Daria’s mother is having surgery.

Tuesday 28.6.22

Lovely e mail from Dr Margus in Moscow. Richard’s been busy cooking a cake and preparing open sandwiches as our friend Bev is coming to tea as it was her birthday last week. She arrives with two of her specialist carers. It’s so good to see her and although I had been expecting Trish to accompany her, Karen is equally lovely and a new carer, Helen, who specialises in yoga and Indian head massage and keeps hares as pets for the therapeutic effect they have on people who are anxious.  John, the wonderful man who makes my frames also joins us.

Wednesday 29.6.22

Have now given a green priming to the smaller of Paul’s two commissions, two of which John delivered yesterday so I end up greening both.

Interesting that I’ve had what we think is a scam of someone wanting to buy all three of the images I sent at his request. It sounds almost plausible but just slightly suspicious. There seems to have been a great increase in this sort of crime over the past few months. This man led a rather interesting story to his life and work and was of course ‘buying them for his wife’. But I’ve also had two telephone calls from a woman with a strong foreign accent telling me she’s our regional energy advisor plus Richard had two about doing surveys. But of course some people will unfortunately be misled and fall into the trap.

Thursday 30.6.22

Working on two commissions, one for Nicky and one for Paul.

Henrietta sends us photographs of Isaac going off to his Prom night, looking so elegant in his new suit but one can feel his reluctance to be photographed. But he enjoys the “best of all evenings” where they even had a professional photographer so I imagine we will get other photos of the reveller.