05 03 2026

 Trolling on... its not being ill - though it is- or having interventions that takes time, its the farfallue around it. Spend a deal of yesterday trying and failing to get my bon pour transport paperwork so I can be taken to the hospital on Wednesday and no doubt will loose a deal of time over the same issue today. 

And the rest.  My dossier is vast, in French and needs all sorts of responses. And shaving, for gods sake. Will have to sit and draft a timetable today.

Bob off to the UK on Tuesday where he's seeing many of his specialists and we discover our future. Neither of us wants to return to the UK but its not impossible that he'll have to.

On the plus side, my lovely brother Matt is arriving on Monday to look after me!!!

The deadline for the math book drawings is three weeks away so hoping all this will go easily. It will, of course... and maybe I can sneak in a few hours and finish Irene Singing.

28 02 2026

 Carrying on carrying on though this'll have to have some serious attention soon.

Been knocked rather more than slightly by the surprising news that I need stents around my heart. The silence of the surgeon I had misinterpreted - but clearly there's no urgency since the issues were photographed in December. Awaiting dates now.

It's all very normal, it seems. Seems deeply unnormal to me, but hey -

26 02 2026

 

Quite like the direction that Irene and Flamingo is going though the Ascension is still a mess... in the meantime the maths book has been addressed by co-authors and I must find my original drawings (?Where did I store them) and adapt where necessary. Will leave till the beginning of March. We're overnighting in Collioure for 2/3rd and the plan is to come back knowing what I'm doing, hahahha

22 02 2026

 Despite lack of documentation, pressing happily on.... ascent of the blessed, Irene singing healing song to a flamingo, a small lamb. Liking painting.

Also finished little book, 50 sayings and sources from Stafford. 

Energy seems rather good despite a. hip b. shoulder c. ankles. 

10 02 2026

nearly done - got most of today clear so baring more surprises* should be done. Want to move on. 

* Bob ill, Zoe turned up -
 

09 02 2026

nearly done...

 

05 02 2026

 

Moved on a lot since I took this snap... enjoying this, put in lions for Bill.

03 02 2026

 Started another pic and flummoxed already. Notable fear of finishing something assuaged by having something interesting to move onto to but spending studio time staring at inept sketches... still, Bob back today so unlikely to be doing anything for a while.

29 01 2026

 Galloping on with the Eden picture. Enjoying it far too much. Introduced the walking lions in memory of Bill Norris, seems right for an eden vision (however confused)

26 01 2026

 The other copy finished. Just realised, Id painted in the incoming storm in a prophetic fit, thinking of global stuff, when at lunch yesterday saw a rainstorm racing up a valley. Amazing sight, blotting out the landscape, changing the light -

Started on this. In trying to recall the painting on the wall in my fathers study in Dore Road, found I had some ideas of my own...

23 01 2026

 Here's a done one...

22 01 2026

 Finished one, pleased... woke up raring for the next to find Bob seriously incapacitated. Might get a few hours in later.

19 01 2026

 Poddling on. Sundry interruptions but mostly plain sailing. Rediscovered the iridescent paints, so changes in the copying but an improvement IMHO.

17 01 2026

 

Enjoying this copying so much!! Might start more - or find other paintings not done with - to copy

and in the meantime, for a variety of reasons, was painting the expulsion from Eden. Doing a snake. And this weird shadow arrived on the  ceiling!

Its only the shadow of a light bulb but hey -

14 01 2026

 - I seem to be back working. 

The drawings for Maths book have to wait for lead author to recover from eye op before I find out next stage.  (=more, less, appropriate?)

The three pictures in process are trucking on...

12 01 2026

 Def cheering up. Got the Stafford thing finished and OK'd by 2 brothers, which is enough; got 10 drawings done for the maths book; started on a painting or two which are delighting me.

The painting is a pic that is sold but a friend who wanted it has agreed that a copy, along the same lines, is acceptable. It was a picture I wasn't quite ready to part with so want a copy for me and a copy for friend. No doubt problems loom but for the moment quite happy :)

04 01 2026

 Only 1,000 words to go- been writing a chapter for Staffords festschrift which is both impossibly hard and occasionally a surprising pleasure. Many anxieties. 

First that springs to mind is that l am not a writer. The piece is clunky and chichi and will have to have lots of attention before it goes out. Second is that combing my memories is distressing.

And my planned book is receding; further research, extensive and deep (ha!)  reveals that my approach is not that original. Who's it for? Not longer interested.

Embracing failure, wahey! V liberating.