The Birthday Party weekend. .

Above, me and my sisters at the gate gaying goodbye to guests. 

My trip this time was very different to my previous trips to France. In the past I’ve looked forward to solitude, wandering the country lanes, chatting over the fence with the sheep and cows and sitting in the garden, sketch book on my knee, soaking up the sunshine.
This time it was different, the house was literally bursting at the seams. My niece (sisters daughter) plus partner were the first to arrive from the UK. I arrived early Friday morning followed by my other sister and mother later the same day. There was already a young American helper staying and by Friday afternoon the house was filling up. Bed space was filling up, the caravan was occupied and even the van had a bed made up in it.  At mealtimes every one crowded around the fully extended dining table. I don’t think that old table has been fully extended since a long ago family occasion back in England.  
Above, me mum and sisters. 


The official party BBQ, which lasted all afternoon and most of the night was on the Saturday.  That when all the local friends arrived and also my cousins, who happened to be holidaying in their own French house about an hours drive away, also arrived.  The actual birthday,  a family only occasion with birthday cake and a bottle of fizz was on the Sunday, Monday was a day  of recuperation and rest. Tuesday was a busy day; it was a mammoth clear away day involving housework, packing the glasses into boxes and returning some of the gazebos and garden furniture into storage. And on Tuesday people began to leave, beds were stripped, a mountain of linen and towels were laundered and the dining table began returning to its original size.
On the Wednesday my sister and mum left for England and on Thursday I was taken to see my cousins in their holiday home. They live in such a pretty village, its really beautiful there. We had a fantastic time, I’ve not seem my eldest cousin for many, many years, they are brother and sister and they grew up living 4 doors away from us. 

The five of us, myself, my sisters and my cousins all went to school together and played together as children, it was truly wonderful to see them again after so long. On my fathers side my two sisters and I are just three of eleven cousins and as children we were all very close. We are now scattered all over the place. Two live in Wales, I live in Scotland and one of the cousins lives in New Zealand. The rest are all in England somewhere, but not really close to each other.  Obviously we haven’t seen each other for ages but there is a tentative plan for a cousin reunion in June next year when the one from New Zealand is planning a visit. I am so looking forward to that. Then it was weekend again and finally I had a couple of days peace in the sun before starting out for home last Monday. I finally arrived home early Tuesday morning and went to bed for what felt like a week.

That was a week ago, and in that time I’ve been trying to catch up in the garden. Suffice to say my garden was in full bloom when I came home but…………..the fences and gates desperately need painting. ( hopefully garden blog to follow)
My other big project at the moment is my entry for something called ‘The Meffan winter exhibition.

http://www.angusahead.com/AngusListings/Events/Winter_Exhibition_at_the_Meffan.asp

This is an exhibition of work by artists, both professional and amateur from all over Scotland, the Exhibition is held in the Meffin gallery which is only in the next town and this year, I really am going to enter. Problem is there is limited hanging space and only about a quarter of all entries are accepted and hung, competition is tough. I was going to enter as an amateur but I think I’ll bite the bullet and go for the professional status. I’ve planned this painting for ages. I have a 90cm x 90cm canvas and I decided on my model a while ago. He is a 30 year old French actor who is from Marseille and has French and Caribbean ancestor. I met him at my sisters house back in May and when I realised what a wonderful face he has for painting I asked his permission and he agreed. I took plenty of photographs and then decided on the one I want to use. I’ve never done any thing on this scale before and I think its going to take a lot of hard work and quite a bit of luck. Anyway……………I’ve started, all I've done is prepait the canvas and print the photo, but its a positive start, which is a good thing. 
Before I left for France there was a lot of talk of change, there is apparently change in the air. People here told me this, and it is turning out to be very true. Sometimes change is not easy but I’ve come to believe when one door closes, another one opens. In the last couple of months I’ve become estranged from a couple of friends I was previously quite close too, but I’ve also made close connections with a couple of people who were previously only acquaintances.

And that’s brings me to the future of my ‘blogging’ self. I can’t quite believe I’m saying this but; I can’t ignore the fact that I simply don’t ‘blog’ as often as I used too, and blogging is something that’s been a big part of my life for six or seven  years now. I find myself is such a quandary, I have met people online  I want to stay friends with forever but; I don’t have the same sort of time or commitment for online activity  that I used to have. I don’t know why, I always thought retirement would give me more time not less.  I’ve given this some thought while I’ve been away and this is what I’ve decided. I’m not going to close down any of my sites, I’ll keep them open and hopefully I’ll post every so often. Actually it did occur to me that I may well spend more time online in the winter months when I’m not forever going out taking photos or travelling. But on the other hand, I do know how annoying it is for people to visit a site, comment and then never have that person visit their site and comment on there posts, which means if people give up visiting here because I never have the time to visit  that’s Ok. Over the years I’ve collected quite a few postal addresses (expect a Christmas card if nothing else) and email addresses and if any one wants my email address you only have to ask. Like I said…………..not exactly my last post, but changes are afoot and I don’t think I’ll be posting as often as I used too. Its taken me a while to acknowledge change in my online life, it’s quite traumatic for me after so long in blog land  but its time for me to face up to changes my life.