And a new year begins ...

Sometimes it takes being able to look back on an event or set of circumstances before the truth becomes clear - looking back on 2010 it strikes me now just how uncomfortable and niggly I had become by the year end, and how pleased I am to have left it behind. I was tired by the end of the Christmas show, and I think I had been tired for quite some time before that. Not necessarily the tired-after-hard-physical-work tired, more a weariness and dis-satisfaction which eats away at the edges, and leaves everything a little fraught and tattered. I needed a rest, and the holiday provided that. We did a whole lot of sitting, reading, walking about, more sitting, and sleeping. It was lovely to return to a place we know well, and to see people we know and appreciate. The four days adventuring we spent in Alleppey and Cochin were also laid back and restful - even the journey too and from Fort Cochi on local buses and rickshaws was an adventure and fun. The dash through a traffic jam to bang on the doors of an already packed bus, to be squeezed inside and stand amidst many others, was an experience!

And we caught up with Sam again. We had a quiet dinner at the Rockholm, and, on the Sunday, he borrowed a friends car and showed us around Trivandrum before driving up into the national park, the Western Ghats, to a small hill station called Ponmudi. 22 hairpin bends and no houses. A couple of hill tribe shrines were glowing by the roadside, their bells and cymbals sounding strongly in the clear, still air. There was a parking place, and a short walk to the top of a small rocky mound - then all around, for a full 360 degrees, was forest clad hill top upon forest clad hilltop upon further hilltop. The landscape of fairytale and fantasy, blue peak behind blue peak, the shades of colour varying slightly with the cloud shadow and the angle of the sun. It really was like being on the top of the world. The name, Ponmudi, means golden peak - the angle of the suns rays at sunset fall upon the long stems of the dry glasses and turn them to burnished gold. Earlier in the day we had visited the Kallar Waterfall, a kilometre walk along a hilly, rock path right into the forest - opening out into a clearing into which a powerful wall of water thunders. To get there, the slip on leather sandals we were wearing were not ideal, but we did it. Boardman had a crisis of confidence crossing the broad steam which led away from the waterfall. A simple paddle really, not needing anything more than basic care and attention - and I sat down in the middle. Heigh ho - it was warm and I dried out in no time.

Since coming home - the journey was longer than ideal, as there were some 17 hours in Dubai - we have installed the new exhibition and are now getting used to the realities of a tory/lib-dem UK once again! Elisabet is suffering from the 'flu, or a bad cold, and feels that life could be better, and I am trying to reconcile myself to the length of time it takes the OU to mark a 2200 word submission. Currently we are approaching the 500 words a week mark, and I am about to give up. Patience may be a virtue, but it is one that can be taken advantage of!

Flux - and beyond

Well, this has been the season of delight and joy, hasn't it? All that lovely snow and picturesque whiteness, the frosty mornings and the icicles in the hedgerows, hanging from the guttering and just about everything else. And all of those unexpected waterfalls when the thaw came and the pipes celebrated by splitting so very thoroughly .....

BUT tomorrow will be the first day of January 2011, the first day of a new year, and all that has gone before will be wiped clean and we start anew. I will take time now to gloat and to tell you that we will be leaving about 1pm on an aeroplane for sunnier climes, and that forgetting all about the cold will be a little easier for us that it will be for many. I am, however, being serious when I suggest that we should all take a deep breath, have a lie in - and start afresh. No matter how one sees it, there is a significance about the first page in a new calendar, the first space in a new diary and planner. The previous set are hidden and we are confronted with an expanse of blanks and an array of things 'to be done'. I have all sorts of notions for new things I want to try out to fill some of those spaces - but I hesitate to commit anything to this blog, so I shall have to report back if and when I succeed in anything!

On a more serious note, 2010 has not been a year on which I shall look back fondly. There have been many good things, and each I will remember in its own right. But there have been sadnesses and troubles for many friends and people dear to us in 2010, and I will be glad to move on and leave as much as possible behind. 2011 will be a year of sorting things out, putting things right and all manner of fixing yet other things to somewhere nearer my satisfaction! So there.

And now, at the end of this complicated year I have to make sure the opening show of 2011 is as well prepared for as I can, make sure I have sent payment to as many artists as I can, clear the gallery and paint the walls ready for the fresh start I seem to be insisting upon. Oh - and pack and get ready for an early start for the airport.

So - to all of those who read this thing, Elisabet and I would like to wish you a very peaceful and happy 2011.

December 12

Given all of the dreadful weather we have all been experiencing
in the last weeks, and the upset it will have caused for everyone, we
thought it might be an idea to tell a bit more about what we have to
offer here at The Line - we hope to bring a little cheer!

We are delighted to have new work by Laura Hudson in the current
exhibition - The Sixteenth Angel* - summery paintings of pears and
olives, beans and figs from her home in the centre of France. The
warmth of the sun glows from the canvas - see the images attached.

The last weeks or two has brought out the best, and sometimes the not
quite so 'best', from people all around. Neighbours and complete strangers
have stopped to help dig out cars and clear pavements, teas and coffees have
been supplied to 'the workers' with all good humour, dangerous icicles
and threatening snowy overhangs have been marked for all to see. Odd
and thoughtless abandoning of cars has been a bit of a pain, but the
thaw has seen the end of that, for now at least.

So - come and warm yourself in the glow from Laura's painting, and
receive a warm welcome whenever you feel inclined. We will be
pleased to see you

Gail and Elisabet

* to answer a question we have been asked several times - we always
have an 'angel' in the title of the Christmas exhibition, and this our 16th
Christmas show. We simply could not think of an appropriate title in
time!

August already!

Yesterday it rained - boy did it rain! I have rarely seen such a relentless and determined downpour. Water was flowing over the slates of the building opposite so fast that the guttering just could not cope, and there was a solid waterfall pouring down onto the pavement below. And, if the rain was so heavy on the roof opposite, it must be just as heavy on the loch facing roof of the gallery, and the corresponding flow of water must be putting the corresponding guttering to the test there also - and where would the excess rain go? You got it - straight down the wall, down the cellar door and down the two steps into the cellar ... I heard it before I saw it, there was the pleasant sound of a small stream rushing along an uneven surface. And there was indeed a stream rushing along, two in fact, flowing around the absorbent materials I had laid as a barrier to just this sort of event. The quantity of water had overtaken my ministrations and was spreading over the floor at a rapid rate.

Have I ever expounded the virtues of old telephone directories as stackable and absorbent flood defences? Much better than sandbags, I find, just as long as you remember to rip the covers off beforehand.

What a mess - but slight damage as I was able to move most things quickly enough. Just as well I had not joined Elisabet in Sweden, where plans for her Mother's 90th birthday celebrations are coming on apace (they need to - the birthday is on Wednesday).

When not soaking wet, this has been an interesting week; not insignificant in all of its happenings was the discovery of an unexpected visitor to The Line website. It would be very easy to forget oneself when writing like this, and to lay bare that which was best kept silent. There is a temptation to use a blog as a means of getting something out of the system, or to try out an arguement or theory - and that is all perfectly good and constructive as long as the 'delete' button is functioning and one remembers to hit it before signing out.

Yes, I am still trying to work out what, exactly, a blog is for.

In acknowledgement of all of this, I will just say - it was good to see you again, and I am pleased you liked the site. And no, I do not propose using the blog to pass coded messages, now or ever!