A Farewell to Eller?

Hello Again Everybody,

It really has been a long while since my last post, but such a lot has happened in that time. 
I've been undecided whether to keep this blog going. It seemed to finish with that magical Easter time when we bought a Hare in Trier and took him around the restaurant and the Cathedral and the wine bars and then back on the train. But he's still here and is sitting by me as I write this. I've documented my latest paintings and my painting news on my new Facebook page, but it doesn't have the same feeling as a blog... I'm a bit worried about it all falling off the end of the timeline (though it probably won't) and then I'll forget what I've done...... When times were a bit dark, it was good to go back and read everything that I've written here.....

And as for my paintings? The ones I showed in progress in this blog - 'Halloween Wilbur' and 'Wilbur in the Window' (though it's really called something else) - were exhibited this summer in the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London. I've become an associate member of the Society of Feline Artists (SOFA). My last 'Painting in Progress' on this blog The Swan and the Stuben has been finished and has been accepted into the Bentlif Open Art Prize Exhibition in Maidstone. And, I've started an etching course at the local college. Have a look at my website for the paintings/prints of the above-mentioned, though I'll probably post them here as well....
I'm also starting to do Pet Portraits - I'm starting a new 'Painting in Progress' with our Princess Bups and I'll post the first couple of stages very soon. At the moment I have stage 2 & 3 - and it was when I was writing about it on my website this evening about the blue background turning into a deep sky of rabbits and stars that I thought.............

I thought..........

A Farewell to Eller? I hope not....

A Painting in Progress - Easter in Eller

Hello Everybody,


It's been a cold Easter Sunday here in the Moseltal - a bit of sunshine and a bit of cloud, but it was a different story altogether a few weeks back....... 
Back then we took ourselves off on a train ride to Trier and found out that the Easter Market was in full swing. First call was one of the wine stands and a glass of the local sparkling, then we had a wander about looking at the stalls. There were Easter Chickens, Easter Rabbits, little Easter Birds on stalks to put in a plant pot, Easter Pot Pourri, Easter wreaths to hang on the front door..... but nestling amongst all this we found a Work of Art.
An 18 inch high Easter Hare.
And he was gorgeous.


We had another glass of sparkling while we considered the consequences of carrying a giant hare around all day. H was in favour of paying for him but leaving him at the stall to Pick Up Later. I reckoned that if we were going to buy a giant hare then we may as well have some fun with him.
'You carry him then,' said H.


Our first Port of Call was Trier Cathedral, where I took his photo alongside the Domstein - somebody else took a photo too, not realizing that he belonged to us.
'That'll be five euro please' said H.

Then inside the Cathedral, in the Closters, I took his photo sitting on the window ledge - we met a very nice couple of American ladies who photographed him as well.
'Thank you so much for sharing your Easter Bunny with us.'
H was quiet about the fee this time.

Of course all this taking of photos had made us a bit on the hungry side, so we figured that  as long as we could find a restaurant that did good lettuce, then we would be O.K.

I must admit that I was surprised that Easter Hares had a taste for Ricard, which is something that I must bear in mind In The Future but the salad went down well anyway....

........apart from the peppers.

'Would he like some carrot juice?' asked the waitress when it was time for dessert.

He started to get a little bit heavy on the long trek back to the Railway Station, but he met an old friend in the Bar - and on the train we managed to get four seats to ourselves (surprisingly enough).

'Can I take a photo of your Eas......?'

We were used to his Celebrity Status at this point and just waved away, Casual Like.

We even got a wave from the ticket inspector, hanging out of the driver's cab as we landed at Bullay - he'd inspected our ticket earlier and said that Easter Hares could travel on a Rhineland-Pfalz ticket. No Problem.

And today, on Easter Day he's sitting on our window sill wearing a garland of blue flowers (the Hare, not the ticket inspector).

That day was a Magical Day.

So, Frohe Ostern!

A Painting in Progress - Fifteen Barges on the Ides of March

Hello Again Everybody,


A sunny, spring day in the Moseltal, so we made the most of the blue skies and headed off for a spin along the River. We ended up in the village of Brodenbach and had one of those nice lunches which are unexpected and inexpensive - a bratwurst and a beer from an Imbiss (Snack) stand. There was a little picnic spot there as well, so that we could watch the barges and talk to the ducks. The beer was a local one - Königsbacher - from Koblenz, since we were pointed in that direction......

......just the bottle, not a glass or even a straw - and since we didn't want to appear as people who just had to have a glass (Dahling!) to drink their beer, we knocked it back straight out of the bottle like everybody else.
We saw fifteen barges altogether during our little foray - fifteen barges on the fifteenth day of March. Beware the Ides, so they say, and a man who was killed 2056 years ago today is still remembered. Those ol' calendars were a bit complicated back in them there days - all that counting backwards, I'd never know where I was.....


I was back here this afternoon though, and got a good few hours painting done. I would like to get this painting finished in the next couple of weeks, so I'll have to find myself a few more hours a day from Somewhere....

So, until then,


Tschüss!!

A Painting in Progress - Herons, Cranes and Vaya con Dios

Hello Everybody,


A cloudy weekend in the Moseltal, not the sunny couple of days we were led to expect from the trusty weather report.
Wilbur is well pleased with himself at the moment as he has a New Source of Adventure when he helps me with the recycling. 
A Trailer.
'Look at me! I can walk all around the edge without falling off, then I can run round and round in the inside on me four fluffy paws and turn meself upside down in the corners!'
If it hadn't been for Wilbur, I would have missed the cranes this morning. Still in adventurous mood, he bounded out into the garden and when I followed him, I heard that strange eerie noise which makes you look up - and there they were. I still think it's great that with all the distance they fly, from Spain to Scandinavia, they fly over Eller. We saw them today, Wilbur and me, just about midday, so they were flying up above the village while the church bells were ringing out over the Valley..... 


Despite the lack of sunshine, it was a mild day for a walk down by the River. The herons are now back as well and are busy nesting up in the trees on the opposite bank - I always think of herons as standing about in water looking for the odd fish or a frog, so it's interesting to see them perched up high in the trees in their twiggy nests. Every now and then they stretch those loooooonnnnggg legs and have a bit of a soar about and a bit of a croak, but when I saw them yesterday, they were all standing on a little spit of land just before the railway bridge......

......I counted over twenty of them altogether - never seen so many herons in one place.


I was accompanied on my walk today (well, part of it) by the barge Vaya con Dios (Go with God) - carrying coal in the direction of Trier, then either onto France or along the River Saar. We haven't seen our ol' friend Eiltank 47 for a long time now - I'll have to check on the whereabouts of Merlijn as well, now that everywhere's waking up again. Here she is turning the curve at Bremm, by the Calmont Slope - the afforementioned Kloster Stuben is just behind the trees on the Riverbank.

H says that he would love to be a Barge Captain and I must admit that I see the attraction of it meself, traveling the waterways of Europe, seeing different places at different times of the year. Wilbur would love it too, I imagine, with his ol' friend Frankie curled up tight in the cabin on cold and windy days and hunting iridescent flying fishes leaping from the bows when the sun was shining.....


So, soon.
Tschüss!

A New Painting - And Saint Fridolin's Day

Hello Again Everybody,


Spring seems to be arriving in the Moseltal - the Sun has been shining, the buds are thinking of bursting forth, the vitners are pruning and the Hoteliers and Restauranteurs are opening up the shutters of Winter, washing down the Summertime Cafe Spots and giving the umbrellas a good dusting. 


It's also a good time to get my new painting underway - I've had the idea in my head for a while now, but it was getting a bit lonely in there all by itself. I said before that it's going to be a painting of a swan against the 'backdrop' of the Kloster Stuben......

....... The middle picture is one that I did of the aforementioned Stuben last year - so this is going to be a bit of history and a bit of local wildlife mixed together. The Kloster Stuben is a ruined Augustine Abbey and is situated on the opposite bank of the Mosel across from the Calmont Slope - which is the steepest vineyard in Europe and has 'Bremmer Calmont' in big white letters stuck into the ground a bit like the Hollywood sign.


And while we're getting all historical, today - the 6th March - is Saint Fridolin's Day. Fridolin was an Irish Abbot who is said to have founded our village of Eller and has a stained glass window dedicated to him in the local Church of Saint Hilarius.

He is often depicted with a dead body (you can just about see the skull in the photo), because as the story goes, he raised the dead to prove that he had been given land as a gift on which to build his churches.
H's latest novel is about the life of Saint Fridolin when he lived in Eller, so we had Spaghetti Bolognese to celebrate. During his research, H came across an old song, or a poem written in Mosel-Franconian, the local dialect (don't ask). Roughly translated it comes out as the following and is probably best appreciated with a pint of Mosel-Hefe (don't ask about that either).

Holy Fridolin, Holy Fridolin,

We hail you on this day,

The winter it is passed,

 Now Spring is on the way,

The 6^th of March it is your name day,

We celebrate it every year,

On this day we prune the grapes,

For the harvest soon to come,

Happy in our task for winter is now done.

But we remember daily,

that you gave to us this home,

In Holy Hilarius' church,

We chant thy holy name.

Then to St Rochas' chapel go,

And a votive candle light,

That burns all through the special day

and deep into the night.

So, Soon,
Tschüss!

A Painting Finished - Journeying Cranes

Hello Again Everybody,


Here's the finished painting of my Tortie - 'The Avatar Purr', so called because she's now the 'New Me' on the internet - do you see the little picture over there to the right? That's the one I mean....

.......and here's the painting with the Torte herself - not as confident in front of the camera as my fluffy Wilbur (see, she is like me)....

Away from the painting, we had a busy past few days driving to Birmingham, to a printing exhibition at the NEC. Recession or no, from Eller to the Encore Hotel, the ol' Chevy was the oldest car on the road it seemed, but did us as proud as ever, giving the Mercs a run for their money, especially when we were going downhill. It was a tiring trip - too much driving in too little time, but all worth it in the end I hope. 
We saw the Cranes again as we were driving back along the A4 from Reims to Metz. Circling up ahead, you could see some of them flying through the low cloud - again what a wonderful close-up photo that would be. What a strange and different world they live in..... H also heard them when we stopped at a service station, but I was busy battling the coffee machine, so I missed them by a minute. Best coffee of the whole trip it was though.
It would be good to do a painting of the cranes, from their own perspective, with the cloud or the snow or the rain, in the dark, in the sunshine, with that compass in their head which sends them so many miles across Europe.... My next planned painting is of a swan, but I must think of the cranes......


So, soon - and here's a photo I took in the NEC in Birmingham.
Appropriate enough I think.....

Tschüss!!

A Painting in Progress - Stained Glass and Broken Ice

Hello Everybody,


I must admit that I'm a bit behind with my news of the ice-breaker in the Moseltal.
The ice on the River has been gone for a few days now, but back on the 15th, it was still thick, although the temperature was starting to rise. We saw the ice-breaker by accident at the lock in Saint Aldegund, when we were on the way to Somewhere Else. It wasn't as big as I expected at all - probably the size of a large tug, but it did the job O.K. It went very slowly backwards, then the Captain put his foot down and tore forewards through the ice, crunching and breaking it all up into bite-sized chunks.
The sound of breaking ice is as vivid a memory of the frozen River as the sight of it was....

Then as the weather got (a small bit) warmer, the ice started to break down even more and the surface of the River began to move again. Today, there are still chunks of frozen waterfalls left on the land, but the River is clear and the sky was blue and sunny.
I took the top photograph at the same time as the ice-breaker - the poor swans at Alf, standing on the Alf Beck tributary, wondering where all their water went to....


Then off to Foreign Lands at the weekend - we took a spin down to Metz in the land of Pastis and Fish Without BreadCrumbs. We spent a peaceful Sunday morning in Metz Cathedral, after some spiritual guidance with the signposts (it's France remember) and a parking spot. Now I said a while back that I don't like to use the word 'wow', but yep, that's what you just HAVE to say when you step inside. It's so high, there's so much space - more space I think than would be taken up if it wasn't there, if you see what I mean....
Anyhow, the Service was on, the organ was playing and the sunshine was pouring through the stained glass, reflecting blues and yellows and purples on the stone......

After the Service, we wandered around while the organ was still playing and looked at the  stained glass windows by Marc Chagall (the bottom one in my photo) - what a wonderful artist he is, 'wow' all over again......


So, soon - (my painting's nearly finished).


Tschüss!

A Painting in Progress - Ice Flows and Favourite Scarves

Hello Everybody,


Still shivering in minus temperatures here in the Moseltal. I took a few photos this morning at the village of Alf, about ten minutes up the road from here. The ice goes from one bank to the other now and all the barge traffic on the River has been stopped. There's a barge moored in Alf at the moment, wedged in by ice, so she's going nowhere until the thaw sets in.....
But not all the River is frozen, only a mile or so from here on the other side of the lock, there's not much ice at all, just some along the bank and some small pieces flowing down on the current.

Just think, there's a major European River under all that.


Cold days are O.K. for painting though - no distractions of walks for one thing (it's TOO cold). Got quite a bit done - most of my Torte is now painted in apart from her eyelashes, so now I'm working on the background, which is based on my favourite scarf. Remember that I'm painting this picture as my 'Avatar' so it has to have a bit of meself in it....
I wasn't sure at one point whether to go with the tassles on the scarf, so I draped the real one around the painting to see how it would look. 

O.K. I think, so I'm putting them in.
The blue of the scarf and the blue of the background already painted in are the same shade - it just doesn't look like that in the photo, but I really like the colour combination of Torte and blue.


So, Soon,
Tschüss!

A Painting in Progress - Frozen River

Hello Everybody,


It's so cold now that the River is freezing over. It was minus 12 yesterday, although it's a bit warmer today. Minus 12 - cold, cold, cold.
We saw a barge breaking through the ice just past Beilstein yesterday afternoon and it was brilliant to see - and to hear it - crunching away. Not all of the River is frozen, it's worse coming up to the locks where the water slows down and the ice starts to build up, but it's also appearing now on the straighter stretches as well. Thinking back to the summer when the Mosel was so still and green, you could never imagine it looking as it does today.....
Anyhow, here are some photos to give you a bit of an idea. The photo of the geese, I took on Monday when the ice was beginning to form. They live in Bullay and Alf and commute from one side of the RIver to the other. Just think of those cold feet.

And here are a couple of photos I took today, just before the lock in Saint Aldegund. There was a bit of a snowfall last night, which had settled on the ice so it's easier to see. 

No photos of my picture today - next time!


Soon,
Tschüss

A Painting in Progress - Still Freezing

Hello Again Everybody,


Minus 8 degrees on the thermometer this morning, so it's getting colder. The chill is starting to seep into the ol' bones a bit now..... While we were out, one of the cats (not my sweet Wilbur, I'm sure) managed to open the door of the unheated room that's by my studio room, so when we got back both rooms were cold and I had to paint in my fingerless gloves. Warm enough here now - but we're using the unheated room as an extension to the fridge at the moment. Left-over chicken with noodles - and it's still in the wok to save on the washing-up.
I managed to get this much done anyhow....

Well, I've actually done a bit more to the ears, but they will be for my next post. The background will be the colour and the pattern of my favourite scarf. The colour isn't right, but I just wanted to block in an approximate colour for now.


Out in the freezing environs of Ediger-Eller, there's still a very small amount of snow in sheltered areas where it fell a few days back before it turned too cold, but no frost. The local fountain has iced up though - I think it's a sculpture of Bishop Urbanus but I'll have to check that. The Egyptian Geese were standing by it looking cold..... Someone had broken the ice so they had some water to drink, but as H pointed out, there's a Whole River just a short flap away. 

The way the fountain is facing means that you're always shooting into the Sun if you want a photo of the front - but you can see the icicles better from the side view. I wonder how long it will be before they thaw out.....


Soon,
Tschüss!

A New Painting - And A Slice of Winter

Hello Everybody,


Jeez, it's cold today. Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold. Minus five out in the garden, according to my trusty thermometer.
Wilbur, who likes to accompany me on the adventure of sorting out the recycling every morning, had one little turn around the flower pots and was upstairs behind the wood stove before I'd even closed the bin.
There hasn't been any more snow, so there are no picturesque winter landscapes, but there is a bit of ice on the small village roads. We went out for our daily spin around the countryside, all snug and warm in the ol' Chevy - but when we got out...... that breeze chilled you to the bone in a second.


Which made it a good afternoon for sitting in the studio room and doing some painting.

As I said previously, this painting is also going to be my 'Avatar' for my internet shop. I've been wondering for a while what to do...... Not a photo as I wouldn't want to put off any potential customers...... A detail of one of the paintings I've already done? Not really. Then I saw something which gave me the beginnings of an idea and it developed from that.

I've managed to get quite a bit done in a short time, mainly because I know exactly what I want this painting to turn out like. With my previous painting of 'Wilbur in the Window' I had the thought behind the painting in my head, rather than the finished result, which is why I was fiddling about and changing it here and there.
As you can see, Wilbur is not in this painting. It's my dear Torte. Perhaps I'll tell you a bit more about her as the painting progresses.....


So, wrap up against the cold and I'll be back soon.
Tschüss!

A Painting Finished - Cranes and Snow

Hello Again Everybody,


A special day today because we saw the cranes. It had started to snow this afternoon and the light was just beginning to fade, when I heard them calling away. I thought at first that it might have been the Egyptian Geese, because, even though there's only two of them, they sometimes take it upon themselves to migrate to Siegfried's and make a lot of noise while they're doing it - but it was the cranes. Flying up high in the chill twilight over this old meandering River, with their whooping call and the snow falling on their wings - now that would have been a good close-up photo....... 
I didn't even have the opportunity to take a long distance one as they flew over so fast, but I did take one last year.....

This year they're almost a month earlier, but perhaps I missed the first ones then. Flying all the way to Scandinavia and the Baltic from their wintering grounds in Spain and they pass right over Ediger-Eller. What with this cold weather they're probably wishing that they'd stayed in Spain for a little bit longer.


And yes, my painting is finished - 'Wilbur in the Window' is what I'll call it, even though to myself it's called something else. I did a bit of adjustment to the celtic circle to make it a bit less prominent, as it was overpowering Wilbur slightly. Then a little bit of paint here and there, then the whiskers.

I'll scan it into my trusty computer tomorrow and sort out the print - must update my website as well.
There's a new painting underway already (they overlapped a small bit) - and it's going to be my  Avatar..... Now, I never really thought that I would have one of these, but there ye go. I'm going to need it for my shop, so I thought that I'd combine a painting, a print to sell and the Avatar all in one.
It'll be in my next post,
so,
soon,
Tschüss!

A Painting in Progress - A Few Frosty Days

Hello Everybody,


Well, they were frosty a few days back. There was a beautiful bright blue sky and many of the trees up on the plateau were covered with a crunchy coating of white.

It was the coldest time of the whole winter so far - just when I was considering jettisoning the thermals and looking forward to Spring. There were some lovely landscapes though. The temperature on the plateau of the Hunsrück or the Eiffel (it depends on which side of the River you are - east is the Hunsrück, west is the Eiffel), can be a lot colder than down here in the Valley - it's still nippy enough though when the wind blows along the Moseltal.


I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time on my painting - I had to make up a new batch of teal and go over the whole area again. It took a while to do the lettering - first I traced off an old Celtic font, scanned it into my computer, centered it up and printed it out the right size. Then I cut it out, scrunched the paper up so I had some authentic creases to look at, traced it out and painted it on. I wanted the lettering to have an uneven look to it, but it looked a bit too uneven, so I had to straighten it up a bit. I was originally going to put the lettering inside the circle by the mountain, but I was reading my Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera books over Christmas and they used to paint pictures with messages painted on, as if they were on a piece of paper 'stuck on' to the painting. 'That's a good idea' thought meself, which is why I had to add a bit more to my original teal background.

And what does it mean? - it's the last line of one of my favourite books.

The real Wilbur inspecting the work in progress. Isn't he sweet....!


Soon,
Tschüss!

A Painting in Progress - Late Resolutions

Hello Everybody,


As we stumble from the wreckage that was Christmas and the New Year, there are a few things that we must make a mental note to not do this year coming. Among them is not to spill a glass of water (yes it was really...) over this laptop and another important one is not to watch the clip of 'Hear my Song' 73 times on You Tube.....
The water over this computer was a right bollox altogether - all I wanted for Christmas was to have our laptop back, but it wasn't looking good. Plastic bags and cat litter (Wilbur was very suspicious) and giving it 'just one more day' because we knew what would happen when we switched it on. Zilch. 
But then we had an unexpected trip to England and H booked us in with an appointment at Apple in Bluewater. And here we are up and running again - brilliant service, especially as it was over the New Year. 
Driving back from England, we were in the middle of a huge storm - the ferry was up and down like a rollercoaster and so was my stomach, but H managed to down a plate of spuds, carrots, peas and lamb chops.

The rain put plenty of water in the French rivers - the Meuse was flooded and when we got back the water level on the Mosel was a lot higher....
Ediger was flooded along the main road, but Eller is a bit further back so we were O.K. In the bottom photo you can just about see the row of trees in the water, which is where the  path by the river normally is. It makes a right ol' mess as well, as all the sticks and twigs that are in the flood water get left behind when the water recedes - either that or they get caught up in the branches of the trees and end up looking like huge nests when the river is back to normal.


Back to my painting again today. Took the plunge with the background and painted it a dark teal blue - then I thought about changing the composition slightly so I had to make the bottom part longer. Of course I hadn't mixed up enough paint to do this and my new teal is the wrong colour (of course it is) - you can even see the join in the photo......

See, there it is.
Oh and by the way, the 'Hear my Song' clip is the one with the fishing boat.
Yes, that's it - isn't it great - 74 was always my lucky number.....


Soon,
Tschüss!