Jan’s Diary

June 2010

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 20:24:53 +0200

I am relaxing in the garden on a sunny afternoon in the shade of my olive tree (pruned for the first time this year and full of promising flower buds) wondering where to start on my new ‘blog’. How I hate the word, reminds me of bog or bloke … so I have used the word diary on my new website … perhaps I am showing my age in rejecting modern terms?

Letter No 11

Sat, 2 Feb 2008 15:28:14 +0100

It’s more than a year since I wrote my last Newsletter.

2006 was such a good year with bookings well over my expectations. 2007 started well with lots of forward bookings , including a group of 12 painters in May and I was delighted by the number of friends who had booked.

Letter No 10

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:23:01 +0200

Sunflowers .. fr. tournesol (turning to the sun) Of all flowers, why are we so drawn to them? The landscape here is stunning, with poppy fields to make you gasp, but with sunflowers I have get up close to inspect their faces … walk amongst them, talk to them … so animated, each so different, nodding .. a benign army .. majestic .. the small ones fighting for their place .. and here with the backdrop of hills and villages I just have to take a thousand photos.

Letter No 9

Sun, 4 Jun 2006 15:20:40 +0200

It’s been a long hard winter but at last spring has burst into flowers. It seemed one week ago we had thick snow, 8 inches in the garden, breaking boughs and splaying fir trees everywhere .. and a few weeks later it was such a joy to see the hills scattered with pink and white almond blossom. Then the Judas tree with its bright mauve pink flowers on black branches, lilac .. violet iris lining the roadside. I stood on the terrace one afternoon and just inhaled the perfumes of the village and hills … I reminded myself I was far from England.

Letter No 8

Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:11:37 +0100

It seems so long since I last wrote my Newsletter …so many visitors, friends and paying (not enough), trying to complete the third bedroom and my feet have hardly touched the ground.
I was just filling my walls with paintings by local artists last time I wrote. In June Jacqueline loaned me some beautiful pieces ― a very large dramatic one for the stairs , which distracts from the rustic, multi shades of red, and has been much admired. The paintings really have added a finishing touch to the house, and have aroused some interest already. Now I just have to fill the house with paying guests to admire .. and buy.