Painting, sun, flowers, fruits...

After yesterday's  return to wielding the paintbrush - but thankfully the last time for a few weeks! The next couple of days will keep us away from home, and then on Monday we fly off to Istanbul! 

It was lovely to get outside and appreciate the flowers in our garden before going out with Bella a bit later to see more flowers and autumn fruits and falling leaves...

Flowers, fruits, Autumn and Summer all at once

Lovely walk with Bella this morning, with lots of flowers

 Some now bird food

 Fruits for the picking

 Misty morning

 Remains of an umbellifer..

 Full flower...

Most of my day has been spent focusing on getting our garden bench in a state to survive the winter - first scrubbing off moss and then oiling it. Hot work... At least it's not painting - more of that tomorrow!

This late heat is ripening the tomatoes in the greenhouse nicely - Su's latest harvest.

Sunshine!

The sunset as I drove over to Bristol last night was so striking that I had to pull over and take a photograph.

 The planetarium at Millennium Square in Bristol

 Twinkly trees on the way to the Watershed, where I met Dan. Had a good chat - not all about UWE - and got lots of tips for Istanbul next week.

 Today, after the joys of going to Homebase to buy essential items for my role as man about the house (including paint, of course!), took Bella for an early walk before it got too hot -up by the Golf Course, through the woods.

We got to the end of the golf course, and found this very assertive sheep keeping an watchful eye on us.

 A great display of old man's beard up there

 Sloes aplenty

 And blackberries

 Back into the woods on the way back to the van

 After our walk, Steve Walker came round with his guitar and harmonicas (not yet the oboe - but I'm working on him to play that), and we happily swapped songs for a couple of hours.  Managed to get some other domestic tasks done, but **no** painting today (apologies to our reader, Bella, for getting her hopes up in yesterday's post that I was going to display my artistic talents!).

The weather's warming up - time to do some more painting!

Dropped Su into town to meet up with Patsi this morning, and then I came home and started wielding the paintbrush.  I'll be glad when we go on holiday, but this dry weather is too good an opportunity to miss for slapping on a fresh layer on some more surfaces around the house.

After a few hours of this it started to warm up, so Bella and I went off up for a walk to our frequent haunt.

 Despite the warming weather, this thistle thinks that Autumn is here

 Clouds finally starting to move off

 Buttercups think it's Spring again.

Bella found a golf ball, and made short work of it.  I still had to throw the mashed up remains around for her, of course.

 The third crop of hay from this field this Summer. 

 Sunlight dappling through the woods

The view out of our back window this evening.  Looks like the clouds have gone, and the weather truly is set fair. Predicted to be 25ºC here tomorrow.


Tonight I am off to Bristol to meet up with Dan Buzzo, recently returned from a conference in Istanbul, and now occupant of my former office desk at UWE.

Where did today disappear to?

Off this morning to get currency sorted out for our forthcoming trip to Turkey and Greece, followed by a cup of coffee and a bacon roll at Prior Park Garden Centre, where we saw this padlocked special bicycle.

Then spent the afternoon sorting out my password saving program followed by a spot of the dreaded painting, before taking Bella out just after the rain.

Not raining any more, but you never know...

This was the view over to Bathampton in the sun

Very welcoming sign in the field

Some "Old Man's Beard" i.e. wild clematis seed heads

Getting near to sunset, the sky was quite dramatic

Some Virginia Creeper past its full flush

Creeper and ivy flowers

Stayed up late last night, watching Ridley Scott"s "American Gangster", with Denzil Washington as a major heroin dealer.  Consequently, we have been a bit slow getting going today...

Saw this pile of leopard print fabric in the road when out with Bella this morning.  Discarded fancy dress?

 You wouldn't see this sign in Yorkshire!

 Evidence of late night entertainment - "Let's melt a bollard!"


After a delicious brunch and leisurely read of the paper, Su took Bella out for a walk, while I did a spot of hoovering.  Then we went into town and got nearly the last tickets for the afternoon screening of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".  Agree with Jane Hopkins' review - a very gripping and intense film, and lovely to see long lingering shots to build the mood, great music and great acting throughout.

Culture Exposure

After a leisurely start to the day, we went off to Bristol to see an Open Studio event by Carol Peace, a local artist and sculptor whose work we really like.  This was at Paintworks  - getting there and back involved dodging traffic jams, worse than the usual Bristol tangle.

 Gold leaf shining in the sun

 The three pieces in the foreground are "Sitting", "Lying" and "Reading"

There was a whole series of these seated figures

 Recently Carol has experimented with smoother curves in her figures...

 Close up and glistening

 More seated figures

 One of my favourites

 The artist in her studio with larger scale pieces

 Carol's Dad, trying not to be in shot with the lovely swimmer statue

 The Diner just up the road, which was shut today.  We had lunch in the Boca Bar instead - Su had breaded goat's cheese, and I had smoked chicken and pickled papaya - a first for my taste buds!

Leaving Bristol, we passed these modestly coloured shops

 A milestone on Su's car clock - pity it's not in binary (it would be just 42!)

A cake we saw in Keynsham, where we stopped off on a vain quest to buy some shoes.