If all goes as we’re thinking it will go, this feisty little lady will come live with us from January. Name still to be resolved (but must be Russian).
NEW KITTEN ALERT!! (Potentially) ((Probably))
Halloween 2023
Done.
As always, people had a good time, there were lots of things to eat and drink, lots of happy ghouls and goblins, and we got lots of thanks for organizing it, but this year it seemed to take a lot more energy to get up and get it done…
You’ve heard of elf on a shelf…
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Behold the one-tusked couch walrus
Happy (belated) birthday Byron
Three day escape to Italian wine country
At the start of the year, I bought a QoQa experience, consisting of 3 days, 2 nights in Castiglione Faletto at Il Torre, a really nice hotel, and also including a gourmet 4 course meal and a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Getting there (and back) was a 5h journey each way, with lots of beautiful scenery and… roadworks everywhere. The highway toll system in Italy takes some getting used to, but we managed.
Once we got there, we parked the car and started on the serious business of eating and drinking. The Cantina Communale was nice, but overpriced (seriously!). Dinner that evening was gorgeous, but they killed us with food. After the pasta course, we were already both full, and there were still mains and dessert to come. We struggled through the mains but conceded defeat to pudding. Katy is now officially obsessed with braised veal cheeks in wine. Then… grappa. Oooooh, grappa. It’s a good thing that the restaurant was literally next door to the hotel, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.
The next day, after breakfast, we walked down into Barolo. We took the goat pass that the hotel had kindly told us to avoid by car, as a shortcut. The scenery was gorgeous. The flies though…. FUEGO!! (didn’t want to keep swearing, so I’d just yell fuego randomly). We stopped at Vite Colte on the way into Barolo and had a tasting of some very nice wines, then carried on towards the old town.
Katy was not impressed with the incline getting into Barolo. Expletives were heard. We were happy to see that the corkscrew museum was open – according to their website, it shouldn’t have been. We then visited the WiMu wine museum, which was really interesting, then had coffee and ice cream before trying to locate the cab we’d pre-booked to get back up the hill to Castiglione for our wine tasting at Monchiero. The wines were nice, but the highlight of that visit was the handmade salame!!
We went back to the hotel, had a nap, and then got ready for dinner at Convino. They again killed us with food, but more gently as we shared the plate of the pasta course. But still so.much.food!!! Katy fell in love with our waitress. She must think we’re completely bonkers.
On Friday morning, we had breakfast, checked out, went to pick up a few cartons of wine from Vite Conte and headed for a quick visit to Marolo – a grappa distillery – for a quick purchase, then Alba before heading home. Sadly, we just missed the opening of the Alba white truffle festival by a day, but it is what it is. We left at 12:30 and made it back to Family Dog in time to pick up a very happy (and very tired) Byron then finally made it back home.
Lausanne Art Fair 2023
We went to the Lausanne Art Fair in Lausanne last weekend. As usual, there’s always a ton of stuff I’d love to be able to put up on our walls, but we lack the wall space (and the funds) to make it happen. Some pieces are really good value for being large originals. Some…less so, but still beautiful to look at. Here are some of the standouts.
Top left to bottom right: Harold Hermann (photographer), Malo (photographer), Stephane Gautier (mixed media), Antoine Josse (painter), Joel Moens de Hase (digital art), Eka Peradze (acrylic), Bernard Saint-Maxens (mixed media), Leo Manelli (digital pop art), Vincent Duchene (sculpture), Rudi Morandini (sculpture), S.Kristol (sculpture,digital art)
[Gallery] Malo
Malo is a French photograph artist, who puts his work at the service of a story… Through his photo series, he questions life, family, society, in a way that moves people, and don’t leave them unconcerned. His work, that he calls himself as participative, questions the audience, whom, from spectator, becomes the actor of an exchange between himself and the artist; even an introspection. If the form and content are intimately linked, graphic and technics choices are made to serve the story that he tells us, as a translation of the questions that he brings and asks us.
[gallery] Antoine Josse
Antoine Josse is a French artist, born in 1970. His paintings and sculptures express an irrepressible desire for lightness, escapism and to be able to dream the impossible. The use of captivating and revealing motifs, along with the presence of human beings immersed in a dream-like landscape, convey a unique charm to his work. His paintings are alluring for their atmosphere, evocative colours, and tumultuous skies. The minuscule beings are settled in a desolated and dangerous world where the vegetation rapidly spreads, bringing to life dramatic reds, blues, and greens, creating spectacular yet enigmatic feelings.
He comments, “I imagine my paintings and sculptures as the moments of a story and it’s up to you to create the whole story. There are several different scenarios, and that’s what I appreciate: the diversity of your looks. You are an actor of this exhibition: Look! Imagine! Speak! Exchange your opinions! A work exists only by the spectator’s gaze, my paintings exist only thanks to your imagination.”
For almost 20 years, Antoine Josse has exhibited his works all over the world, from his native Brittany (in France) to Normandy, Paris, London, Switzerland, Chile, Stockholm, Luxembourg, and New York.
[gallery] Eka Peradze
My pictures are in the whole world, in the private collections of some well-known people. I have exposed my work in many countries of the world. All my expositions had one purpose: love, friendship, charity. Each exposition in my country is dedicated to help the poor and I think to continue doing the same in future.
I am mother of 5 children and live in Berlin with my family.
It makes me happy that my art reaches so many people in the world! Art is what connects us all.
