So, what's been happening since April?

Time for a bit of a catch up.  Again.  I know, I know.  I've got very bad at doing the blog.  As mentioned, I think I just get bored of the sound of my own voice, and the inanities that pour out.  I'm just an ordinary person, no better or worse than anyone else (most of the time) who's doing her best to get through this life in one piece and with all her brain cells intact so to think that anyone might be interested in the mundane activities of my day makes me feel sorry for how sad that person's life must be.

I was never any good at keeping a diary, or, rather, I'd do it for a few months and then get bored and stop.  This blog is pretty similar.  Though much like my old, sporadic diaries (which I've kept), when I read them now, several years later, the memories come hurtling back in techicolour, because I went to the bother of writing them down at the time.  So maybe there's merit.  I have to admit that I am most impressed with people who can keep up with frequent blogging, year after year, and still make it a very interesting read.  I'm thinking of people like Katyboo here, who has been diligently blogging for...actually, I don't know because I can't find how to go back to her very first post on her blog, but her profile seems to date from 2008, so we'll say that, shall we?  2008.  That's like millennia in blogging world.  And that's just beyond me.

Plus I find I tend to ramble around the point rather than coming straight to it.

Like now.

So, getting back on track - how's things at Jones Towers?

Things are pretty good, actually.  I'm more or less over the weird stomach thing that's felled me for the best part of a year.  In fact, it's exactly a year since I took the antibiotics that, I believe, started all this in the first place, which means it's almost exactly a year since we went to Copenhagen.  Blimey.

I'm now battling with my weight and trying to keep off the pounds I lost when I was ill, and I'm doing this by vaguely trying to watch what I eat but, more practically, going for a 30 minute walk every day (or damn near every day), and this week I reintroduced swimming which I shall definitely do once a week and preferably more.  I've got to that age now - 52, if you MUST know - where exercise is getting to be more than a good idea, it's vital if you want to be able to still be walking around when you reach 82.  And I don't mind the walking - I listen to podcasts and just do it, 1.5 miles every day.

So that's good, but not as impressive as what The Lovely Husband's been up to.  He's done his first full marathon!  Ran the Brighton Marathon back on 12 April.  It was a lovely day, beautiful blue sky although there was a stiff cold wind coming off the sea.  I wasn't feeling particularly chipper (gastritis was playing up) so after the start in Preston Park, I wandered down to the finish line on the seafront, found a deckchair and just sat there for the next 3+ hours watching it all on the big screen until he came home in the brilliant time of 3hrs 53m 59sec.  Some photos:

16,000+ runner gathering in Preston Park at the start

Walking from the park down to the seafront, in the middle of the road!:

Walking past a water station after the runners have gone through:

Brighton Pav:

The view of the big screen I had from my deckchair at the finish line:

Himself's finish time and the medal:

Pretty darn impressive, huh?  Makes my paltry 1.5 miles look a bit pathetic!

So, he's been running and I've been painting.  And the art group that I'm a member of - Surrey Contemporaries - has got three group exhibitions coming up before the end of the year which is pretty exciting, especially the one at the end of November as it's going to be at The Lightbox, which is a nationally renowned gallery/museum in nearby Woking where we'll be exhibiting for two weeks.  The other two are in two galleries in Guildford, one in August and the other in December.  In fact much of the last week I've spent doing the framing for the one in August which always takes a lot longer than you'd think, especially as I haven't quite decided exactly which pictures to put in that one so am doing everything I've currently got!

Plus I've also discovered the joys of lino printing, and also dabbling in oil paints as well as producing more paper collages, so I've been a busy bee.  Looking at my old posts it seems I've not shown you any photos of my art for over a year now so, be warned, there'll be plenty of pics!:

(I don't mean to sound mercenary but many of these are for sale (although the linoprints aren't there yet) and can be found at my Artfinder profile - www.artfinder.com/kaz-jones, however, Artfinder's commission is added to those prices so if anyone's interested, if you contact me direct, they'll be 30% cheaper).

I've also set up my own artist website - www.kazjonesart.co.uk - which acts mainly as a gallery rather than a selling portal; it's a repository of images of all my work, including sold pieces, that I can show potential galleries (should I ever be brave enough to contact any!)

And I think that's it for now.  We've not been away on holiday anywhere this year and, quite possibly, won't, which is a shame but we went abroad twice last year so I can't really complain!

As I said, things have been pretty good at least in the second half of this year - let's hope it continues...