05. 08. 10 Thursday Carole, Julia and Daisy came back late this afternoon after an overnight near Avignon at an excellent B&B called Le Mas d’Arvieux which they highly recommend. This evening was the beginning of the fête for Clermont so we went up to lac du Salagou for the fireworks. Good display but very windy and as always everything started a little bit later than announced.

Monday 02. 08. 10 It has been a very busy weekend. Carole, Daisy and Julia had decamped to George and Laurene’s from Thursday to Saturday and Marie-Pierre and Olivier arrived from Bordeaux Friday evening.  We swam, we visited, we ate, we drank. We saw Claude and Joan’s show in Villeneuvette, the new expo of Caribbean art in Sete and heard Richard’s sermon in St Pargoire where Daisy sang . And to top it all Marie-Pierre and Olivier brought one of my paintings. A very convivial weekend.

Sunday 18. 07. 10 This morning we went to church in Conas as Daisy had been invited to sing there. It is a beautiful 13th century church attached to the chateau in Conas near Pezenas. We arrived early and introduced ourselves to Val and Linda – the vicar and his wife and wandered around the church yard before the service. The church is quite small and the service was simple and elegant and was enhanced by  all the hymns being sung accappela. Daisy sang Oh Dear Lord please hear my prayer before communion. Afterwards we had coffee and chatted with other members of the congregation before coming home for lunch. The afternoon was spent on the beach and swimming in the sea. Daisy will be singing again in St Pargoire on the 1 August.

Thursday 15. 07. 10 Yesterday was another hot one. Did the market and Les Negociants in the morning. Drew in a couple of small paintings for the London show. In the evening went down to la Gare and listened to the band and watched the fireworks. This morning took the tent out of the car and Carole folded it easily after watching the video. Like everything else you need to know that one little secret!!

Tuesday 13. 07. 10 It has been a busy week so far. Sunday morning I printed out a new monoprint of King’s Cross Station and sorted out some subjects for my show in London in November. In the evening we had dinner with Daisy’s penfriend’s family and Claire at La Bodega in Clermont. A lovely meal punctuated with a few groans from the other diners who were watching the World Cup final. Yesterday swimming in the lake in the morning and then on to Ikea and Decathlon in Montpellier in the afternoon. En route home we dropped in to Maryse Duponchel’s show in Grabels. Interesting show as always from Maryse. I especially liked her drawings on old wine filtres and tea bags. Today we were at the beach in the afternoon. We had taken our new beach tent. It erects in two seconds but we never did manage to figure out how to pack it away again much to the amusement of the other people on the beach. We eventually managed to cram it into the back seat of the car where it sprung to fill the available space. There is a video on the Decathlon website explaining how to take the tent down but it remains crouching in the car awaiting our attention. This evening we took part in the candlelit parade around Clermont to celebrate Bastille Day.  Ended up at Les Negociants for a pastis.

Wednesday 07. 07. 10 Last night was the final meeting of the book club before the summer break. We met at Judith’s house to discuss Deaf Sentence by David Lodge and to have a potluck BBQ. Judi supplied some tasty Cumbrian sausages and Maddy cooked an exotic fruit kebab for dessert. Invited guests were George, Carole, Daisy and David. It was a lovely evening eased along with a steady flow of various rosés!

Sunday 04. 07. 10 Another hot day. Daisy, Carole and I spent the morning at the gallery and then Jonathan and Gisèle went in to do the afternoon shift whilst we took advantage of Gisèle’s pool!