The view from here

St Ives
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Sandra Blow

Mother bought this Sandra Blow print as a memento of the holiday. She had wanted to buy one two years ago but could not bear to part with the best part of £1000. Mother is very careful with her money and agonises for ages. Two years might be a record though!
I personally would have bought a LOT more, instead of always saving, I would have thought it would be better to spend and enjoy rather than constantly worry as she does about how much she has to live on when in fact she has morethan enough.
This was a running strand of conversation I had to endure for two weeks. Mother has 4 topics of conversation
1. The weather, I was regaled with a full weather forcast every morning, noon and night, she would of course give details of areas where friends and family lived just to give it that compare and contrast flavour. I DO NOT really get this obsession, I wake up, look out of the window and dress accordingly. Who bloody cares? I can't exactly change it.
2. Money, constant wittering about how much she has to live on (oodles) how much better off her sister is etc etc on and on
3. critical analysis of whichever prodigal daughter is underachieving in life. mad as a hatter sister two's star is very much on the ascendant as she has finally quit smoking and is currently on an exercise regime that has allowed her to loose a stone, which brings me to her fall back topic.
4. How much she weighs


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Chris Insoll

Mother really loved this picture above I swear we went to see it every day of the holiday. Eventually she went for the Sandra Blow but this was a very close runner up. It was on show at the fabulous Belgrave Gallery. They have an interesting blog too

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Sandra Blow
I much preferred this one but unlike mother my money tend to go on the kids.

I rate them;

Daisy 7/10 bone idle as always, but when spotted was very affable. Lost marks for her slovenly habits and her inability to wash up.

Kitty 10/10

An angel, she read books, drew and painted pictures, cleaned and tidied up a lot, demonstrated patience beyond the call of duty with Leyla and apart from two teeny tiny tantrums (homesick) was a star.

Leyla 6/10 much improved from her previous visit but VERY demanding as always, displaying a complete inability to entertain herself. She was, apart from that very charming and only had one HUGE blow out on Kitty's birthday (Jealousy)

Mother 6/10 far less clingy than previous years at least attempted to go for walks on her own, as ever generous to a fault and was very patient and kind to the girls. Managed to only let slip one MASSIVE faux pas, which was to loudly proclaim the girls father a 'toy boy'. At this Kitty's jaw dropped to the floor and roundly denounced her as being very rude when she was in fact talking about her (kitty's) father.

Oh and I nearly forgot her absolute nightmare behaviour the night I arrived. I wanted an early night as I intended to leave by 5am so as to avoid the horrendous traffic jams that occur on the A30. However she was meeting a friend for dinner so I dropped her off and told her I would pick her up at 11pm. At 11.45pm she rolls out drunk. I was NOT HAPPY. The irony of this curious role reversal was not lost on me, so I plumped for a later start and crossed my fingers.

5 minutes before we left in the morning I asked her to double check that she had packed all her eye stuff since most holidays are spoilt by her incessant wittering about lotions, lights and other essential requirement linked to wearing contacts. Mother harrumphs and we left soon after. Just as I hit the open road she exclaimed that she had forgotten her eye stuff! seriously, I was speechless, I had to turn back and this made us even later hence a 5 hour journey took 8 hours. My poor feet were in agony. Imagine the pain of changing gears in Haviana's for 8 bloody hours!

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Alexander Mackenzie

I have in mind the lighthouse at Godrevy point on the north coast of Cornwall. The lighthouse cylinder stands among a group of white washed buildings with black barrel roofs seemingly all of one piece. These white buildings are founded in grey rock. On some days the circumventing sea has blue,yellow,green,maroon or even orange colours created with effervescent foam as epitome. From the point in a tearing wind we look down at the island growing into firm white buildings with black roofs: the central cylinder of white outlines against the grey sky is a monument to every form and colour in sea sky and rock.

The above is a quote by Adrian Stokes

It is from a book The St Ives Artists by Michael Bird.

I love the quote which goes some way to capturing the constant changing of light and colour you get in St Ives. I took my watercolours and painted a lot, by the penultimate day I had started to finally crack the code of the sea.

It becomes addictive trying to capture the view we had from the balcony. I could have made it a full time occupation but instead took about a 1000 photographs instead! I will begin the laborious process of editing tomorrow

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Sandra Blow

Mean while I will shut up and leave you with one last Sandra Blow image, this time not a print but a beautiful charcoal rendition of the coastline.

Images from here and here