A memory map

A brilliant commission came my way this summer,

one that got me excited and inspired,

a moment of thinking why hadn't I thought of something like that!

A close friend of a very old friend of mine was leaving the island

and so she (and the rest of their gang) wanted to give

her and her family something to remember their time here. 

So that is how the Memory map started. 

Guernsey with places and events that were special to them. 

Then as it was from a whole group of friends, we marked each of their homes with a red circle and got them to each right a message which I then embroidered. 

Some the things featured included....

the Sark boat heading out of St Peter Port as they were huge fans of The Sark Folk Festival....

....little G-Joey coming into land......

.....ice creams on the beach.......

....our flag (will always chuck in some history if I can!).....

.....Torteval Scarecrow Festival, the reservoir and just in the image, the Hanois lighthouse...

....and just over the Cup and Saucer (Fort Grey) is a stork bringing one of their daughters home

(the other stork is flying into the hospital).

And just under the baby bundle you might just be able to make out the Table de Pion or Fairy Ring.

I did so enjoy this commission and very pleased it has been well received in its new home xxx 

being a fan!

You may remember a while back I did a blog post on this beautiful book

Well any way, a couple of weeks ago I go an email from the artist Jean-Loup and his wife Florence to say they were in Guernsey for a few days and would like to come in and see my Gallery.

Wow, this guy is a seriously good water colourist, very excited.

So I made sure I had my copy of the book in the gallery

so that when ever they popped in I would be ready!

And I was, and I got more than a asked for, not just an autograph but a beautiful little sketch,

so chuffed!

 really lovely couple, so lovely to meet them.

and I even heard rumours that there might be another book in the pipeline........

Chartres

A couple of weeks ago Chris and I had a long weekend in France, that started with a night in Chartres, a city neither of us had visited before
Its full of beautiful medieval buildings, but what makes it one of the most popular places to visit in France is the cathedral.  Its the most complete Gothic Cathedral in existence, and it is stunning!

 

And we were lucky to be there for the last weekend of the Lumiere which runs all summer.

 

The lighting display is absolutely mesmerizing, its a work of art in its self, flowing naturally from one image into another, quite beautiful. 

All of this magic was being projected from a small window above the Tourist Information Office.

But it wasn't just the cathedral but twenty other buildings over the whole city, including bridges and river side wash houses......

.......now wouldn't it be amazing to have something like this on Town Church ?

Water like silk

A few weeks of snuffles that never turned into a cold and a strong easterly wind have stopped my swimming over the last month.  But today, tide, wind and weather all came together to make it impossible to resist!

The light over the Ladies Pools was magical

And you can really see how the pools provide shelter,

the water is like glass reflecting the clouds above.

And the water was delicious, about 16 degrees and felt like silk,  I have often hear that said, but have never experienced it.  I suppose it comes from the air and water temperature being so close,

any way I didn't want to get out.

Our beautiful Victorian changing room, now fully equipped with really hot showers

and a lovely café on the roof

I am always amazed at the attention to detail off these stone masons, look at how beautifully the end of that wall flares out toward the base, so fluid.

And modern masons were also making the most of the fine weather

and cracking on repairing storm damage to the Children's Pool. 

These poor pools really were battered by the terrible winter storms about 5 years ago and slowly all the damaged is being repaired, the Horse shoe pool now has new railings

and its changing room are looking good, still work to be done on the stones.

But the worst hit was the Gentleman's Pool

which is the first one you come to as you walk along La Vallette.

The reason the men came first was so that they had no excuse to walk any further and so would not be able to ogle the women bathing in the Ladies Pool!

 Work has started and I have been assured it will be fixed but its complicated and costly, some thing about how the outer wall is curved and so moves ever so slightly with the ebb and flow of the tides.....think an engineer would be better at explaining it!

Beautiful pool, beautiful swim