Catherine Stock's Blog, page 23
September 24, 2009
The Saga of Sam
Look at this face. Irrisitable, no? This scruffy looking mutt was wandering around Gramat for a couple days, dirty and collarless. I took him home, bathed him, photographed him, and posted his mug all over town hoping he would be claimed. Someone called but she never came to get him. Her life was "complicated" she said. So Sam came to Spain with us to camp on the beach and learn to swim. Since being home, he has caught and eaten one chicken, chased the sheep, and even taunted the cows ...
September 20, 2009
A night on the beach in Spain
Went to meet friends in the Pyrennees for a late summer holiday. As a small child living in Paris, I had fond memories of a holiday on the Costa Brava. Everyone told me not to go back; that it was horribly built up and overcrowded and that I should just treasure my memories, but this is what we found: an empty beach where we were allowed to camp. At one of the beach was a fabulous formal restaurant so we clipped on our bijoux and ordered delicious paella to down with a cold jug of sangria,...
August 31, 2009
August 26, 2009
Sushi
Almost every Monday evening when the drawing group meets in my studio, Sushi insists on getting into the act, posing beautifully with the model. Christine had to move around him to keep in the picture.Meanwhile, even though Sam (alias Tofu)'s owner contacted me three days ago, she has yet to come and collect him. He might be a permanent Tramizal fixture after all.
August 22, 2009
Jupiter and its moons
We saw Jupiter and its four moons tonight through my telescope. It looked rather like this picture, though I think the moons were in a horizontal line and there were two stripes on Jupiter.The Lot has the clearest skies in Europe and is an ideal place for observing the night skies, especially now in August when there are meteor showers are easier to see.
I love looking up at the skies, but tonight I was talking to a friend who is completely unsettled by the night sky and its stars...and the conc
August 21, 2009
Sam
Sam is what I am calling him anyway. This sweet young mutt has been wandering around Gramat for a couple of days, mooching food from people lunching outside restaurants and sleeping curled up in obscure corners. Finally I went to collect him and had him checked out at the vet for an electronic flea or tattoo, but there was nothing. I took him home, washed and photographed him and have taped up posters in the hope that some incredibly grateful owner will arrive for a tearful reunion...but I am
August 20, 2009
Bumper crop of tomatoes
This is one day's haul of tomatoes. We have been eating so many tomatoes in so many ways that I swear I am beginning to turn into a tomato. I am giving them away to anyone who will take them. Mucella, a mining engineer from Turkey who came to take some private painting lessons last week told me that her mother, an excellent cook, halves them and places them in a five inch deep pan (I have used plastic tubs), salts them, and leaves them in the hot sun for about a week. Twice a day she stirs t
July 31, 2009
A bouquet for you
Completed two weeks of the watercolour workshop on Friday and am recuperating. It's a lot of work- not just the teaching but also the shopping for and preparing of lunches, sorting out transport, lost cameras, passports, wallets, credit cards and bathing suits that inevitably occur when people are traveling. This year a Eugene tantrum was thrown into the mix which spiced things up when he suddenly decided three days in advance to let other people have his gite that my students had booked in Ja
