Catherine Stock's Blog, page 17

Off the beaten track

I arrived at the Gramat pool for my swimming hour on Sunday to find the place packed with at least 3,000 screaming kids and their enthusiastic parents for a swimming meet. Quelle horreur!

It must have been 50 degrees, so I loaded Thabo into the car and set out for the river. Our usual spot was inundated by more sweltering kids and their families seeking relief from the heat. Thabo goes absolutely manic near water, driving everyone nuts with his barking, so we had to leave. But on the way h...

Midsummer's Eve

Last night I forgo the annual Fête de St Jean in Rignac to attend a vide grenier at a friend's castle. We were all told to bring stuff we didn't want anymore to sell and swap. Being a perennial pack rat, I had difficulty finding anything to bring, but eventually opened a mobile bookshop/art gallery in the back of my 2CV.

I totally scored! Came home with a hand embroidered linen tablecloth, wooden salad servers, an old pewter tea service, a colourful painting of tulips, a lovingly mended Qui...

Making hay while the sun shines

After almost a month of wild storms and torrential showers, the sun finally came out on Sunday. Everyone as been busy clearing ronces et orties (brambles and nettles), trimming lawns and clearing out weeds. My garden was a veritable jungle. On the way to dinner with friends tonight, I stopped to snap this shot outside Rignac. The farmers have literally been making hay while the sun shines.

Le Lieu Commun

Tucked up a little side street behind the church in St Céré is Le Lieu Commun, a small communal eating house where anyone can feast like royalty at midday on Wednesdays for five euros, provided one does without meat or alcohol. Christine and I had lunch there last week and volunteered to provide the group with some South African dishes this week. I made a cold cucumber/yoghurt /garlic/raisin/walnut soup served with toasted pita bread, and Christine wowed everyone with a South African c...

Ah- sweet literary revenge...

A very unhappy family arrived at my cottage for two weeks on Saturday. Their grand tour of Europe was obviously not going as planned, and the cold and rainy weather wasn't helping things. The stolidly built bleached-blond wife looked around at the farm animals in dismay, jumping nervously at the sound of a nearby squawking chicken and shouting at her young son not to touch the dog or cats who had come to greet them.

Early the next morning, the bespectacled and harried husband was sent over to...

Sangoel goes to Yemen

These photographs were lifted from Karen Lynn Willams's blog. Her co-author, Khadra Mohammed, took My Name Is Sangoel (which I illustrated) on her visit to refugee camps in Yemen. Here is what she wrote in the email with the images:

This little boy is 10 years old. His mom drowned when the the boat they were smuggled in capsized. He is an orphan and UNHCR is caring for him under their unaccompanied minors program, his big smile melted my heart. His name is Hussain my new...

Wild lion

My sister Vanessa lives on a game farm on the Zimbabwe side of the Limpopo River. She sends mesmerizing emails from time to time, like the following:

"Thought the attached photo would be of interest - an interloper from Botswana, we think, who was attracted to our lions by their calls. He's now hanging about OUTSIDE our garden fence, near the lion enclosure, and has been here for 4 or 5 days. Slightly disconcerting, as he is quite wild! Digby captured him on a motion triggered...

The 2010 Opening

This is what the opening of an exhibition in rural France looks like in June. Specifically the opening in my little gallery, La Sirène du Causse.

My Monday night life drawing class opened our annual show last night. There were bottles of chilled rosé, hunks of cheese, quiches and tarts, and for those who stayed on past twilight, boeuf Bourgignon, salad and chocolate/banana/walnut cake.

Christian Leguay not only brought along his accordion but three musicians he plays traditional music with.

This...

Living in the moment

I have just discovered a fabulous new artist: Jim Denevan. Using a piece of driftwood like a pencil, a rake like a wide brush, or even a bicycle or truck, Jim scrapes large temporary geometric images onto the sands of beaches and deserts. A trained chef, he also serves meals to hundreds of strangers in outdoor settings in a project he calls Outstanding in the Field, which is all about being aware of where our food comes from.

See more, including some videos, at www.jimdenevan.com

La Sirène du Causse

For two years my gallery didn't have a name, let alone a sign. But complaints have been coming in from the tourist people. No one could find me.

I have been thinking about calling it La Sirène du Causse, or The Mermaid of the Causse, from the beginning, but thought a better name might come along. Nothing has.

The causse of Gramat is an ancient seabed with fossils in much of the sedimentary rock. I love the sea and feel a little landlocked here. I am a children's book illustrator, so a bit of...