Work experience

View of staff fridge, unlimited coke available

Ripping of low security confidential waste

View of personal computer screen from personal desk

Employee selfie on comfy office chair

Empty office

Staff member in front of drinks machine

Basement archives

Files pending - is this what happened to my letter to the mayor?

Mayor's desk, empty as always

Olive Overload

This year we have been inundated by a rain of olives.  Although we are not in a region with the right climate for olives, the hot spring, wet summer and long mild autumn seems to have done the trick.  I'm still gathering and will have twice the amount in the picture from our very large, high tree.

How to prepare olives
Anyone who has ever tentatively tasted an olive fresh from the tree will know that something has to be done about the thousand raw rough bittnernesses which overwhelm the tongue; 

• Wash olives thoroughly
• Place in glass jars and fill with water
• Change the water and thoroughly wash olives once a day for two weeks to remove bitterness.  Daily change of water prevents bacteria building up as well as removing 'bitter' water so it doesn't get re-absorbed.
• Quality control;  empty olives out, wash and place in a large jar, fill up with water.  Remove the olives that rapidly rise to the surface and float, and compost (these are the damaged rotten ones with fermentation air causing them to float,) and pick out any that don't look good.  It doesn't matter that the olives have lost some of their colour or look mottled, ours go pink, but return to black when served in oil.
• Fill jar 1 tenth full of salt, add a few herbs and seasonings (in my case, rosemary and bayleaf from our garden one or two peppercorns, pinch mustard seeds) and fill up with water, shake thoroughly and leave for at least 3 days to let the salt absorb.    The 10 percent saline solution will kills any germs and preserve the the olives, I've had jars which lasted a year, until the next crop.
• Remove from jar when ready to serve, rince if you like to remove excess salt, serve in a covering of olive oil, which plumps them up, makes them gleam and improves the texture and taste.  The leftover oil can be used in cooking or salad dressing and is also v. tasty.

School Shock

School report day.  I should have been prepared, R told me that this year he is 'listening in class' because 'the work is more interesting'.  I felt like a street urchin who had been invited into a top luxury hotel, this is how the other half lives.  As I braced myself for the usual barrage of clichés and criticism, the teacher ran his finger up and down the list of marks and said he couldn't find anything to say, the marks were all good, nor had he any 'remarks' from any of his colleagues.  Silence fell.   I didn't know what to say.  The teacher didn't know what to say.  I started to make comments about the picture of Aristotle on the wall.  I underwent a kind of revelation;  French teachers work so hard to find something to criticise, because if they can find nothing to criticise, the student  have nothing to learn, and the teacher, therefore, has nothing to teach.   The whole process grinds to a halt. R's teacher gave me a final sort of smile, so I went home.

When R received news of his report  and scanned the marks and comments, he did a victory dance unrivalled even by Gollum when he got the ring.  I AM THE BOSS he said, and went off laughing (he currently sounds like Marg Simpson).

Kitchen Makeover Autentico Iceland

Splashback
Using my arts and crafts collection of polished pebbles that were a gift, some unpolished pebbles, and melted glass decorations bought long ago at a brocante (why?).

I glued the bits on with tile glue, then donning surgical gloves, I moulded the grout in between and wiped off and smoothed as needed.  I sealed it with hard oil from La Maison Naturelle - about seven coats, whenever it felt dry I sloshed on another one until I felt...satisfied.  It is waterproof and as a splashback it keeps itself pretty clean and is easy to wipe over.

Kitchen cabinets painted with chalk paint (Iceland from Autentico)

There was a bit too much wood in our kitchen for my liking, especially as I wanted but could not obtain whitened wood because the French do not like it, they do not want it, they do not approve of it, they have never heard of it. I do not really like the French favourite colour for wood kitchens...but wanted wood for ecological reasons and sort of got cornered into it (learning experience will not do again).   Also the room is shaded and dark, and needed 'brightening'.

 I had already added some panels of colour, green and white and spent a long time realising I needed to paint one row of cupboards in a cool pale blue (Autentico Iceland, www.autentico-chalk-paint.fr).  I really like the way the cool colour makes the cupboards 'lift' and recede, reflecting a clean blue light, and making the kitchen look wider, balancing out the colours on the other side of the room.    Not everyone shares my taste for adventurous choirs of singing colours,  but I share my taste wholeheartedly.  I also love the silky soft texture and the fact I can see the wood grain in the paint.

How I painted the cupboards
I took advice from Autentico, and used their 'Velvet' rather than 'Vintage' paint which is not designed for kitchens but furniture, and is more porous.   I washed the cupboards with sugar soap (Hot tip, prepare Savon St Marc which is French equivalent of sugar sop in advance, following instructions for surface preparation for painting, and gently heating the crystals so they are thoroughly dissolves, put in spray bottle eg leftover from window cleaning so quickly available for chalk painting projects).    Straight after cleaning I wiped off the cabinets with kitchen towels.  I did 4 coats of paint to be sure, one in morning, one in afternoon for two days, and in between the third and the fourth I sanded, and I sanded the 4th coat, using plaster grade, ie very fine sandpaper, and waxed 4 layers, waiting until absorbed before starting another layers, and leaving overnight before buffing with soft cloth.   I find it enjoyable to gently sand and polish and prink and preen the surface to my entire satisfaction.  I fit in a layer of the process when I can, in between domestic and other duties.  If I wait 'until I have time' for the whole project, I never do and it never gets done.   On one cupboard, the one we all use the most,  I finished with ecological water resistant hard oil, to do a comparison for practicality and wear, both seem fine so far.

Kitchen stays in use...
One of the appeals of chalk paint is you don't have to dismantle kitchen, sand, use foul stripping products etc.  I never manage to execute projects which require this much upheaval, our kitchen is never out of use, all day long, so I painted with all the food in the cupboards, the doors and handles on so we could continue to open the doors (I decided not to paint inside as wood is in good condition).  I took the handles off at the end, cleaned them, and put them straight back on.

This blue wall goes down behind the dishwasher, I wanted to tile it to protect from food and coffee splashes, but we ran out of space (it's a very tightly fitted kitchen).  So I made up some thick paint with lime, and then waxed over it in a brighter blue wax, 3 coats, and 2 coats of clear wax, so far is durable and washable and resists stubborn stains...well, you have to think of these things.


Before and during cabinet painting

People pictures

I'm very proud of my mum's latest ink and wash pictures, she has developed a skill for capturing people...

Seventeen

Chalk paint coffee table

This table was thrown away and left at the side of the road - its  only crime;  a slightly wobbly drawer front (easily mended with a brisk hammer blow and a touch of wood glue) and one corner lightly mauled by a dog.


I think it might be a vintage Ikea television stand from the days when you needed large drawers for video cassettes, and it's varnished pine which I cannot like so I was keen to paint it.   I thought it was worth making a statement with a painted table top, as we have spiral stairs from which we can look down up on the coffee table like a painting on the carpet...

Our coffee table is a fully functional coffee table and not an occasional table.  It must withstand food, tea, coffee, and adolescent feet when no-one's looking, so I didn't paint it until I had an idea for a robust table top, one with some texture and pattern so that visually, it would not be fussy about stains or damage. 

I went on an Autentico paint workshop at Returned to Glory in Berkhamsted,  www.facebook.com/returnedtoglory - and tried out a craquelure technique;  one coat of slightly gluey glaze over the paint, then when tacky, another glaze, which cracks as it dries (either with a hairdryer or after 30 minutes).  Then you can rub in some wax to highlight the cracks.  After the workshop I took my test piece home and threw strong coffee on it and it rolled right off, so I decided it would be a good technique for this table.

I used Autentico paints www.autentico-chalk-paint.fr, a pale blue (Iceland, sort of cyan at the white end of the spectrum) and a red wax (wax mixed with Think Red paint) to create dramatic cracks.  It's meant to be an 'aging' technique but I like to leave aging and distress to time, and go for a more arts and crafts philosophy.   However, the crackle didn't crackle, it barely fizzled.  I think this was because I used 'Velvet' and not 'Vintage' paint.  So I had something that looked like a red-streaked sky, a sky that was waiting for something - sunset, sunrise, or rain perhaps.

I decided it was waiting for some leaves.  I used white paint (Huile de Noix) to paint leaves in outline, it had a translucent watercolour effect over the craquelure.  I filled in the leaves with white paint, and then coloured each leaf in a slightly different colour using coloured waxes (I make my own with leftover paint and wax) in varying shades ranging from blue-green, to mint green and yellow-green.    I drew a stylised Seville orange (B has just been on a school trip to Seville) to fit the leaves into each corner, and to tie in with traditional French porcelain knobs with a modern take  (red, orange, greeny yellow and pale blue, from DIY shop Leroy Merlin).   I was really pleased with the leaves, they looked like the silvery underside of leaves before a storm, or faded leaves at sunset - or sunrise.

I painted the sides and drawers with chalk paint which I tinted a lemony yellow-cream, and waxed.

I wanted to make sure that the leaves were sealed, so I used an ecological 'hard oil', two or three coats, and it proves to be a tough, resistant surface.  I really love this product, based on soya oil, it is made by La Maison Naturelle  http://www.la-maison-naturelle.com - and is called 'polysol pro' - they don't seem to do the same product but have one similar under another name.   It is a milky liquid, designed for any porous surface, interior or exterior.    It can be swept over a floor or rubbed in with a sponge or cloth, but I like to 'paint' it on, making sure it gets into all cracks and dry bits.  It can 'brown' if left too thick over paint but if applied carefully stays transparent.   I would use this for areas above sinks, kitchens, bathrooms instead of wax (although I've never had any problems with wax), 3 or 4 thin coats.

Orust; If we

If we

If we all just once …

all of us once,

at least once,

if I once could see what I,

what we are looking for,

what we are perhaps looking for

when we look,

if we look,

if we once could see,

and I,

and all of us, could know

what we are seeing,

if we are seeing,

if we're looking

– looking for,

listening,

if we know, not know,

what we are listening for,

looking for, when we,

if we listen,

if we look,

if we see once – something,

see, hear something, some …,

if we see,

if we hear,

if we all,

if we,

if I,

if ….

Rigmor Haugen Jensen wrote this

From and for her group

Orust 2014

Orust; and now to the summer festival!

Orust Summer Festival  2014

Where to begin?  How to climb this peak experience?  A whole mountain range of peaks and troughs and an even higher peak finale - I can't begin to touch it.

But here goes anyway.

Here is a picture of a Scandinavian troll standing in front of his mountain cave...

In case you don't see him, here he is a bit closer up...

Now the strange thing is, nobody actually painted this troll.

How did this painting happen?

Well this, and many other mysterious and magnificent paintings. some of which I will show you later, all happened at this place:

Can you imagine that this place is a school?

And that this is the school dining room with a very beautiful person in it?

And here are two other beautiful people in the school grounds

And three more, and so on, I think you get the picture.

But really you don't get the picture because there were so many other beautiful people here, because all the people in this very special situation and this very special place, were able to become, together,  the very beautiful people that they are.

Here are 3 proud artists in front of their painting

These three people, who did not know each other, were asked to paint a picture together using the materials provided.

There were no rules.

Well, some people had some rules, and others had quite different rules and others were quite sure they wanted no rules at all.

Here is something happening between some colours...from people who drip and drop and swish and let is happen and like to watch what happens...

Far away figures in hidden places

Here a deeper, more intense picture, the second picture attempted by a trio...

Here, there were two people,  one person really drove the other to go for it, made it happen.

Here a trio found form...

And here another trio found texture-form, by wiping out the original painting, painting over the smudge, taking off some of the paint with tissues...some others painted straight over the first painting, and then painted over it for a third time.

Here is a picture which has just been wiped out and is waiting to be painted over.

And of course, if you look at it another way around, in a different light, on a different day, with a quite different understanding, you might see a sea battle, a viking long boat, a schooner, and you might not see the mountain troll at all

(Yes darlings, this IS the picture with the troll in it, you should have seen how much proof I had to provide before JC believed me...)