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...

Ring out Solstice bells!

Happy middle-of-2013, everyone!

It's not very summery here in the UK, is it?  We've had a couple of very warm days this week down here in the South, but I had the heating on only last week.  I read a rather depressing news report a couple of days ago that says the crappy summers and freezing winters we're currently suffering are due to several things, including the Atlantic getting warmer and changes in the Sun's ultraviolet output, the upshot of which is that we're likely to continue having this weather for possibly as long as a decade.  *sigh*.  There's no use complaining about it because there's bugger-all we can do about it, except make sure we're wearing the right kind of clothes for the conditions.

But a few warm days in July and August would be most welcome, Weather Gods.

So, how have things been with you since I last darkened this little corner of the internet?  I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking.

I've been doing quite a fair bit of running lately, actually.  See, way back in January I set myself the goal this year to run a total of 250 miles.  If you recall, last year I achieved the 100 mile goal I set myself, in fact, got there with a couple of days to spare before the end of 2012, so I decided to push myself a bit harder this year and go for 250.  Then promptly spent a great deal of February and March doing no running at all because of problems with my feet, very nasty colds/flu, and terrible, snowy weather!

I've really had to go for it to make up the shortfall.  Well, *drumroll* I can announce that on Monday this week I passed the 100 mile mark!  That's a whole 6 months quicker than I did it last year!  Weirdly, my speed has barely improved over the entire 2+ years I've now been running, but I'm going much further - I completed my first 10-mile outing recently, although I won't be doing that distance as a matter of course; it took me far too long and nearly crippled me!  But I'm trying to get out 3 times a week and so far I've done 4.3 miles on Monday and 4.5 miles yesterday.  Not sure how far I'll go tomorrow, depends on a lot of things - how much energy I think I've got, what the weather's like, that sort of thing.  There is a great deal of walking involved with my so-called 'running' but at least I'm getting out there and exercising.

Which, combined with the 5:2 Fast Diet, is paying off, weight-wise.  I'm currently 12lbs lighter than I was in February and having to give serious consideration to buying some new, smaller sized knickers as my current ones keep slipping down!  Also new bras need looking at - hooray!

The Lovely Husband is doing the running and fasting as well, and he's benefited enormously.  It turns out that he's a far more natural runner than I, and is now running almost twice as fast as I do, and going for much further distances.  He's enjoying it too, which helps.  He ran his first half-marathon distance the other week, and this past weekend saw him cover 15 miles in one go!  He's also shed almost 40lbs in weight since mid-March which is, frankly, a bit quick really but he was carrying a fair bit of timber and something needed to be done.

So that's the health side of things.  As for the art, I seem to be having a bit of a hiatus at the moment.  I've not painted anything (outside of art class) since the Jewel Beetle of the last post.  It'll come back, of that I'm sure.  I'm just having a bit of a break for the moment.

However, I have submitted three paintings to the annual student learners' summer exhibition at the centre where I have my art classes.  Three of my flower paintings have gone in:

Salvia


White Star Flower


Pink Cosmos


I've framed them in white box frames and have put the price at £50 each, which I don't think is unreasonable.  The exhibition runs from 25 June to 5 July and is at the Harvey Gallery, Sydenham Road, Guildford.  If you happen to find yourself in the vicinity, pop along and have a look!  The private view for participants is on Wednesday 26 June and I'm hoping to go along, so will take some photos if I do to share with you all.

And TLH and I are hoping to visit this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in a couple of weekends' time, so watch this space for ninja photo action!!