After having had three winters in a row due to working in the southern hemisphere from April to September 2010, I was really looking forward to summer this year. Unfortunately, apart from a hot spell early on and the one we had very recently, the weather has been a bit mixed to say the least on the island. Mostly damp and cold with a few dry cold spells. I was really hoping to get out and do some sketching and painting this year, but the weather wasn't really that encouraging, (I'm a fair weather outdoor artist these days, the body doesn't really like bad weather anymore, it makes my joints play up). I must admit I didn't really take many photos either, which is a shame as I got myself a nice new camera after the job in South Africa. Not something I do very often as I tend to work cameras until they die, which my old one was showing very definite signs of towards the end of the job. So, all my winter painting will have to have a South African theme, unless I can find any more of my late Father's photos taken in Cornwall the year I was born. They show the harbours and commercial fishing fleets as they were in the very early 1960s, they are a great inspiration and I have done a few very successful paintings based on them. I have not been idle though, I have done a few paintings this summer. I also managed to sell a few too. Both my cat and my painting of someone working on the bow of a small boat sold. I'm very pleased, but also sad to see them go. I was also successful in one of the competitions on this website, I don't normally win anything so this was really nice. I won a copy of the catalogue to the exhibition of scandinavian and swiss paintings at the National Gallery in London. I was really pleased to win this as I went to the exhibition in July and really enjoyed it. I now have a wonderful souvenir. I have had a few set backs this year though. The veg garden struggled thanks to the cold weather, it hasn't been brilliant on the health front either. Another bout of Laryngitis earlier in the year and now I have a frozen shoulder, which is hampering the painting a bit. I have been told it can take up to three years to recover from and I"m in constant low level pain. Thank heavens for TENS machines, mine is controlling the low level pain and does help a bit with the occasional bout of severe pain, which has reduced me to tears a few times, especially when I move my arm in the wrong way or direction. I'm having physiotherapy at the moment, but I'm not convinced it is really helping, maybe I'm being a bit negative, but I'm not sure an inflamed joint should be worked on top of normal daily movement. Still, I'm not going to let it stop me painting. There is another exhibition next month so I have to paint more pictures and to a theme this time too. I will sign off now. I hope your summer has been good, if only on the painting front. My thanks to all who have posted comments and my apologies for not writing before now.