A New Painting - And Some Time in Ireland

Hello Everybody,


It's been a while since my last blog, but it's been a busy time - a trip back to Ireland, with the long journey across Belgium and France and then a bit of a boat ride at the (almost) end of it.....


But it was a good trip, an important one too - the ol' Chevy did us proud, burning up the autoroutes along with the Mercs and the Audis (well, almost...).
It was good to see that all my little 'markers' for the journey, that I always used to look out for, were still there - there have been times when I wondered whether they would still be there at all... The brown French autoroute sign of the old planes at Albert near the turning for Amiens, the huge white 'corkscrew' sculptures before the Pont de Normandie, the strange old contraption built on the wall of a farm outside Caen, the sign for La Manche as we're getting close to Cherbourg.....
We took the ferry - the Oscar Wilde - from Cherbourg over to Rosslare.

 I had wanted to stand on the deck where I've stood a few times before and see Ireland gradually appearing in the far distance. First the wind-farm at Carnsore Point, then the low land of County Wexford - and say 'Hello Ireland, we're back...' but of course it didn't happen like that - there was so much fog and mist that the first sign of land we saw were the harbour walls. But it cheered up considerably once we were on dry land and started the drive to Cork.
Nothing had changed - it seemed to me that we had only been away for a couple of weeks....
So many thanks to all our friends who gave us great hospitality and introduced me to the world of big and lively dogs!
And also many thanks to our friends here who looked after Wilbur and Co. so well....


So, after catching up on work and sorting out a few commissions, my own personal piccie is still in the opening stages....

But I'm looking forward to getting it underway, especially since the evenings are getting so dark now. When we arrived back, there was sunshine for a couple of days - and a little bit this afternoon - but winter seems to have arrived already at the Moseltal.....


So, soon,


Tschüss.