under another sun

Up with the larks. Downstairs and out into the garden to  greet a fox, who was drinking from our little wildlife pond. I have suspicions about foxes wanting to move in, having seen one or two over the weekend. Lorraine said Mum would like it.   Lorraine off for a personal training session, not usually on a Monday, then to see Maureen. Meanwhile Chris arrived two hours early to do a boiler service, and swap lots of friendly chat.   Once he'd left, I finally overcame the cringe, after Lorraine told me to just get on with it, and set out some emails asking people to look at my MS and, hopefully, supply endorsing quotes about the book for the cover.   Then, the cringe wearing off a little I slipped off to the gym, where I trundled about a bit.  Then home to think about Zines for a bit, and chat to Mum. Lorraine and I ate a block of random frozen stuff from the freezer, which thawed into an unlovely soup.  Below incredibly vivid skies in the evening, including ...

A happy day, Lorraine and I spending time together in the studio, living the bourgeoise dream, Lorraine quietly doing pottery, me drawing a zine about someone murdering a cat.  Also we had the baby boy for a couple of hours this morning. He was his normal cheery self, until after Lorraine had spooned him a food pouch of various veggies and he was sick. We were in the living room, so Lorraine soothed him while I cleaned up the sofa, carpet and Lorraine, who had to change. Poor little lad. However my trusty gold sofa is covered in such miraculous material that it cleaned up effortlessly. Ate more of a particularly delicious chilli I had cooked yesterday for supper, and quiet night. To bed, once I'd dealt with a Shelob of a spider on the bedroom ceiling that Lorraine hadn't even noticed. Looked again -- more cringing -- at the photos Innis took of me. Decided that I needed to use them. Here's one of me smiling by the sea, which is perhaps a bit too cheery perhaps to use as an ...

We heard Delores spent part of her day outside her house sharing chocolates with passers-by.  After my French holiday, and a week of socialising, I am edging into Jabba the Hut territory , despite going to the gym. Swerving beer for a week seems a quick win. Maybe it's my age, but I really like waking up feeling crystal clear. After my birthday's done in October, I'm toying with a pre-Christmas interlude of booze austerity.    A fox or two sunning themselves on our lawn this morning. I went out to say hello. One hung about and looked at me fairly calmly, before springing over the fence. It's all very spidery at the moment. I got several spiderwebs in my hair in the garden and the glasshouse, and found it is also full of big brown moths. Lorraine and I had seen the chrysalises earlier and wondered what they were. We went into Seaford and looked at fabric. Lorraine took me into two shops where we looked at 'fat quarters' and other material. Lorraine knows how to b...

A Peter Friday with some time to think. I read Charlotte's Orange Cats . I love the way she writes, often with a deceptive simplicity that takes you straight into complex and interesting subjects. She really is such an excellent writer, and I wrote to her to say how good I thought it was.  My own thinking about writing, still a bit bitty and unproductive. I feel like I've emptied my larder of ideas, and need to go out into the world and get some new ones.  Spoke to Anton, still in his liminal phase, but he has two appointments next week. Also Mum. I went to the gym this afternoon, and it was a good time to go. In the evening Lorraine and I off to  The Union Club to celebrate Delores birthday. Many of the rebooters, plus Delores' daughter Sophie, and grandchildren including Asha who I've had a good chat with in the past. Yvonne and Brian there, with their pal Martyn, who I liked very much. Great to see Brian cheery and out and about after his knee replacement.  Delore...

Enzo first thing, little lad has a cold but otherwise cheery as ever. He climbs stairs now. Lorraine had found a big yellow plastic tipping truck which she gave him this morning. At first he was a bit afraid of it. I sawing it eyeing it nervously as it rolled on the kitchen floor. By the end of the day he was playing with it happily. Lorraine cunningly used the small phase of Enzo being scared of it to good use, putting the truck on our stairs to stop the bairn climbing up them.   I made off to drawing class, where the model was a folk singing woman, fully clothed in a long dress, and a staff with a deer horn crook. Her having clothes on threw me somewhat, and I had to abandon my long drawing after twenty minutes as I had got all the proportions completely wrong. Very bad at drawing today, but I enjoyed it, and chatting to my fellow 'articipants' as Melissa calls us. After class chatting with Debbie and Melissa about the zine fair, which they are both participating in. Melissa ...

A bitty morning, achieving little. Sylwia here, who is loving the continuing heat.  Spoke to Mum late in the morning, before we drove off with Maureen and Lorraine to Paradise park to choose a small fishtank. I ended up selecting a small tank with a filter and heater, substrate for the plants to grow in, and gravel. Home for a bite to eat, then when Lorraine drove to Eastbourne to collect Pat, I slowly put the thing together, with Maureen impatiently wanting it all to be ready immediately. Wanting to double check the filter, I scanned the QR code which took you to a completely different product. I worked it out, then added substrate for the tropical plants and gravel and a large rock. Maureen said she didn't want the rock, and added that she'd always wanted cold water goldfish.  Lorraine back with Patrick, and then we left, and I promised to return tomorrow, as it needs extra gravel.  Pat said he wanted tropical fish, so Maureen firmly decided it was going to be a tropica...

Woke up early and read a message from Katie, now ensconced at Ian's house. She has had a horrid time, but is on the mend now I hope. A productive morning. Lorraine surged out to her personal trainer. I was able to choose some photos that didn't make me look like a Weimar Republic sex murderer from the shots Innis had taken. Also began drafting emails to a few people I'm asking for a couple of sentences for the book jacket of  One Day Forever .  Not sent them yet, but the cringe is real. Hello... Peter Kenny here. I know we don't really know one another all that well, but will you tell people I'm fabulous? Thanks.  To Brighton this afternoon, to spend time with Anton over a game or two of bones. He was at The Bier Haus on the Kemptown side, which he can bus to on a number 7, and in decent spirits. He is awaiting a date for the valve operation with mixed feelings. Otherwise he was armed with his book on horology, Practical Watch Repairing , by Donald De Carle, written...

Jangling and nervy first thing. Good to be at home though, so wrote a list of things that must be done, and did many of them which made me feel better. Writing a list and doing the things on it is a kind of therapy really. To the gym at lunchtime, which also helped.  In the afternoon working on zines. Adele along with Kitty Oakley, an artist we have a print of, have set up the Seaford  Zine Fair. I have said I am going to be an exhibitor, so am frantically trying to design a zine or two in time for 17th October. It is outside my comfort zone, and there's no time. But plus ça change . Spoke to Anton and Mum and messages with First Matie. I felt calmer and more in control as the day progressed.

After Breakfast, Lorraine went to Pat and Maureen's place as Cyndy plus some of their other old Ashford pals were coming around. Beth took the wee bairn there too. I walked up to see Yvonne and Brian, who showed me his knee scar, and said the pain was still dreadful. Like having a terrible toothache in your knee, which is keeping him awake. Weeks of not sleeping are miserable. Otherwise he was mooching about a bit and looking good to me. Yvonne was doing well too, and we sat outside in the warm and had some coffee for an hour. Then their grandsons piled in, and I made an exit as this was lots of work. Then I went strolling towards Splash point, and I bumped into Kate and Carole on bicycles, and had a lovely chat with them. Kate said they'd been talking about Friday night at the Boot, and how nice this was. Later Carol texted Lorraine to tell her too. Lovely. I enjoyed a mooch in the lovely weather along the seafront and had done my cheeky ten thousand paces by the time I got ho...

A peaceful day on the Kenny estate. No springing early from bed, but a slow breakfast and time to do things like talk to each other and laundry. Also going down to harvest and freeze lots of our glut of tomatoes. There was wild talk about doing lots of art and pottery, but above thinking about Zines, as I have signed up as an attendee of the inaugural Seaford Fair, so actually making a zine or two might be a good idea. Otherwise I slept for an hour in the afternoon, and Lorraine and I stayed close to the gold sofa. Both of us felt better for a day of rest and relaxation. Below some non-tomatoes from the glasshouse, although it has been a poor year for cucumbers, we've had the odd one or two, plus some padron peppers, red and green chillies. 

Off to Hampstead to meet Mum. I got the earlier train, which turned out to have been a good idea as today's challenge was no direct train from Lewes to London.  I bumped into Mark at Lewes and we did part of the journey together, discussing AI and la poubelle, the French word for rubbish bin. I hopped off at Wivelsfield and caught a train that took me straight to West Hampstead Thameslink station, which was cool. Climbed up to Hampstead talking to Anton, who is now recovering from home. He has to avoid over exertion till his operation. I told him about Katie, who I also heard from today, and her pal Lou, who has been allowed out of hospital.  Mum on good form, and we cantered off to The Old White Bear and while there I booked her appointment for flu and covid jabs. There was a well travelled American woman on the table next to us, who we talked to lots. Mum also agreed a date for her to stay in Seaford with us soon, and enquired about the Parson at the bar, but the barmaid had...

Up early, but not exactly with a spring in my step. Lorraine off and collecting the baby boy for the day. He has a cough and is a bit under the weather, but still scooting about the place and learning how to climb stairs and so on.   Off to drawing class early, so that I could bag my rightful place. My rival for that spot didn't turn up today. Had fun drawing but I just couldn't seem to get in the right position without my shoulder hurting. I had brought my desk easel but the heights were all wrong. I am still rusty, only having had one session before this since June. Keeping the bodies in proportion seems to be my main challenge at the moment. Nice chats with Debbie, and Melissa and Kate, and the other man that goes occasionally called Mike.  Home and lurking about with Enzo and Lorraine. I had a sleep mid afternoon which helped everything.  Innis and Rosie arrived at about half four, and I made off with Innis to Splash Point. We bumped into Adrian and Laura en route, wh...

Called Mum and Anton to see if he wanted to meet me in Brighton for coffee. But he he had to travel up to London to have a medical procedure, poking a probe into his arm and up into his heart. He told me his valve is toast, and so he needs open heart surgery. Luckily Oskar had to go to London today too for a modelling job. And they travelled back together in the evening. I got my hair cut by Stacy. He took a perfectionist's age, especially as I just needed a bit of a tidy up as Innis is going to take my photo tomorrow for the cover of  One Day Forever . The talk today well worth the time as it strayed into the supernatural, after a friend of his poked his head into the barber shop and said something about a mutual friend of theirs called The Ghost Whisperer. Turns out this was someone I'd met last time Stacy had cut my hair, who was keen on dabbling in the supernatural. He then told me about a medium he'd visited with his mate years ago, who told him the last thing his dad ...

Up at 5:30, before the cockerel got going, and had a hasty breakfast and loaded up the cars.  I stepped in some dog poo and so had to wash my trainers before Lorraine and I left. Fond farewells with Charlie who I had liked very much. Beth and James having left a little before, Lorraine and I drove off into a beautiful morning and didn't stop till we reached  Dieppe. We drove on the toll motorway, and across the daunting bridge over the Seine. Arrived in Dieppe in good time, and was given the once over by French security with a hand-held machine. A pleasant journey, Lorraine and I ate some amazing quiche. Enzo on good form and we took it in turns to rolling him around the deck in his pushchair while he was sleeping. James buying lots of duty free bourbon, which is his drink of choice. Though sunny in Normandy and the UK, the channel had been very grey. I stood out on deck briefly, looking at far off blurs of rain. An easy journey once we reached Newhaven. Home in minutes. Cups ...

All of us up fairly early, and we made off into Sées for the Saturday market. Perhaps a dozen or so large stands serving gorgeous produce. If only the Seaford market was half as good. A table with bell peppers of all colours in the sunlight absolutely zinged out with colour. Lorraine and I bought and tested two jars of local honey, harvested in different summer months. There were two lists of the flowers the bees would have visited. We had small spoonful of each. They were absolutely delicious and very different. Beth and James and Enzo mooched about and went off to the Patisserie, while Lorraine and I joined a long queue -- it took ages to be served but nobody seemed to mind. We fell into conversation with a young Anglo-French couple who lived in Paris. In the wait I managed to assemble enough French to ask for trois tranches de biftek pour le barbecue. Beth cooked us a delicious meal this evening, with steak for the others, and some pork for me. A warmer day with lots of sunshine tod...

A slow morning. Lorraine and I had another cheeky game of boules, another close game. Breakfast, the little boy full of sunshine.  Lorraine and I had some time in Sées. A beautiful little town, or perhaps a city as there is a cathedral and a bishop. We walked about in the gothic Cathedral, built between 1210 and 1310. You feel a bit like an ant walking in there, dwarfed by the majesty of divinely-inspired architecture.  Some gorgeous glass in there too. I was looking at the a list of war dead, and struck by the word Disparus for missing.  Then across the road to a lovely Patisserie where we bought some pastries, and baguettes. I ate an apple pastry, buttery flaky pastry, with sweet cooked apple in the middle. Absolutely delicious. We nosed in several shops and then popped into the supermarket for assorted treats, and headed home.  Pleased with myself that I tried to stick to French. In fact later, we were talking to Charlie, whose English is worse than my French and ...

A poor night's sleep, probably caused by drinking excellent French boozes, a little local cider here (super tasty and only 3% proof, a few of what Beth calls stubby beers. Enzo had a poor night, possibly because of teething, so Beth and James a bit frazzled too. They took Enzo off to Seés the nearby town, and Lorraine and I played a game of boules in garden, where there is an excellent boules court. Lorraine it seems has played this game before, but I was able to sneak a win.  The sun hot when out, but a bit cloudy otherwise. We sat outside lots, Lorraine studying a large book about pottery glazes, while I plodded through a translation of André Breton's difficult, but sometimes rewarding, surrealist poetry.  I also mooched about the grounds taking photos on Canon camera. However I am unable to download these onto my laptop, and uploading them is intermittent. So photos later. First time for quite a while when I felt properly relaxed.  Wonderful news from First Matie, who ...

A decent night's sleep at Le Chêne, which translates as The Oak, though found myself awake in the middle of the night, with Lorraine sleeping peacefully beside me in a very dark room feeling like we were miles from anywhere.  Up and breakfasted, fortunately Lorraine and I brought our mix of seeds and nuts with us. Beth and James up with the larks with the baby boy, had gone for a doze as Enzo was sleeping. We were visited by three pea hens who came to the glass kitchen doors.   Best thing today, I messaged Ian and First Matie, who was able to respond, and is out of immediate danger. Very cheering news. Also spoke to Mum, who has talked to the bank and found that the US pension was paid in at the beginning of this month, and last, too. This all good news. Went back to the Intermarché with Beth and James. Bought lots of stuff, as we had more time. Even in this out of the way little supermarket, you can tell you're in a superior food culture. The locals smiling ruefully at the to...

Up at a hideous five thirty and dragged myself out of bed into a rainy world. We left at six thirty, but not before Lorraine had watered the cucumbers. Arrived at Newhaven a few minutes later, with James and Beth already in the line of cars.  Waited there for about an hour before we were allowed to drive into The Seven Sisters. I'd been a bit apprehensive as I knew the weather was a bit stormy, but the boat only rolled a little gently.  We all found ourselves a pleasant place to sit, and had a really enjoyable trans manche experience. I went outside as we left, standing on a piece of deck with one or two others, looking at Newhaven and the grey sea and sky. Nice to see Seaford Head and the Seven Sisters from the sea.  We had cups of tea and some food, but the game changer was a chocolate and coffee drink which suddenly made me feel perky. Also heard on the journey from Lou, who told me that First Matie was improved today, and the doctors were more optimistic, which made m...