Book Clubs are a very serious concern. A whole year's book list has to be drawn up ahead of time, especially if you require the library to pre-order and acquire ready for the whole group to have their own copy. One also has to carefully consider what it is that one would like the group to 'get out' from reading said book. Are there pertinent, topical, political, social, radical, racist, sexist, (even just plain old sex would do sometimes!), moral, rural, urban, ageist issues that you want the other members to wake up to, to become aware of, to discuss! Or is the poetic turn of phrase, the quiet way in which he writes, the concise description that was just enough to allow you to envisage the very world she stood in?

Ah yes, that little gem. A good discussion! Now here is the crux of the good old Book Club or Group. Not only do you have to read the said tome, you then have to discuss the relevant issues. Well, where does one start? One could be at Club/Group location of meeting for some time. I mean, there is the issue of for example; housing, introduction of council homes to said village, (even introduction of net curtains), social injustices, Lord and Lady lording it over one and all, (I do like them though - don't you?), fox-hunting; the fors and against...... Do you get the idea?
At the end of the evening we go through a mini version of all this with the next book, a mini discussion, and you have not even opened the cover yet!


Well, I am a member of a book club/group. Hold on.... I need to find the Thesaurus, we are neither of these things...mmmm, I LIKE 'movement', yes I think we should become a 'movement'! Very apt!....ooohhh, 'Splinter group'?...no, too middle of the road I think.
'Clique', 'Coterie', 'Junta'? More like 'bunch', 'gang' and 'outfit'!! Whatever you would like to call us we are undoubtedly a cooperative of united subscribers! We associate and affiliate with aplomb! Our fellowship of sisterhood is second only to our solidarity. Oh no, do we need a Mayor for our corporation? No, no. We are an institute of trust, although we do monopolize the Crown Hotel sofas! Ultimately we are communal, yet exclusive. We incorporate, but are clannish!

We have no book list, we take it in turns - what can be more syndicalist? We all talk over each other; free radicalism. We talk about everything else except the book - well for the majority of time anyway! Well, in order to have this partnership you have to be a party member.... and we know how to party! Ask the staff how many decaff coffees we have had over the years. Yes, see, you are impressed now aren't you?

When people talk about the seriousness of their Book Groups, I feel myself stretch to ooooh, at least 5ft 2 with pride! You can keep your yearly forecast of reads, I'll stick with my monthly surprises. Long may the usual pulling the teacher out of her house with her slippers still on, just to ensure she gets there on time, continue. The language barriers between countries have been surmounted, we know who gets p***** on 2 sherries or half a 'ferret in a hole'(??). Oh, how we love to remove any male that may have dared to sit in the comfy sofas in the corner, preferably with force - we find politeness gets us nowhere! Oh the joy on the waiters/waitresses face as we get to the bar and remember 2 drinks before we have to return to the group to remind ourselves of everyone else's order! And after several long minutes of all clutching our stomachs, hiding our faces and swaying back and forth we DO ACTUALLY have something very sensible AND intelligent to say.

At the end of the evening, we all try and extract ourselves from the lumpy cushions, gather books and lists and decide who is going home with whom and where and when is the next one? And who might forget it? We are the sensible ones who sit in the warm car while our associate grovels in the gravel, in the rain, looking for her barrier coin to escape.

Yes, as each person is dropped off to their door, there is the subtle,warm glow of gratification of another successful Book Movement concluded!

(Yes, this has nothing to do with painting! Sorry, I needed a day off!!)

If only I knew somebody that ran a shop in Shaftesbury! I would be screaming at them - 'Buy some Watercolour paper!'.

I have just been on a little 'date' with my husband! Please do not think that this might be a pre-Valentine date, we are far too old and stuck in our frugal ways to consider entering the 'made-up', money crunching, conveyor belt of that little gem!! (Can you hear my husband now? - mmm - I thought so!!) No, this was a 'Shall we have a little shop/coffee and hand-holding morning wander through the streets of Shaftesbury?' type of date! We actually do do this, just once in a long, long while!!

WH******was the first pit-stop. I intended to buy a couple of those little pocket-size, handy watercolour pads. No, no, none there. Lots and lots, ooh and lots of sketch pads, in all shapes, sizes and colours. Oh well, I will pop into H******* on the way back, they will have some. And off we venture.

Ours is a comfort date! By this I mean that we do all the little things that become peculiar habits of the comfortable couple! We walk up one side of the street and get to the coffee shop asap. Then on the way back, we veer, from one side of the street to the other, just to ensure that we have looked at every Estate Agents. Me, I go for the beautiful rose covered porch, on the stone double fronted cottage, for the endless length of garden that will take me forever to look after - and will of course, mean that I have to give up painting to tend, in the autumn of my existence. Haha, yes you may laugh, I am talking late summer, autumn weather, balmy days, soft breezes and gentle evenings, wandering through my arches, gathering my cookers and nuts. By now, I bet you are just itching to join me.

'He',will be looking for plots, looking at prices, bewailing the idiot who would buy that tumbledown cottage that will be a blight on the rest of their lives as they have to re-do the roof, underpin, dig up the garden to renew the victorian terracotta pipes that now leak everywhere!

This is how the conversation goes;

Me; 'Oh that is gorgeous'. 'Oooh, look at that garden'. 'Oh this one has lots of outhouses too'.

He; ' Well, it will cost more than the house to re-do that roof'. 'Who on earth is going to pay that for that?'. 'Ha! Why would you pay that for a bungalow, to have to knock it down and build a new house?'

Like Shaftesbury, we are a tale of two halves! One is the long street, always there and constant, the other lends itself to a street with two sides. (Am I still making sense?) we veer, from side to side, yet always end up in the same place!

Then, arm in arm, we wander across again, to another Estate Agents, for the whole process to happen - ooh - many times!! We do have a pause as we both enjoy a good rummage in the kitchen shop. No matter how bad a cook you are, there is nothing nicer than finding some little gem to place on the top of the kitchen cupboard, to forget you had, until you next visit, espy the very same and mention to 'He' that it hasn't been used much - but ooh wouldn't we love to have a good juicer?!

On eventually getting back to the bottom of the street, I enter the place that used to have it all! Now it does not! Why, oh why do shops sell paints and brushes galore, but do not have the b***** paper to put it on????????????????????? I am aghast! I want to scream at them how ridiculously ridiculous they are! But 'He' does not approve of stooping to caterwauling like a fishmongers wife, (I have never heard this - did it actually happen?) in a store full of happy Mummy's and Daddy's and beautifully dressed children buying their quarter pound of 'Millions' with their pocket money.

His opinion is of course, confirmed, when on leaving Shaftesbury along Salisbury Street, we enter the short area where we should have right of way. The 4 x 4 at the other end decides that they also have the right of way and decided to cruise on up towards us. As I exclaim an utterance of some kind, 'He' calmly reassures that he can reverse, all is not lost, no need to stress, calm down! Don't you just hate it when you have to sit back and sigh at their continued serenity?

Back in Blandford, he drops me off outside of the Art shop, I run in, pick up my 2 little watercolour pads, and home we go!

Date over, nothing exciting happened. Lovely morning though!

Restless nights, motivation and discipline!



The brain is the most amazing muscle we have. Did you watch Embarrassing illnesses on Channel 4 last night? There was a young man who suffered from 'night terrors'. Almost on the hour he would 'wake' (this is a bit like sleepwalking without the walk!) and tell the curtain to 'F*** off', or lean over his wife and ask who wanted cheese or where were the worms! This was leaving both his wife and himself exhausted each day.The Doctor sent him to a Sleep specialist where they discovered they could do nothing for him, but suggested he go to an anger management counsellor, which he did.



Within the first half hour it emerged -almost as surprisingly to the patient himself - that as a young teenager there had always been arguements with his Dad and brother, to the extent that they would end up in the garden physically fighting. Even talking about it brought tensions to the young man. Over a course of 6 weeks, he is now able to go a week or more without a 'night terror'. The relief of this young couple who are now experiencing the joys of a good nights sleep was evident. The wife explained that he would only have a terror if he had had an arguement or after a bad day at work.



I go through phases of restless nights. Once awake I begin to worry, worry about everything and anything. The French Holiday, Pauls toothache, Sophie and Sam at Uni and how everything is going for them, Harry's GCSE's options, what I ought and can do around the house, what needs to be done, lesson plans.... shall I go on? So I try to distract myself! One favourite is Ceefax! I LOVE Ceefax. I turn the telly on silent and go from the first page and read all the headlines. If I am lucky by about the 13th page I will want to turn over and go to sleep!!



My other distraction would be something like my Cephalonian home! Oh, did you not know I had one? Yes, it is rather beautiful. Picture this if you will! You are driving down an old dirt track, on both sides it is a rugged landscape, with irregular Olive trees and goats. The sea is somewhere over to your left but the pine tops hide the view. The road begins to wind down and around half way down the hillside is a little lane that leads to a lovely old house and outbuilidngs. In one of the long outbuildings we have built rooms at either end, small ensuite rooms, 3 single ones at either end. We have built up into the roof space above these single rooms, 1 double ensuite at either end with a galleried walkway across the full length of the 'barn'. So this leaves a lot of space in the middle, and height - right up to the old beamed roof and with the galleried walkway against the one back wall, it is a terrific space. Several huge tables, a couple of sinks, easels propped up -perfect.

Outside is my haven. The Olives creep up behind the barn and it really is just rough terrain there, but look between the barn and house and stretching out and beyond is a lemon grove, there are a couple of small pathways that lead you through them. One takes you down to AntiSamos, one of the most beautiful beaches, secluded and crystal clear water. When down there, you only have to sit back and then you will hear the Operatic voices of Captain Corelli and his soldiers, it was here that they filmed that scene. Perfection.

By now I am probably relaxed enough to go off to sleep again! - I know - I wish!!


So then we wake up and have to find the motivation to get on and do! On a sunny day, with a friend, there is nothing more wonderful than having a day out painting. You can forget the world in a field! They should prescribe it! But on these cold wintery days I have found my motivation sadly lacking. I have found every excuse to clean out drawers and cupboards, to clean and clean, is it the Spring Clean virus? Are our brains finely tuned to pick up on when our Grandmothers shook out their eiderdowns and bolsters? Have I been doing my own hibernating? I think I have been! But now the sun is once again beginning to peep through every now and then, even in between the snow showers like yesterday, I can feel an uplifting of spirits, I am looking for those snowdrops and hellebores, I am itching to get out there and play in my garden.

I am also looking forward to pulling everything out of the shed, getting rid of lots of winter bundles that have been stowed away 'to be sorted'. To get some fresh air in there, to have some music playing in the background, to leave the door open and paint, to pack a bag and go out to paint, to enjoy some warmth, to get that discipline of 9 - 4 again! Perhaps MY brain just needed a rest, I had better stop dreaming of Cephalonia - my own 'night visions'.

I am off to paint today, but first I think I will just take in a little stroll through the Lemon grove - ooh look - there is George Clooney!!! Byeeeexx

I have been reading Clare Shepherds Blog and it was so fascinating - it reminded me of how much fun I had writing my blog! (I really should have kept it up).

So I am going to get this going again!