I hope you like the new additions to my website: At the moment, I've added these news pages - latest and archive - and the Famous Faces, People, Places page but I'm working on several more additions...so watch this space!

And now, after several months of little else but stress and bad news, I'm happy to report the recent flurry of positive developments:

Firstly, in August I received an email about a painting I'd done back in 1993, entitled "The Old Clubhouse, Telford Park Lawn Tennis Club", from a current member of the club who, while surfing the net for anything on Telford Park LTC, had come up with my website and the painting!

What's more, I was simply bowled over to learn that the members really liked my painting and wondered if they could put a copy of it up in the new clubhouse (the old one having been burnt down by arsonists). In fact, I was so bowled over by the members' admiration for the painting, that I decided to let the club have it on the basis of an extended loan.

After nine months of our so-called leisure time devoted almost entirely to renovating our kitchen, dining room and hall, Stuart and I were able to turn our attention to the garage, and the task of transforming it into an art studio. Over the many years of making do with the dining table, we've long dreamt of having a dedicated space for doing our art projects: a work area we didn't have to dismantle every time we had guests to dinner! So, finally, after several weekends of hoovering up the decades of dust and cobwebs, sweeping, white-washing the walls and renovating wall and base units, we had the beginnings of a viable art space. In addition, we've hung up some old road and railway signs (of the type with raised metal letters) to create a mini 'nostalgia' museum, too.

Most importantly, three weeks ago we 'moved in' and started to paint again, keen to get some new work done to show at local exhibitions in the summer of 2005.

Alongside my main 'day job', 2004 found me returning occasionally to the other side of the canvas again, this time initially - and mainly - due to my desire to be in some way reconnected with the world of art, in general. As it turned out, it's proved mutually beneficial to both the local art colleges and myself as, in July, I had decided to resign from the main 'day job' at just the very time the colleges were short on life models. August was indeed a month of surprises as, in addition to the email out of the blue from the Telford Park member, the artist Sheila Jowers, one of the brave volunteers who took part in British television's first 'reality T.V.' experiment, 'Castaway 2000', called to ask if I would do some modelling for her A Level classes. The spooky thing was, Sheila phoned just after I'd returned home with a copy of the Radio Times, in which there were pictures of some of the castaways, including one of Sheila, to accompany an article about what they were doing now and whether their experiences on the remote Scottish island of Taransay still continued to influence their current lives.

Finally, after having to shelve it for over two years, I've returned to working on my musical 'Alice 2 Alice': and although it's taken a while to gather the momentum I'd built up with it, back in 2000/2001, by being committed and disciplined, I'm making good headway with the project.

In addition to the above, I go to a yoga class once a week and usually manage to go to the gym and have a swim, twice a week.

Hopefully, with the combined forces of hard work and good fortune, I'll have some new art works to display on this site in the not-too-distant future!

Meanwhile, I aim to keep you updated regualarly with my latest news.

Warm Wishes,

Carmen
 

This extremely stressful period was punctuated, thankfully, by several happy and memorable occasions:

Shortly after Easter, and after six months of enduring dust, rubble and the rigors of hard physical work, Stuart and I finally finished renovating our kitchen...and, after years of enduring a succession of dreadful kitchens, now, whenever I go in there, I like everything I see and feel it was well worth it.

On the 28th June, Stuart and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a renewal of vows at Gretna Green, conducted by the blacksmith, in the company of close friends and family.

In addition to Gretna Green, we wanted to do something else to mark the occasion - something that was just for ourselves, so we thought: "What could be better than take a champagne balloon flight for two over the Cotswolds?" With balloon flights, there are so many things that can go wrong: if it rains or is too windy, the flight has to be postponed to another day - which, due to the vagaries of the Great British weather, apparently often happens. However, despite a wash-out of a summer, we were extremely lucky with the weather on the day (5th July) we flew. It was indeed a surreal experience, as our balloon glided for an hour over breath-taking Cotswold scenery, then landed smoothly by our experienced pilot in a deserted park. We were then picked up the the company's recovery vehicle and driven to an idyllic 'chocolate box' village, where we toasted our flight with champagne.

As I've mentioned, the summer was, by and large, a washout, but nevertheless, we still managed to grow 17 courgettes (most of which came from one plant) and our small Victoria plum tree yielded no less than 49 sweet and juicy fruits. Our early crop of strawberries (cultivated in the greenhouse) lived up to our expectations, as did our Charlotte potatoes and Lollo Rosso lettuces. In addition, we grew five sunflowers, one of which surpassed last year's tallest, and enjoyed salads with home-grown tomatoes, baby carrots, basil, thyme, tarragon and garlic...not bad, considering we had very little time to devote to the garden, this year. We even managed to dodge the rain enough to have a couple of barbecues and play a few frames of snooker outside on the patio!

Summer for me, however, is not complete without at least one trip to the seaside, and we managed this twice: the first time, in June, we decided to explore Rhossili Bay, on The Gower peninsular. The weather was overcast and cool, but we managed to amass a good collection of shells for future craft projects I intend to do. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we returned to the bay in early September: this time the weather was, by contrast, mediterranean and, for the first time in two years (since our Athens/Rhodes holiday in 2002) I managed a swim in the sea. Finally, a good meal and a few glasses of wine at the Worm's Head Hotel rounded off our day perfectly.

Warm Wishes,

Carmen