The Sun Shines Again!

Hallelujah! I get longer walks again. The downside is that there is not as much mud to play in but I can live with that - I'm just happy to be investigating all the living things out there, and a few of the dead ones too.

Do you like this painting - it's called Big Sky (yes, really) and it sold on the opening night of the current exhibition. His Lordship was fairly pleased about that.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, I can also bring you the first image of the 2007 Southdean Show rag doll which you have, of course, all been eagerly awaiting. For those of interested in such things, she is a fine example of recycling - brown upholstery remnant cotton body, jumble sale blouse fabric, gifted skirt fabric, hair from silk and linen yarn L has had in stock for twenty years, necklace is a bracelet that she made, ribbons from my late lamented friend next door and pantaloons of the finest embroidered linen which started out in Devon, went to Portugal and made it all the way back to Chesters. Now all you have to do is pay up, guess her name and she's yours, on 11th August at the Show. And I have been asked to point out that it took YEARS to plait all of her hair...

Meanwhile, the main activity round here still seems to be in the form of destruction but L has also been out with paint brushes and rollers inside and Hugh is set to build aviaries for a neighbour outside so there is evidence of constructive work too.

Summertime Blues

I am not doing too badly for walks these days but I had expected more opportunities to lie in the garden and soak up some sun, instead of which the place is still a quagmire. There has been some sunshine in between the showers so the fruit is ripening regardless - Lindsay has been gathering it in and freezing most of it to make jam with later in the year. The rest is getting devoured at breakfast time.

I realise you don't all know the layout of my house and that of my late lamented biscuit supplier next door, but the two houses are connected by an internal corridor. If all the doors are open, I can really get quite a turn of speed up running down hallways, doing handbrake turns at the ends and haring back again. Makes a bit of a mess of the carpets and rugs but I am a dog and dogs don't do vacuuming or worrying about the odd bit of damage (I have been known to misjudge things and hit the walls/tables/bookcases/people).

There's a lot of other stuff going on still - not much in the way of ART but stacks of bits for other people, some of it paid and some not - in the last few weeks there has been gardening (paid and unpaid), grass cutting (paid and unpaid), logo designing (paid), preparations for the Village Show (unpaid) and yet more sorting out and letter writing and dealing with officialdom (definitely unpaid), AND only one instance of baking (possibly a record, this) .

H and L are doing much scheming with drawings and tape measures and pacing out and photographing but it's all a mystery to me. If I learn something useful I'll be sure to let you know but in the meantime I think I'll just have to let them get on with whatever it is they think they are doing.