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HarcourtArt

     Not that the indigenous peoples of Morocco would necessarily wish to agree but the French influence provides a rather agreeable ‘je ne sais quoi’ to the experience of a visiting incomer. French has integrated into the language to the extent one can often hold a full conversation: but perhaps its most prominent legacy is in the food and there is brilliant fusion through for example the use of fresh herbs and spices with bright uncontaminated tomatoes with things like local mutton and chicken. As we wander through tracks and poor villages see the raw simplicities of the people eking out a ...

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  Not everyone agrees that walking in the snowy mountains can be every bit as enjoyable as the fast thrill of the skis nicely cutting down a red slope: or was it black but more like blue I'd say? However the thought of all that tramping around in cumbersome extended boots bleeping through the gates into drafty lifts just to fly for a few minutes, perhaps with agony on some muscle or snowboarding hooligan, only to repeat, is a long way from the tranquil soft uncomplicated pull into the parts where clattering metal apparatus and such speed is unknown. Just to the right ...

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We have a friend with a lovely place on Paxos -  in amongst the olive trees and not far from some stunning rocks with a private view of the sunset. The ideal place for quiet rest and painting. The day consist of three things - a good walk along the shady droves, a swim in the azure warm sea and a paint somewhere along route: however this has to be interspersed by successful coffee time, grabbing some fresh delicacies and a good lunch. Sleep is not allowed. [caption id="attachment_2039" align="alignnone" width="300"] Serenas boat in Loggos[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2038" align="alignnone" width="300"] another of Serena's ...

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I suppose ever since Napoleonic times the British have had a hankering to get away to Corfu and it does remain a place with a very good feeling in the autumn sun as home dives into rain and cloud. We stayed a couple of nights at the Belle Venezia though I was told the Hotel Cavalieri was supposed to be better and with a with a roof terrace atop. So I visited the platform for an expensive beer whilst doing a sketch but and realise our little place was preferable   [caption id="attachment_2040" align="alignright" width="315"] The ok view of the mainland ...

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    WE made it to the Uttarakhand region of the Himalayan hills on the north-eastern reaches of India in the nick on the map bordered by Nepal and Tibet. At about 150 km south of the highest peak in India, the 21,000 feet of Nanda Devi, loomed on the horizon in the gin clear air as though it was a short walk away from our mere 7000 feet hillocks.   Steep and intriguing hills rolling into the distance alive with activity. With eagles souring and woodpeckers sounding, the local doves and great barbetts make the most sound in the short twilight when ...

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A paint with friends in the Tuscan Hills on one of those bright very warming autumn days brings an interesting dimension to the same view. Sitting in a vineyard in the shade of the olive trees along the drive to the ancient building in which we were all holed up for a few days, we concentrated on tone and shapes and  nine of us produced some marvelously different results but all saying the same thing. With discipline of just three colours per painter, quiet distant chatter from the grape-pickers, and an errant puppy bouncing its uncontrollable paws into pallets and spilling the water pots, ...

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Only an artist impression can begin to portray the horror of a crazy tourist entering a hitherto unexplored cave on the west cost of Paxos earlier this month. Expectations by a vulnerable group of seeing ‘marvellous rock formations and unseen animals of the deep ocean’ were soon dashed as a female voice was heard yelping “I am leaving. .. I have to get off….” . But of course there was no-where to go and undeterred the captain pressed on and the expedition continued in somewhat silence: with the party disappearing through a narrow creek into the vast cliff of limestone.  At breakfast that ...

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It was wet but none the less for it - perhaps deterring some but not those hardened with the knowledge that the running order is plentiful, high quality and often unexpected.  [caption id="attachment_1795" align="alignnone" width="434"] Tents and campers set in a bowl of English countryside[/caption] we could not have had a better present from our children to camp alongside the expensive wigwams and the ordinary nylon for  weekend in Devon with music, food, literature and wellbeing all on the agenda  the best location is often the church where new and up and coming mainly accoustic sounds rebound the stone and panelling to produce remarkable sounds  and ...

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   My father as a WWII soldier always used the expression "remember belgium!" not by way of direct reference to the 1915 campaign to recruit into the allied forces - see poster - which in itself was a reference to the tremendous atrocities in that country  in 1914: but to emphasise that when lobbing artillery fire towards a german force from allied lines in the spring of 1945 might go a little too far and so to speak over their heads and of course land in Belgium.... and in so doing, bring back those endurances the dear folk suffered in WWI. And of course they ...

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For we have been here a thousand years and we see the change about us as a passing moment in our lives. We sense the draft as you, little yellow caterpillar, bruise the soils and murder our weaker jungle friends in the name of your game to inhabit our realm. Our god gives us sun and rain and wind to prune our souls, and against which we preen our bodies, branch out and strengthen ready for another eon. And we survive. You, little yellow machine, will wear yourself out and be gone to rust and disintegrate back to the particles from which ...

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