Water works

Now look here all you people in Manchester, stop taking baths immediately and drink wine instead of water and tea - you are pinching our water big time! On the way to see the new William Morris exhibition at Blackwell we were startled to see how low the water in Thirlmere has become. The islands are islands no longer. I have never seen it so low and made a diversion down the tiny road at the back of the lake to record it. It is ironic when you think last November we had unrelenting rain for more than a month, the water board were having to open the sluices to ease the pressure of water and we experienced the worst floods ever.
We are very conscious at all times of our water consumption. Our house in the fells has no mains water so we rely on the rainfall to supply us much more directly. Our supply comes from a spring up the hill and we gather it in a holding tank which sends it down to a big tank buried close to the house from which it is pumped into the house via a 'zapper'which kills all known living nasties before it comes out of our taps.
It tastes like Nectar. When I taste mains water I am now over-sensitive to the chemicals that are added. There is nothing like spring water to make the best pot of tea ever.
But when we have a period of drought we watch the weather anxiously. It has never dried up but we have run close to empty on a couple of occasions and went without washing as well as weeing in the woods. Needs must. I don't think I will ever be able to use water wantonly again.
Oh and by the way - the William Morris exhibition is beautiful. Blackwell is an Arts and Crafts house overlooking Windermere which has been beautifully restored and is the perfect place to show his legacy; especially on a perfect summer evening with a glass of champagne and a stroll on the terrace.

Midsummer madness

It's midsummer day tomorrow in case you hadn't realised and the weather is stepping up to the mark. We have been 'playing' in the garden - well weeding and falling in the stream and such - all day and now need a good bonfire an bath in that order which is allowed up here in the middle of nowhere.
Here Up North it hardly goes dark at the moment so we get a lot more done - no slouching in the evening in front of the telly with a glass of red!
I got the first draft of the next book off to the publishers last week before the onslaught of builders, water diviners, computer folk, BT, Open reach, moth man (yes, a moth eradicator) and a whole continouos procession of helpful people. Phew! Tomorrow it will be the electricity people who will cut us off and lop the branches of the trees which impede the wires - yes we are still overhead people here.
Meanwhile back at the gallery we will be taking delivery of a beautiful bronze sculpture mid week. I have had to muster a body of strapping blokes to help unload it. I will post a photograph in due course after administering physio, gratitude and drinks.
Cockermouth deserves to survive and prosper. Everyone is making such a big effort. We launched our Midsummer Festival yesterday with great aplomb. The town seemed really alive again with lots of colour and noise. The Trout Hotel reopened this weekend after a multi million pound, eight month, restoration job. That's a big boost to the town's economy.
June and Michael Bennett spent the day at the gallery talking about their work which is selling fast. Next saturday is our Art Trail with workshops and events throughout the town. We will be presenting a mini tour - BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE GALLERY - and explain and recount some of the things that go on when nobody's looking! There will be stories in the Georgian kitchen, upstairs in our storeroom/viewing room where we keep very special pieces and also of the garden and sculpture. We sometimes have volunteers to help us and they always express surprise at what their day involves - and it is always different.

A brighter blog

We have just hung an uplifting exhibition which opens tomorrow - and heaven knows we need something uplifting.

June and Michael Bennett are husband and wife.I’ve been exhibiting their work seperately for well over twenty years. They have only had one joint exhibition during that time and I, and they, survived - so here we go.
They are both Cumbrian born; Michael in Windermere and June in Grange over Sands . They met at art college in Lancaster and then went on to Leicester. College of Art. Michael exhibited widely building up an impressive reputation and became a senior lecturer in art at Bretton Hall, Wakefield. June brought up their two boys and made exquisite silver jewellery. They returned to Cumbria many years ago, living first at Seascale and then on the Solway coast.
June took up painting again in 1987 just as I was opening Castlegate House as a gallery and she exhibited some oil paintings in the opening exhibition and went on to have many successful solo shows at Castlegate House..
It is inevitable that two artists living in close proximity should influence each other though each has a seperate studio! However their work is very different. June paints lively exuberant oils with a refreshing immediacy drawing on the landscape around her, the sea, cornfields, her garden.
Michael’s works are introspective and thought provoking. A painting can take years to evolve. His layered and textures surfaces give a mysterious and subtle depth. He is constantly reaching out, like the figures in his paintings, for the muse often exemplified in a bird or birds. It is usually just beyond his grasp. The moon is another unreachable symbol hovering above mystically. His palette is subtle, muted in soft greens, ochres, blue/greys and browns. These paintings transmit an elusive magic.
The team will be there tomorrow as well as June and Michael to launch the show. It will be a good day. People are coming from all over the UK for it.

A trilogy of tragedy

This is the most beautiful corner of England; the peaceful Lake District. Life is slow. Not a lot happens. The sheep graze, the new lambs jump about a lot and the high fells preside over us all. But that isn't insurance against anything bad happening - we are not immune. But in the beautiful North West corner of the County we have had one tragedy after another; first the floods last November which rendered hundreds of people homeless, a policeman dead and dozens of town centre businesses unable to trade. With most of our bridges broken we were tested to the limit but got on with it cheerfully and made the best of it. We are feisty northerners and we don't give up. Bit by bit we are recovering with businesses slowly moving back into their renovated premises and the town is looking bright and optimistic. We've got plans and ambitions. Our town is going to be better than ever and scrub up very nicely. The unprecedented long winter of ice and snow hampered recovery but we looked on the bright side ( a la Monty Python!) and looked forward to spring. We have a future to look forward to.
Then last week we were disturbed to hear helicopters and then an air ambulance overhead followed by the news of the collision of a school bus and a car just a few miles away between Cockermouth and Keswick with three fatalities - one of them a young promising lass celebrating her sixteenth birthday that day and a fourteen year old boy. The driver of the car who is thought to have passed out or died at the wheel causing him to run unwittingly head-on into the bus was a long standing friend of the gallery. His whole family have been known to us since 1988 and have visited regularly. Patrick Short was a lovely man who collected Percy Kelly paintings, played a great part in community affairs,actively supported many charities , sang in the local choir and enjoyed all the arts and culture the county had to offer. He will be sadly missed.
On Tuesday I was writing away in the Egg when a London friend rang to see if we were alright. 'Why shouldn't we be?' I asked. He then told me about the shootings that were going on right now. No one knew where the gunman was. He was firing indiscriminately and moving swiftly on. I rushed to the house and listened to the news and couldn't believe what was happening just a few miles away. My daughter in law teaches in Egremont, my granddaughter goes to school there. We have many friends in the area. Then I remembered it was half term. Sylvia and Janet might be shopping in Whitehaven. My heart turned over. I rang and found they were safe upstairs in their house with all the doors locked. It must have been terrifying. Because the gunman was a cab driver, he knew all the back ways and short cuts and covered a lot of distance befoe shooting himself after killing 12 innocent people and injuring many more.
Let's hope this is the end of tragedy in the area. Life is hazardous and tenuous and none of us is immortal but this is unbelievable.
We will all now get on with our lives with an extra consciousness of how precious life is and how easily it is lost. My old college motto is LIVE TODAY and that what we should do. There's no future in worrying about what might happen if...... Let's just live to the full and help and enjoy others along the way.
Here endeth the first lesson ... sorry to be sactimonious - not like me at all - but heartfelt. It's an emotional time for all of us up here.

The Windy City

Lying in bed looking out over Lake Michigan as dawn breaks is unreal. The bed is a four poster in the best English tradition. The drapes are pale lemon pure silk patterned with delicate rosebuds and I feel like a princess! The house is 6 floors of pure luxury finished off with a roof top garden - ideal for a G&T sundowner.
I am here on a mission in the house of someone I've never met on Chicago's Gold Coast within walking distance of the skyscrapers of Michigan Avenue. I stood on top of the highest building in the Western world this morning. This is like being in a Sara Paretsky detective novel. I have no idea what will happen next but if I fail to show up back in England next week, look in the lake - or blame volcanic ash and BA strikes.
All I can say by way of explanation is that this will fit the last piece of the jigsaw in the next book.

NETTLE SOUP

Spring at last after all the traumas of the winter. And it's Nettle soup time! This is the most energising soup I know. I've just been wandering the lanes in yellow rubber gloves and plastic bag collecting the young green nettles. Put them into a big pan with sauteed onions, garlic and potatoes, add stock and liquidise. Add cream and hey presto - brilliant green magic.
I should be doing other things but it's just too tempting to get out into that new green landscape with Zebedee springing lambs.The wildlife up here is prolific with woodpeckers, red squirrels, otters, stoats and mad march hares. We have a badger's sett in our garden and he trundles past on the bank every evening at roughly the same time
The new road bridge in Workington opened on Wednesday and reunited the town after five months of misery. Percy Kelly's twin brother John who is 91 went to the opening which is a fair step from his home in South Workington. He was among the first to cross on foot and he then walked further up the North Side and crossed the temporary footbridge back and up through Workington Hall Gardens calling at M&S for shopping on his way back. He had a disabled wife Renee and is in amazing health.
The sequel to Hercules is on hold until after the imminent Chicago trip (volcanos permitting!) so I am researching the next book which is the Kelly biography so John and his other surviving brother are a rich source of information. These West Coast Cumbrians are a tough lot. I asked him for the secret of his longevity and health and he reckons it's down to diet. The Kelly's had a hard upbringing with little food followed by army rations. He's never been affluent enough to afford rich luxury food nor has he ever eaten junk food despite the MacDonalds and Caspian just down the road. I reckon he's right. Forget the fad diets - try the nettle soup!

Frontal lobotamy

Hey it's spring and we have primroses and violets up here. Don't know where April's gone but this will be the last weekend of the Marie Scott exhibition. Cockermouth is also looking better with businesses re-opening on the Main Street every week. It is looking less bleak and the sun is helping. The Scott exhibition is stimulating and the gallery garden is open (on fine days) and is full of colour.
Just got a distress call from one of my artists - she's frustrated with a painting going all wrong. Lowry told Sheila Fell that she could always pull an oil back Have handed on that advice - don't want an ear in the post do I?
May 1st (Saturday) promises to be a BIG day in the gallery. We open the Helen Tabor exhibition of over 30 paintings, both landscape, seascape and figures. Have a look at the web page www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. You will not be disappointed. People are travelling a long way for this one.
It is also The Georgian Fair throughout the town that day. There are lots of exciting things going on with some theatre performances in the gallery garden and other venues around the town, street theatre and circus skills, Sedan Chair Racing, Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling as well as a Made in Cumbria Market in Market Place at the bottom of our hill
And there's more! We are launching the paperback of Hercules and the Farmer's Wife that day which is selling well and is on special offer at £7.
It also goes on the 3 for 2 offer at all branches of Waterstones on 1st May. For those people in the South Lakes and North Lancashire I will be in Waterstones Kendal on 8th May (11 - 4) signing copies. Karen Wallbank, the Farmer's Wife of the title will also be there so it will be a double act. (could turn into comedy performance art!) I can't trace Brian Hercules the brain surgeon or he would be dragged along as well. We could do with a bit of a lobotomy I guess.
Please come and support us and support the town. It has been a major struggle for all of us to reach this point but we've made it. Our future survival depends on you all.