I love living so near to the “lac de Christus”, a man made lake in St Paul, constructed about 50 years ago to clear marshland and its associated problems. I frequently go for a walk around it, sometimes continuing into the forest at the far end of it.

The “grange de Christus”, a building on the edge of the lake, is used for exhibitions from spring to autumn. I went to this year’s first expo a few weeks ago; contemporary paintings and sculptures,  I loved them.

Once that expo was finished, it was the turn of the painting club; the grange is such a popular location that we only had 10 days this time, so we all arrived with our paintings for the members of the committee to hang and turned up to man the expo a couple of times each. It’s a good way to get to know other members of the club; the workshop is open five afternoons a week so, being creatures of habit, it’s quite possible only to meet certain people during the exhibitions.

The vernissage attracted nearly 200 people and we had over 800 visitors over the 10 days. I didn’t sell anything, but several people did. The theme this time was “music”; there was an amazing number and variety of pieces, so many people were inspired to submit a piece on the theme, which is optional.

Kieran and the kids came to lunch one day recently, after which we had a walk to the children’s play park on the edge of the lake. There’s another expo on in the Grange now, the local patchwork group, so we called in to have a look; Emily liked a few of the quilts.  It’s too structured a club for me, but I met two women from my club there; we agreed that though there were a few nice pieces of work, we’re glad to be part of a different group.