Staying with Pete

 I have been staying with my brother Pete 

at his home in Belgium, in the town of Genval, which has a very pretty lake

and is within a few miles of the Chateau de la Hulpe, which is set in huge and beautiful grounds open free to the public. The trees are magnificent and at this time of year, breathtakingly beautiful. Strangely, I only took pictures worth sharing of ferns.

And of one of the lakes

We walked and talked and watched favourite old films, and had all but one of our meals outside - bliss. And we sat side by side in his excellent studio and tried different approaches to the same subject. Pete intends to paint a large picture in oils and this is his preparatory sketch.

I wanted to experiment with my oil pastels:

That road needs some adjustment.

When he picked me up from the Brussels Eurostar station on Friday evening Pete had driven me straight to a huge art shop where I could have spent a whole day, as well as a fortune. I splurged on oil pastels.

I love the rich colours, and they are so compact and portable so I can take them on my holidays. 

Through Pete’s studio window he can see his bird tables, which get a huge variety of visitors, including a daily visit from red squirrels. What a delight! 

When I was staying in Cornwall in February with Het I sent some of my photos to Pete, and he showed me a very large oil painting he’d done of one of them, which hangs in his sitting room:

Pete has been painting (not for a living) for 40 years. Maybe in 40 years I’ll be as good. 

It was a lovely break and a welcome change, and now I am home, sitting in bed glancing up at the beautiful trees I can see through the window,

feeling lucky, and fretting about the suffering in Gaza.

Please don’t forget Gaza.

You can donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians here

And to the UNICEF appeal for Gaza here