Posts Tagged: holiday

Carrbridge – July 2017

A week in Carrbridge

carrbridge terraceIn a wooden lodge by a pool.

carrbridge terrace2Covered outside space: essential for the Scottish summer.

muckrach lodgeA Scottish highland summer is exceptional food…

landmark pavilion…great places to visit…

horses…a taste of horse riding for the kids…

duck…long country walks and bike rides…

cagiva…and admiring the exotic vehicles that tour through sleepy Scottish villages.

 

Nice things to do: Part Two

aj100Collecting the Business Breakthrough of the Year award at the AJ 100 dinner.

architectural workersListening to provoking debate organised by the Architectural Workers in Cressingham Gardens, designed by Edward Hollamby.

colonel fawcetSketching with HTA.

m giraudOn holiday. Meeting the uniquely engaging Monsieur Girod.

laurisLauris

montagne saint victoireStanding where Cezanne stood, in Aix.

orangeSitting where the Romans (or at least their subjects) sat, in Orange.

pont du gardePont du Gard, falling at 1:16,000.

at JGLsAnd enjoying the Lord’s hospitality, in Cambridgeshire.

Restart – 20 April 2016

I’ve fallen out of the habit of keeping the sketch diary up to date, the online version anyway. I’ve kept the sketch books just the same but painting the six portraits I did recently used up all my spare time. Then I cycled across France.

Housing Forum Leeds - 23 March 2016I had an idea that I’d go back and colour up the old sketches and up load them all here: do a catch up blog. But of course I won’t. The thing about a diary is that the keeper is only interested in recording today, not writing up the past.

Drumsynie - 28 March 2016So here are the sketches from the current book.

Bute - 28 March 2016There’s another sketch book that’s almost entirely missing.

HTA 3rd Birthday - 6 April 2016So getting back up to date there’s lot’s about HTA, which is about right. This includes celebration dinners…

The Bitter Taste of Victory - 12 April 2016

… and fascinating presentations: this one by Lara Feigel on her book ‘The Bitter Taste of Victory’…

WIA @ HTA - 19 April 2016…and this one on Women in Architecture and women in HTA. In the non architectural areas of our business: planning, graphics, sustainability and landscape design the genders are balanced throughout the grades. In architecture they aren’t. Something to sort.

Christmas 2015

In reverse:

Daddys Birthday - 3 January 2015

The last event of the break, my dad’s 88th birthday.

prowe band - 1 January 2016

New years day, a brass band in the livingroom.

Andreas - 1 January 2015

AndreasAngus - 29 December 2015

Angus visited from France.

QAHS Reunion - 27 December 2015

Catching up with old school pals in Dunfermline. The same as we were, a little more tired but a little better at communication.

christmas 2016

Innes hid behind the sofa for the Queen’s speech.

 

Fun Box - 23 December 2015

Fun box was fun.

 

plane alone - 22 December 2015

The only person on a plane to London City the week before Christmas.

Actually these are the things I did in between riding the bike and painting portraits, in preparation for cycling from London to Cannes in March. I’ll show you the portraits next time.

 

Outdoors/ Indoors – 8 April 2015

The kids being chased round the garden of Grays Court hotel by Henry the resident dog. Our slightly rowdy bunch spent a warm and sunny afternoon in their elegant, calm garden. Grays Court - 8 April 2015

Back in Edinburgh we are inside waiting for the hailstones to stop and the icy winds to die down. watching the lorax - 12 April 2015

Luckily some of the excellent Dr Seuss books are being made into films. We stayed in and watched ‘The Lorax’.

In Jersey, looking for pirates – April 2014

A relaxing week in Jersey. We explored a bit, ate well, and learned about the history from before the tax haven days and before the World War Two occupation. Pirates and smugglers everywhere.jersey 190414That’s what it felt like, but it looks more like this:

le foyer 20042014We stayed here with Sarah, Dunc, Louis and Felix.

louis 150414Felix & Louis were great playmates for our band of brigands and pointed out the homes of ex F1 drivers to me.

warwick 19042014We spent our time practising getaways in a variety of vehicles. The drips on the cozy coupe are from Isla brewing potions from camellia leaves in the sunny front garden.

vdehicles 180414We looked for modern day pirates and smugglers, and maybe we saw some.

jersey airport 22 April 2014In the end, no one wanted to come home.

Eastwood House, Dunkeld. 27 July – 3 August

A privilege to stay at Eastwood House, Dunkeld for a week. It was the shooting lodge for Blair Castle, and is strung out along a river bank looking south over the Tay.

Eastwood 01-08-13We spent a week playing by the river and enjoying local tourist attractions from Osprey watching (I missed the highlight as I was trying to stop Innes singing in the bird hide: bad form apparently) to the Perth Show.

The house has been superbly, sensitively, renovated by Alex and Cat.

www.eastwoodhousedunkeld.com

Everything is beautifully chosen, whether it’s colour, art, or the degree of renovation. A small example is the chairs, so I drew a simple one every day.

Eastwood Chairs 01-08-13 no textThe house is also where Beatrix Potter wrote an illustrated letter about a little rabbit, and this was the basis of her subsequent books about Peter Rabbit and others. She could draw a bit and had a scientific mind, so a different career may have lain before her had she not been a woman. Science’s loss, illustrated children’s story’s gain.

She said: “It’s all the same, drawing, painting, modelling, the irresistible desire to copy any beautiful object that strikes the eye…”

Eastwood 30-07-13She wrote the letter in 1893. 120 years later, we occupied the same spaces she had, and passed a very pleasant family holiday.

A few days in Port de Soller 19-22 July 2013

We went to Port de Soller for a few days.

jet 2 to Mallorca 19 July 2013 Julie in Mallorca 19 July 2013    Palma and the terrace at night  Porto Soller Pool 20 July 2013 The pool at Porto Soller hotel

Torre de Ancora 20 July 2013Notes on the house opposite the terrace.

Port de Soller 20 July 2013Down in the port before dinner.

Lunch in Soller 21 July 2013Lunch in Soller

People by the Pool 21 July 2013People by the pool.

Port de Soller 21 July 2013The view across the bay.

Palma Airport 22 July 2013Going home.

05/09/12 The View from ‘Spencer’s House’

12/05/12 Horses at Birchbank