Poets, painters and puddings. These three things make the world as it ought to be.

On the Way Home

Looking at the snow. I finished cooking for my Russian family in Couchevel on saturday 12th Jan, they are really delightful people and a joy to work for, we are hoping to meet again in March when one of the young men is here for The Mipin Festival in Cannes, the property festival. I was pretty sick whilst working for them I got a bad cold and a fever and was dosing myself with any cold medication I could find lying around and more, just so that I could finish the job. On the friday it snowed and snowed, I had not slept all night, I could not stop coughing, when I looked out of the window I knew I would have to put on my snow chains to get to work, there was an excited fear about me, the excitement of doing something new, driving through deep snow, and the fear of doing something new, driving through deep snow, the snow ploughs were clearing the roads, but still the snow to a southerner was deep. I didn't waste anytime dragging myself out of bed. Dressed and filled with hot coffee, I went to the garage to tackle the snow chains, luckily my Pal Alison had shown me how to use them a few days previously. I did well, they were on in a jiffy, smug and self satisfied, I drove off in the car through the garage door, and then crawled alond the mountainous roads at a snails pace, the only vechule that did'nt pass me was a lorry, and I passed him!

I wondered how on earth people used to manage without snow tyres and chains. When I was a small girl and we used to live in quite a remote village in the country, our mum used to drive us into Oxford and back everyday, and we used to have real snow filled winters in those days, we used to go sledging in the river field, make our yearly snowmen, throw snow balls at one another, I used to love the snow as a child, and it is magical. Think that every single snow flake that has ever fallen is differant than the millions of  snow flakes that have fallen before it, that fall beside it and that will fall after it. Each snow flake is a perfect geometrical shape. Have you heard of Sacred Geometry? It makes sense to me. But I am meandering, suffice to say the snow leaves me in great awe of the beauty it creates as it sweeps over the land and the mountains.

Green slopes, red nose

Here I am in Meribel, isn't that just a wonderful sight, sunshine and white, white snow. You know there is every possibility that I might become and avid skier. Having screamed blue murder at David last year, sworn some pretty rosy swear words, cursed the slopes and all who skied on her, I have an inkling that I might be changing. When I arrived here after my six hour drive the sun was still shining and bright, I unpacked at my friend Alisons beautiful chalet appartment , and wasted no time in hurrying to the ski shop to rent my skies and boots. The very next day I went to cook for the Russians, not all of them, eight of them, I got up at 6 am and slugged my way to work, only to find they were all stillsleeping and did not want me back until ten. Breakfast over I thought I would want, need even a rest, OH no nothing of it, I rushed back to my pals house, got me boots and me skies and off I went in glorious sunshine to take myself out of on the slopes, no ski instructor n o dear freind, no irritated man egging me on to do things I don't want to do, and I did well and I am pleased and proud of myself. I skied the next day as well between shifts, but by the third day I was so tired, that was that.

David is here now and we joined up with my cousins who have an appartment in Motteret, the Russians left suddenly to go to Nice by Helicopter, I was/ am very pleased. the kitchen in the chalet they are renting is miniscule, there is virtually no kitchen equipment, not even a chopping board and no space whats so ever, so trying to cook for eight isn't all that easy. Anyway they are very lovley people, which is a releif, had they have been as horrid as the kitchen, I would have had to leave the job.

So they are in Nice, which is nice, and today I skied with my beloved and he was nice to me and I was nice to him, and I skied for nearly four hours and my skiing has improved and I feel quite content. We are back at alison's now.

Thank you so much for your comments re the hens, every time I peel vegetables I think of them, who am I supposed to give the peelings to now. We shall most definatley get some more hens when we get home.

Tara

We went to Berlin

Oh yes we did, for my fiftieth birthday, and a little more than that, I can tell you. Some people thought it was an odd place to go for a birthday, others told us what a wonderful city it is, I must say we both enjoyed it. We arrived on thursday night, in time for a small dinner after we had dropped our luggage off at our hotel. Cheap and cheerful we thought, oh God, I could only eat a few mouthfuls it was a gastronimic disaster in more ways than one. My stomach suffered. Friday morning was my birthday, David went to the breakfast room and bought me breakfast up on a tray. then it was present time, I opened the cards from my sisters and felt so sad they could not be with me, tears trickling David urged me to open the presents, jewellry, yep, that's what I wanted and I got it, earings, necklace, bracelet and ring, all from a very special stone found in only one place in the world, in Australia, sounds a bit like Mookaw. Having adorned myself with my bijoux, whilst still in my pyjama's, David said to me. 'There is just one more thing' Oh goodie, thought I not being at all greedy and always wanting more. So I said, 'oh yes' quite politely. He took hold of both my hands and and said to me very softly, his blue eyes full of love..'Tess, will you marry me'  Blimey that did it the flood gates opened, laughing, crying, ooh la la, stunned into silence, I managed to mumur a 'yes', and was off in cloud cookoo land for the rest of the day.

Saint Jacques de Compostelle

My painting in its New Home.  Click here.

I got up early, I did not want to. David always wakes early, at seven am we were out walking with the morning sun shining down on us, the wild flowers are still in abundance, we have had a fairly wet June. Men on tractors caring for the vines, birds singing, and dog's tails wagging. We came home and I started to weed my garden, and I don't know why, but the Road to Compostelle keeps coming to my mind, at least 15 years ago I determined I would walk the road from Le Puy in France to Santiago in Spain, even if I walked the road in several goes, it is a long long way and a hard walk. I have a feeling it is time to do the walk.

Saint Jacques. the story is that the apostle St James the Great, son of Zebedee after the death of Jesus Christ went to Spain to convert the people. He landed at Finistere in France and later returned to Judea where he was made a St and then his body was taken back to spain where his tomb was built, the tomb was discovered around 830ad, and what I find disturbing and interesting, is that it was found at a time when Christians were fighting Muslims to regain the country, Saint Jacques apparantly appeared as a shining Knight on the battlefield.

Have you ever eaten Coquilles Saint Jacques, in France the Scallop shell is commonly know as the Pilgrim Shell, anyway the pilgrims on the roads to compostelles used to wear cockles on their hats, because the Coast around Finestere is a plently with them. The Chemins start  in four places, Le Puy, which is where I want to start from, Paris,  Arles and Vezelay, the churches and cathedrals along the way look really wonderful. People went on the pilgrimage, to do penance for a crime, a sin, for an act of worship or for health reasons. Many famous people have been on this pilgrimage, including Shirly Maclean, who wrote a book about it,  Paulo Coelho who wrote The Alchemist also wrote a book called the Road to Santiago, good book by the way. The most beautiful book I have read about someones personal journey on the Route de Compostelle, is by the husband of the cookery writer Elizabeth Luard, who is an amazing writer herself, I love her cookery books. Their daughter died from aids aged 21, I cannot remember the exact story, it is a very long time since I read the book, but it is about the bravery and immense courage of his daughter, and his intense grief and sadness of her untimely departure from this world and his life. He went on the walk, his sister went with him on one of the legs of the jounrney, he took three years, and gained immeasurable insight.

A trip to Milan

I went to Milan last weekend, what a fabulous drive that was. All along the coast to Genova, then turn left through the mountains, towards Milan, then flat arable land. It was a wet and windy day, I was going on business but left a day ealy to do a little sight seeing. Well it was not easy to see much, but I did go to the Cathedral, which is really amazing, it must have taken hundreds of years to do all that intricate carving, and what I like most about this architecturally imense building was the simplicity inside, there was not the usual blood and gore or Spanish Cathedrals the Stained Glass windows were really beautiful and The Virgin Mary and the White Dove of Peace, are the prodominant features, on the inside of course.

Boy was I cross

                         Visit Diary of an Artist                                                           The day started so well, the misty morning walk, a stop for morning coffee in a once prosperous but now shabby town. The woman at the cafe said that all the young  ones had left, there was no work there any more. The prices of the properties were very reasonable, and the gyspy in me had notions of coming to live right here in Lorraine, the notion lasted as long as the visit and did not suprise me when it came back at the next pretty place. If I had loads of money I would have been in grave danger of buying property willy nilly all through France.   

I don't know how it happened nor at what point, although we had had a huge argument at breakfast and I had it in mind to catch the train all the way home and then leave the moment I got there. Fuming I was, billows of steaming anger were pouring out of me and loudly may I add. We so fiercely disagreed with one another on a particular subject, that it really was a waste of my good hot air and anger, after the explosion I wanted David to look at the map, but he would have none of it, and took out his computor to plan his own trip whilst I was in the shower . We finally managed to agree on our route. So I guess our day hadn't started quite so well after all, how clever the mind is to move away from the pain of the moment and to remember the good of the moment. We did kiss and make up, but my mood was volatile, and David's was quiet, it was still a beautiful journey, my one regret of the day was that we did not stop to look at the Fortress Town of Langres, which looked aboslutey amazing.

We stopped for the night near Salons les Bains, I would have liked to visit there as well, but somehow, after our arguement of the morning, I no longer wanted to ask if we could stop, he had not wanted to stop at Langres and I did not want to hear another no.  I wanted to wallow a bit in my martyrdom, I had been holding on to it all day, David on the other hand had let go, and was bright and cheerfull. We found a lovely place to stop tucked away in the fields beside some woods. I was begining to long for home.

Oh what a beautiful morning

     Diary of an Artist. click for my latest paintings

                      I enjoyed going through the quiet villages of Belgium, and it was in a dreamy state of mind that we drove over the Border into Northern France, my how things changed. From Eagles to giant plackards on the side of the road from hushed silence, trucks, cars, motorbikes, honking and hooting, factories, gas stations, how could just crossing the border be quite so dramatic! I do find the bill boards very ugly in France and quite how ugly really showed after our previous days journey we had just driven through. But France is without question a magnificent country . I shall get the map our for tomorrow and let you know our route, and we found by sheer chance a fantastic camping site on the river Meuse, there was no one there, just  on the edge of a river well kept, clean and oh yes, very nice hot showers.  There was a barbeque and David cooked the bratwurst sausages I had bought and I cooked mixed vegies and a spicey tomato sauce, bliss.

As we walked through the misty fields and watched the sun come up, I felt as if I too was part of the sunrise, part of the day dawning, a part of all this wonderful mystery, we call planet earth.  I am so often taken up with my own thoughts and my own busy mind and busy day that I seem to become a seperate entity, it is when I do this life becomes harder than it really needs to be. Hey ho.

I am painting my studio walls ready for my exhibition and have almost perfected my invitations, so I am looking forward to having a gathering of merry people in my home.

Hot Feilds and Lazy days

  I am putting together a new collection of my water colours for you all to see, and I am going to try and start up a painting a day for $100 inclusive of post, so we shall see what happens and how it turns out.  Please click on Diary of an Artist to see my latest paintings.

This hot steamy ploughed feild was painted on the second day of our trip. It was really quite romantic waking up in the forest and watching the sun rise, I have some beautiful photos, so many I think I shall start a photo albumn. We meandered into the nearest town. I wondered what people in Belgium eat apart from chocolate, David replied 'Chips', I chuckled, in this very small hill top town, there were at least three chip shops, not any ordinary chip shop, but piles and mountains of chips. But who was going to eat them? the place was almost a ghost town no people to be seen anywhere, very strange. We went to the supermarket and bought a few days supply of food. Yes Neffertiti does have a fridge. Drank a coffee and went on our way, through forests and feilds and pretty villages, but no people, no people anywhere, no children playing in the streets, no lovers out walking, no old men chatting and smoking their pipes, no women coming home with shopping or pushing prams, no sounds, just pretty well kept villages.  We would hear the hum of a tractor in the distance, they must have been driven by someone! We spotted this hot red feild with a wood at the end of it, and chose it for our lunch spot, David lazed and dozed after lunch and I painted, finally my grump had gone and was replaced with a feeling of well being and love.

On the subject of love, isn't it just great to have lovley friends, my freind Kristi who is a seriously good blogger, just click on site  and you can see for yourselves, invited me to lunch the other day and was so encouraging and inspiring, Her husband Jean Marc is a master of wines and does wine tours, we were chatting about doing some wine and food combined, could be fun, I shall let you know if anything transpires, from out happy lunch time talk.

Hot Feild Hot News. I have started to write a cookery article once a month in the VarVillageVoice.com octobers issue is Dancing Pigs and what to do with them. I am also having an open House Exhibition at my house 7th and 8th October and 15th October, including nibbles and wine. I shall foramlise my invitation to you all tomorrow, and continue the story of my Travels with David.

Breezey Belgium and our first night

                                  She was neither up nor down!

We did stop for a map and the computor was sullenly put into the back of the van under cover of an old black towel. Hey presto the veil of ignorance was lifted from my eyes and I could see where we were. Oh my goodness, what a lot of choices, I suddenly wanted to go off the road that we were on and be intrepid explorers, my road trip partner was not so happy at all and it was now his turn to be the sulky grumpy one. I decided not to push my luck. The computor was hidden from veiw and I had a full size map of Belgium, Luxembourg and France on my lap, we got off the hot and hetic auto route and went on the small roads genlty ambling along. We were now in Belgium, all I knew of Belgium, was that a lot of chocolate came from there. What I was to find was a lot beauty. Every where we went the land and forests were under protection by the government and were naturel reserves, we saw so many birds. Eagles, hawks, kestrels, buzzards, thrushes, blackbirds, giant crows. Instead of shooting posts there were veiwing posts.

Our first night in Neffertiti ( the camper van) was tucked away in a beautiful forest surrounded by rolling hills of undulating pleasure, green and lush we walked through the wet grass with the dogs and listened to the sounds of nature, and stood happily hand in hand, dogs either side of us watching the sun go down. In the morning I ventured up the one of the tall ladders and for a moment was the Queen of all I saw. David took this photo of me on my way down. Idyllic yes, but would it last?

Ducks on the on the Water

                           I painted the water on the pond outside Hotel Petit in the Hague, and just looked at the ducks, wishing that Maigret de Canard and Fois Gras did not have to be quite so delectable and that I did not have to cook or serve them. Ducks are so pretty. David and I spent a few days in Holland before starting our camping trip, we left the Hague on the sunday, David had fixed up some strange Heath Robinson type contraption to hold his computor open and had placed it near to the ground, in between the two front seats. He has a GPS and it seems to have become the pride of his life .So it wasn't just David, Tess and the two dogs, it was David the computor and GPS, Tess and the two dogs, and he was expecting me to navigate on this bloody thing. We drove away from the Hotel David and his computor, me and the dogs, and no sooner than we were half way down the road, than a woman with a strange american accent said very loadly, 'Wrong Turn', blimey, we had only just left, what kind of trip was this going to be, after the tenth wrong turn in half as many roads, I began to feel that I had just embarked on the road trip from hell, not a happy camping holiday.

The Microsoft Mapping thingy had told David the best direct route, so David wanted to adhere to this, and the GPS was planning our trip for us according to Microsoft, I started to twitch a little and feel hot and uncomfortable in my seat, the sun was beating down, my life was being taken over by a machine, I started to sulk and feel grumpy, I said to David that I would like to buy a map, to see exactly where I was in relation to other countries and to have a good look to see where I might like to go. This made David very unhappy, and thus our journey started. Not only was there a distance between us there was intense irritaion with one another as well. Could we survive the drive down, would nature herself manage to calm our already tattered nerves, would two humans, two dogs and a computor be two much for us in a very small camper van......................................