24 Oct 2011 Chainsaw massacre!

There was a bit of noise at the bottom of the garden yesterday. We had been warned that British Rail were going to trim the vegetation on the railway embankment. Then up pops this guy and cuts down several big trees. 

Well it has improved the view and allowed more sunlight onto the veggy patch [and wasp nest].

23 OCT 11 ...WASP RETRIBUTION TIME!

We had built a bug house near the vegetable patch to attract friendly bugs and bumble bees for pollination [a symbiotic relationship]. All had been going well before some wasps misunderstood the crucial landlady/tenant arrangement. 
A few days ago Fran was picking leaves from our salad bed for lunch when she was attacked by a swarm of angry wasps. She was stung on the eye and arm and in her hair. Not nice! 
So we've been researching the problem. And, the wasps have got to go.

Late last night after wasp beddy-bye time I donned several layers of protective clothing and armed with an anti-wasp aerosol I sprayed the wasp nest with foam. I might look a bit silly but I am not macho-stupid.
This morning we can see that there are a few survivors still going in and out of the nest. But only a few.
Beware remaining wasps...I am tempted to call in a NATO strike force if you don't leave peacefully.

22 October 2011 Happy birthday.

Yesterday was the birthday of  Hokusai (October 21, 1760) He was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period.

When I saw this picture I was reminded of a visit to Tokyo where I saw Mt Fuji from my hotel room window first thing in the morning. Heat haze meant that it vanished by breakfast.

20 Oct 2011 Temple Gardens

I was in London today arranging more future exhibitions in galleries. Afterwards I walked down to the Thames Embankment and visited the small park where I sold my first painting 53 years ago. Lovely weather and memories.

The show was the annual open air exhibition in Temple Gardens. They stopped running the event a long while ago. I didn't realise until today that the spot where I sold the painting must have been in the shadow of Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment.

19 Oct 2011
I see that a new Turner exhibition is scheduled for Adelaide in South Australia in February 2013. Turner remains a special hero of mine. Maybe I can arrange a trip to OZ. It would be summer time down there while it will be horrible here.

 Wishful thinking of course. Especially frivolous considering the fact that there is such a super show of Turners on continual display at the Tate in London. So self-administer a slap on the wrist for not going to the Tate enough.

Nine Eleven

Today the news is full of the New York Twin Towers ten years ago. I remember it well. On Sept 11th 2001 I awoke in the very early hours in great pain. My wife Fran called the medical emergency service and they sent an ambulance which whisked me off to hospital. Several hours later we got an all clear regarding the suspected heart attack. So we came to home to rest. The terrible news from NY just started to come in as I dropped off to sleep. Fran woke me after just 15 minutes and we were glued to the TV for hours. My trouble turned out to be a gallstone. 

Like many of you, we can remember visits to NY and a trip to the top of one of the towers. We did it in the1990's. Here is a photo of an unpublished painting that I did after when we came home after the trip, and before nine-eleven. I don't know who bought the original or where it is!

21 Aug 2011 Trevor the Black Cat has his own page!

New page devoted to Trevor the Cat pictures with links to prints and cards.

Here is a bite from my website where I have just published a page devoted to Trevor the Black Cat images.   http://www.colinruffell.com/trevor.htm