I am becoming a Sunday painter.
Today is Sunday and I have been looking forward all week to painting.
Last Sunday I painted and I enjoyed it immensely.

I liked the way the wall was a brighter white when it was reflected in the mirror and also I really liked the way the beams were reflected, and truncated.

Here's a good reason to play games with your dog. But the game you choose has to be very hard. As you can see, the featured game is extremely hard for a poor little dog. However he will thank you in the long run - well, if he is like our dog he won't do gratitude, but at least he'll be alive to see the long run.

Oh rats - a new customer!

I started a business about six months ago, doing wedding invitations for brides.
I waited for days for a new customer. Having just finished the invitations for two lovely brides (I mean that sincerely - they are gorgeous to work with), I was now without work and was eager, to put it mildly, for another customer. I checked my email every day for a twinge of interest. I knew that the girls who contacted me were more than likely to be hitting all the invitation suppliers but I also knew that if I had the chance to speak to a bride, I had a much greater chance of converting a sale. So I was thrilled when I was contacted by Lucinda yesterday: she even left her mobile number so I could phone her. It had to be in the afternoon, so I would have three loud children to accompany the phone call, who would more than likely be squabbling, and who would definitely be hanging out of me. But I had a key: I could lock them into the house and nip outside to the studio, and make my call in peace. This I did when the time was right.

So there I am, selling my product, chatting away to Lucinda...hearing about how she can't decide what colour dress to choose...I'm offering thoughts on matching your dress to your stationery, and whether to use oyster silk coloured card or alabaster, and we're bonding - when I see this great big rat right in front of me. Well, there's a window between me and it, but I don't scream - I don't even lose my train of thought. I do, however, make a strange "oo" noise in a high-pitched voice but I think that wasn't too bad, considering. It was a very ugly rat: it wasn't cute and furry, or sleek; it was dirty and its fur was ragged and matted-looking. I had a strong urge to throw something heavy at it (my husband had fired a stone at a rat in the polytunnel last summer and killed it, and a book at a mouse last year and killed it) but that would mean opening the window, and it would run off. Suddenly I couldn't wait for my eagerly awaited potential client to go away so I could kill the beast in front of me. Not the most bridal moment I've had...anyway I wrapped up the call as quickly as I could and carefully lifted the latch of the window. The rat stopped dead and pricked up its yucky pointy ears, and disappeared back into the dry stone wall from which it had crawled. The special ratting dog we have, Poppy - who is on permanent vermin control duty - sat in her kennel, gazing into the middle distance: the rat was squarely in the near distance so she had no excuse for missing the creature. I grapped Poppy - she's tiny - and placed her right at the spot in the wall where the rat had disappeared, making "Kss, kss" noises, which she supposedly understands. She immediately flipped over to have her belly rubbed but then caught the scent and made a show of hunting for the rat. However, I soon gave it up as a lost cause, unlocked the house to release the kids from the house and told them to keep away from the wall.

I'm still going to seal the deal, though...