Time to reveal the Monet in the garage…. 

Monet? you query. Yes Monet,

See! Well yes it’s not that Monet (Claude) but it is his great nephew (Jason). And the happy memory? Visiting his Bayswater studio in the late ’60s with my lovely father (Vati to me Opi to my children) to have this portrait painted. Bless him he stayed for hours trying to keep me amused while my ten year old self sat as still as any self-respecting schoolgirl could for the portrait. Here it is in all it’s glory

By the way the multi-coloured hexagonal patterned dress drove the artist mad.

Now to a form of art I am more familiar with, the fleecy kind. When the lovely Linda left us her woolly stash remained and thanks to her friend Ls and the generosity of her family all Linda’s friends have received little bags of Linda’s loveliness.  Mine came in typically Linda-esque colourful fashion 

and was filled with a thoughtful (thank you Ls) collection of Linda’s yarns, patterns and, touchingly, equipment she used 

I asked Ls how she knew what to put in each parcel and she said that she had laid everything out and let Linda ‘tell’ her. I can believe it as everything was so perfectly related to the recipient. Needless to say these are all treasures and I will cherish them. And how great it was to see a few more balls of the hand spun yarn that I’d used to crochet a brooch for Linda’s funeral, such beautiful colours 

Although it is sad to think of Linda’s loss the happy memories evoked by these beautiful things take me back to all the woolly and other moments shared with my marvelous friend.

Something else has cheered me this week. A laugh out loud book.

I know its a cliche but really I couldn’t put it down. It is sooooooooo funny and cleverly written. On top of that it captured the role of the probationer PC (in another life I was one too! altho’ magic was not part of the training in my day), the streets around Bloomsbury and the history of the city. It even throws in a bit of Latin! Of course I read it in no time and Saturday saw me making an emergency dash to the library to find (relief unbounded) two more books in the series. Sorry must go…bed and a good book calls….