I’m back on line again, after returning from my Italian holiday. I am deeply puzzled by the technical difficulties experienced in my hotel in Peschiera, as these involved not only a failure to connect with my blog but also difficulty in signing in to my email account. The modern world does remain profoundly mysterious to me at a number of different levels, I have to admit.
It is good to be back home again, although on the basis of previous experience I will go on discovering the benefits of the trip for some time to come. There were some disappointments, particularly in that I did less sketching than I had hoped. I took my materials with my towards the end of the journey when I managed to get a days walking in the hills above Garda. Sadly, I encountered the same problem I have had on previous attempts at hill-walking in the area. In Britain a walk in the hills usually provides at least a minimal opportunity to appreciate landscape. On this occasion, as before, walking in a forested area means that it is never possible to see beyond the trees. Even the summits of hills are wooded. I have come back, even so, with a couple of ideas for studies of tree bark, which is a theme I have explored fairly successfully in the past.
Another disappointment has been the failure of my attempts (so far) to make contact with Italian colleagues. The problems I experienced with email resulted in the deferral of my efforts to contact people whose addresses I managed to get, but I will be able to take up that idea now that I am home.
Now that I am back home I have to get down to the practicalities of making sure that the several exhibition opportunities that are coming up really do me credit. Most of all, in the coming week I need to make contact withy the man who has supervised my web-site in the past. I have allowed it to become quite disgracefully out of date over the past months, and it really is time that I got a grip on it. So: refreshed by the holiday, here goes ….!