Well, I've been a real lazy so and so and just not kept the blog up to date.  Since the last post a few things have happened.  The boat is now happily established on its mooring and we (all of us) have been up the river twice, and Perry has actually been out into the Solent.

Bloto in the Sunshine

We went to France for 5 days and took the van down to Baden for the final of the Colours of Brittany.  It was great fun to see the chums again and have a good look at all the paintings in the final.  Quite inspirational in places! The meal was really good as well.

Part of the festivities of the Final.  Daniel G giving his oratory on painting.

Have lost our winter storage for the van, so it has to stay outside until Perry extends the workshop - but that won't be until the summer.

I had an exhibition with four Isle of Wight painting chums.  It was a reasonable success.  Nice gallery space, but I think we could have done a lot better with promoting the show.

This was the picture that went in the paper.  Not bad!

Just a few of my paintings. Put in 11 altogether.

I have managed to get a permanent hanging space in East Cowes for some of my paintings, and have sold three already - thanks Lou!

We went over to the mainland to visit Daniel and Catherine in their new house.  It's very nice - they've chosen well.

We went to see Tosca at Newport, it was transmitted live from the New York Met.  Great!  Following that I went to Southampton yesterday to see it again, but this time with the Welsh National Opera at the Mayflower.

Arriving back home late yesterday evening, what a sight greeted us.  This is the RAF yackt club display.  They come here every year at this time.  How lovely is that?

We've been back on the Island now for just about two weeks.  The arrival here was not very spectacular, boring Channel Crossing, but excitement crossing the Solent.  I managed to rustle a couple of pictures together for the exhibition at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, although I didn't manage to sell them.

Perry went back to France with Ben, almost immediately, to get the boat ready for its return. They only stayed two nights, then returned via St Malo.

This is just waiting to board the ferry. They arrived Monday night and left the boat in Kingston Marine.  Survey took place on Tuesday, and launch was planned for Thursday.  Unfortunately, it was very windy, so ended up being delayed until Saturday.

This is the actual launch on Saturday morning.  How small Bloto looks.  However, it was very successful.

Just waiting for some final bits to be sorted.

Bertie in his new life jacket.  He did keep very still and sat down most of the time.  I think he was a bit unsure of the movement.  Took the boat down to East Cowes and then eventually to its new mooring. Nearly two weeks of rather intense activity which has passed very quickly.

Friday 30th August - well this was the start of quite a traumatic weekend!  We left here in lovely warm sunshine, heading for the Baie de Mont St Michel, so we could take in some sea air.  For the evening we headed down to an Aire we know quite well, Tinteniac, which is near Rennes, because we had an appointment at the Camping Van Concessionaire on Saturday morning.  However, on arrival the place was absolutely over flowing with vans.  That meant we had to find somewhere else, tout de suite!  Unfortunately, there ar enot a lot of places on the North side of Rennes.  Eventually found one, not too special, it rained and was 25 km from Rennes!

Saturday set off for Rennes and our 9.00 a.m. appointment.  Fortunately we got a new leisure battery with no fuss!  Left there about 10.30 off to La Roche aux Fees for the painting.  Low and behold it was not the place for the painting sign-on, but somewhere else - no idea where.  Fortunately someone else was in the same position, and we following him for 25km to where the sign on was.  Arrived there at 11.45 - time limit for sign on is 12.00!  I was pretty grumpy - apparently we were supposed to know where this place was!  Anyway, managed to find somewhere to paint, and got on with the job in hand.

Well this is my effort.  Managed to do it in just over two hours.  Perry checked inside the building and said it was a workman's toilet! (Found out later it was in fact a workman's cafe).  Perry also managed to break the teapot - oh what a disaster.  I managed to get runner up, which was surprising, but in the meantime we decided not to continue on to Chateaubriant.  Stayed the night at a lake at the Southern part of the Mayenne, and Sunday went home.

We are now getting things ready for the return trip to the Isle of Wight.  Quite a bit to get sorted, but we have a week. Next post will be from East Cowes.

Friday 23rd August, set off late afternoon in brilliant sunshine.  Arrived at Combourg about 7.30p.m. only one other chum was there. Rained during the night- here we go again, I hate painting in the rain.
Saturday, signed on and then set up.  After I had roughly pencilled in something, it started to rain.  I covered my stuff up, but it was just too much.  Grabbed everything and went to the van.  Bit difficult to work inside as there just isn't enough room.

Well here is the effort.  I decided to make it nice and bright, but I had lost interest after it rained.  Anyway, evening we moved off to Bazouges la Perouse (not too far away) and guess what, it rained in the night.  Not only that, it was still raining at sign on time.  I was in two minds about quitting.  It eased off, so decided to have a go.  A bit difficult, as it was still very overcast and likely to rain again.  Chose the old school playground, but just as I set up, it rained again.  Moved to a sheltered spot in the playground, but it meant my view was very, very limited.  Worked from here and managed to finish something. 

This is the view from my shelter of the old school and playground.

Here is my version.  Got runner up, so didn't feel too bad in the end.

This was taken Monday.  Boat is now weighed and labelled, ready to go.  Herta the Hymer keeping her company for a her last few days here.

We set off for Lermot on thursday 8th and had a night on the coast.  Very nice, except we discovered on Friday a problem with the Van's fridge.  This meant we had to zoom off to Quintin just after lunch on Friday 9th, and go into a campsite to sort things out.

Lovely picture of the van in the campsite.  Perry manage to sort the fridge out - thank goodness.

Signed on on Saturday, and off I go.  It was a bit fresh to start with and then got very hot - too hot in fact.

This is what I managed.  As soon as the prize giving was over, we set off for Ducey to meet up with Pierre for his painting day.  Turns out Daniel Giffard and Theo were there as well.  They banged on our van at 11.00 p.m. to make sure we would be ready for painting the next day!  Sunday was a good painting day, except I forgot to take a picture.  The paintings are submitted and then put up for auction a week later. Sunday evening we set off for Hirel near Vivier sur Met (Baie de Mont St Michel).  Stayed there for three days because it was lovely and hot.  Unfortunately, on the last day, Bertie developed an upset tummy.  Left on Wednesay 14th for Jugon les Lac.  Bertie woke me up in the night, again with his upset tummy.  So I walked him round at 3.00 a.m. and boy is Jugon dark at night! Not a street lamp, nothing.  We had to walk in the middle of the road to make sure we didn't bump into anything.

Thursday 15th - found a nice spot in a little park.  There were loads of ducks, so I made an attempt.  Fortunately I had finished drawing them before they flew off.  Got runner up.  Bertie still had an upset tummy. Moved on to Lanfains for the evening.  Friday 16th set off for L'Etang Neuf (stupid name for a place). Obviously by a lake, but it is also where a museum for the Resistance is located.  Unfortunately, didn't appear to be much to paint. 

View of l'Etang Neuf.  Fortunately the painting included the village of St Connan, so after sign on, moved on to St Connan.

Bertie having a good sniff round. Unfortunately, still with upset tummy.

St Connan - just to give some idea of people peinting just about everywhere.

Me having a go at something!

This is what it should look like!

How about that for concentration.

And here's my effort! Very hot all day.  After the prize giving we went back to Hirel, managed to have take away Moules and Chips (lovely), but Bertie still had an upset tummy.  Took him to the vet on Monday, and after parting with 50 euros, two injects and loads of medicine, it appears he probably ate some garbage.....what a dog.  He is now much better. 

Well here it is, the BIRTHDAY SPECIAL EDITION BLOG - Happy birthday Perry.  And what did we get for our birthday?

Herta the Hymer - a new camper van (or Motor Home in English).  And are we pleased????

With a nice new bed

Nice seating at a table which extends

Lovely blue upholstery

and a lovely big sink for washing up

What's this? A TV over the bed!

And a TV in the living area! What luxury!

And a garage, where you can put your bike and tools

and leave the dog outside (poor thing).  Doesn't she look lovely. Forgot to say, we've moved to an integrale (or coash buillt in English) van.  Is that a fixed satellite dish I see on top?  No longer having to scramble on top of the bed to manually fix it.

Perfect. The Starship Bavaria has moved on to pastures new, and we have now got Herta the Hymer ready to start a whole new series of adventures.

And there was some painting as well.  Saturday was at Guemene sur Scorff, where I did a drawing, and spoke to most of the inhabitants.

Sunday at a new place, Redene.  This was supposed to be a decorated bread over, but I spent too long talking to my friend Josette, that I managed to lose the plot of what I was doing.  So much for concentration!  All in all, a very good weekend.  Most excitement being the new van.....

29th July - no painting this weekend, partly because it was going to be at a venue I am not too enamoured about and also because we (well mainly Perry) have been getting the van ready. Only really exciting things to report is that I sold two pictures privately, I've managed to start running again after my foot injury, and also to increase my cycling.  Perry as usual, has continued cycling thousands of miles fairly reguarly - don't you just hate it! Bertie had a couple of chums over to mess about in the garden...

Alfie (the Westie) and Cannabis (the Yorkie) have a really good search of the garden.

Let's play chase......

Bit late doing the blog, but we've had thunderstorms and the internet has been very unstable.  Left Friday 19th and stopped en-route at Larmot to get some sea air!  Very nice.  Had a long dog walk with Bertie and then watched the Tour de France.  This year it has gone through loads of places we've visited.  When it had cooled a little we set off for Pontrieux.

Saturday 20th July, Pontrieux - painting starts!  Decided to do a bridge, because it was located near the river and we could easily park the van.

Decided not to do the "lavoirs", so concentrated on this bridge.  The day was very hot so we didn't wander about taking extra photos.

Sunday 21st - La Roche Derrien - yet another bridge.  Again had to look for somewhere that wasn't too exposed to the sun.

A view of La Roche Derrien.  It was incredibly hot this weekend, so after leaving here on Sunday evening we went back to Larmot to get a bit of cool air by the sea.  Left for home Monday morning - where it was very hot and humid.  Quite dramatic thunderstorms started late evening.

Weekend starting Friday 12th - boy has it been a hot one! We left home early, to make sure we avoided as much afternoon travelling as possible. Stopped about 60 miles away from Huelgoat, where we spent about 5 hours, lunching and messing about.  Bertie was followed by a huge dog, and then later another huge dog decided to launch himself at Bertie and give him a lovely slobbery kiss!

What a really lovely place.  Bertie and I had a long walk after lunch (long because I took the wrong route!).

Perry set up the table for lunch - what a view.

Bertie would also like to participate in lunch.

Feeding again

Where to start!

Finally arrived in Huelgoat quite late and it was very hot.  Saturday and painting day. I painted three little scenes (somethings different), but the competition was pretty hot, as it always is here.  Still there was a good feast after the prize giving.  After that, we set off for Guerlesquin (fifth time there!).

Hot on arrival.  Sunday morning managed to find a place in the shade, so managed the drawing and a third of the painting in the cool, but then it was as if someone had opened up the oven door!  I worked pretty fast after that.  Hence, no surprise that I didn't win! Everyone found it difficult to paint in such heat.  Yves managed to lock his van keys inside his van, but Perry saved the day by getting the lock open with our van keys. Spent all the afternoon just loafing about and avoiding the intense sun.  We decided to stay the night and leave very early in the morning as it would be much cooler.  We left at 5.30 a.m. and got home by 9.00. 

Friday 5th July - I will never complain about the weather again!  It is now too hot.  Left on Friday afternoon, and it just got hotter and hotter, heading to Ploermel.
Saturday 6th July - decided I was going to draw today, mainly because it Ploermel is a difficult place to get excited about with a paintbrush, and it was also forecast to be very, very hot! This is a very funny place because where was parked was the grounds of a Carmelite nunnery.   A fair number of the rooms are used for different events. The site has a huge number of arches, and that is what I decided to draw.  In addition on the other side of the road is a Seminary (for the boys this time). Within the seminary is a planetary clock built by one of the brothers in the 19th Century.  He was a mathematician and used it to enhance his maths teaching.  It is one of only about 4 planetary clocks in France.

Here I am staring at the TV screen watching the video with Bertie looking as keen as ever.

Inside the seminary grounds is a huge park, set out very formally.  At the end of this walk were the graves monks who had resided in the monastry part.

This is part of the seminary, the clock was the other side, but inside this building was an art gallery, a natural history museum, a chapel and also a small exhibit of paintings by one of the monks.

Well here's the effort. And guess what - I won!  Received loads of goodies, but in additon a bunch of flowers which we had to put in the bucket (the tea bucket I might add) and then store it in the bathroom in the van! Unfortunately it was still very hot when we left, and Bertie was beginning to get pretty stressed by the heat.  However, we left about 7.00 for a half hour journey to Concoret.  What a shock when we got there.

The whole town is RED.  All the buildings are built of red stone.  It is also a very sweet village, but the colour was really out of this world.  We stayed in the carpark of the Salle de Fetes and then on Sunday morning went to the Chateau de Comper to sign on.  I had already decided I was not going to do the Chateau, so we drove back to the village.  I did a watercolour just round the corner from here.  Loads of people chatting as they passed and one old lady was very keen on the picture....but so was the lady from the Epicerie.  In the end there was a bit of subtle moving by the old lady and she offered to buy my painting and not let the lady from the Epicerie have it!  I was only half way through it at the time!

Here is the picture.  Didn't win, but a sale is always much more satisfying.  Renee told me that for the last 77 years she has opened her bedroom to see this view.  Her son insisted that she bought it, and she was very pleased - and so was I. I never did find out why the village is red, and can't get anything off the internet either.