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So this is how it should be done!

A very happy - and busy - couple of days celebrating 90 years of life and Elisabet and I were fit for nothing! The cure - a short trip to Amsterdam and lots of sleep on the way there and home. We had a lovely time - the sun shone, the canals were beautiful, the food was fine, and we found time for a short course in exhibition handling. After some 17 years of The Line we are pretty good at what we do, we thought - but there are always thing that can be learned. And so - fine weather canvas management as it should be practised!

It is Monday morning ....

and there are three men watching another use a pneumatic drill right outside the gallery window. He is making a hole about a foot square - what are four men going to be able to do with a hole of that size? And why are they digging it any way?

None of that was in my mind when I planned to write - what I wanted to say was that we shall be celebrating my stepfather's 90th birthday in the coming days. This is an event which seems to require enormous planning and logistics, and at least two days of feasting - but plans are in place, my sister is cooking and baking for an army and we all all be very jolly and stuffed to the gunnels. No one will need food for weeks - and Jim will be 90! Isn't that something? How on earth did that happen?

This will be followed by The Line being closed for three days whilst Elisabet and I recover - this is what I really needed to write about. The Line will be closed from Sunday August 19th to Tuesday August 21st inclusive, opening again at 10.00 am on Wednesday 22nd. We are sorry if that causes any problems, but will be here to apologise and make up on the 22nd.

He is drilling again ......

The thing about damp .....

... is that it slowly and unobtrusively eats away at the root, at the very core of things until moulds develop and the structure begins to crumble. That is rather like the effect the weather seems to be having on me at the moment. Everything seems fine until there is a slight bump along the way, and at that point the smell of decay and rot wends its way into the atmosphere and something inside slips a little. For me this manifests itself as a kind of grumbling irritation with all and everything, and it only takes a very little to bring the lot down about my ears. Today my intentions in offering to help out were questioned, scales were brought out to weigh the value of the intention and the self righteous justification put forward was the straw which broke the camel's back. If my intent is to be doubted then fine, I will not offer again.

And that is a polite version of how I really feel. Do you think a dose of vitamin D would be useful for a bad temper? I really do not like being that bad tempered old bat, even tho' I do think I have a reasonable point to make - I just wish it were possible for me to make it more gently.

Ah well - surely there will be some decent weather sometime soon. The carefully laid plans I had made to take Elisabet to the Game fair at Scone on her birthday were scuppered, but we did manage to buy the necessary welly boots on line instead. Fortunately.

The bees are finding things hard going at the moment, and are needing additional food as the days when they can fly and collect pollen are limited. It is fascinating learning about how they live and the things that need to be taken into consideration when siting and working with a hive. Elisabet has today shown me a picture - from Swedish TV - of a swarm of bees which took up residence from the cross bar of a bicycle. Everything from the bar to the chain and pedals was covered in a smooth, bulbous sheath of bees. It was, in its own way, quite beautiful.

And now it is the end of the day in the gallery - many more people have been out and about today, which is lovely, and the rain has held off. Maybe, just maybe, the damp proofing has arrived!

to see ourselves as others see us

The new show at The Line opened yesterday with Colin Wilson's fantastic fruit and Lorna Pirrie's portraits - we just could not resist showing you The Ladies of The Line which is now proudly on display. This is one that will certainly not be getting away!

And the loose ends? Sent back in the post, I fear. Done and dusted and that ground will not be being disturbed again. Memories are precious, no one said they needed to be accurate.

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