the slide (a song not performed by stanley walker on dear old ozidol

felicitations and what not. another virginie woolf catch up with vague reference to recent postage. kid #2 gifted a popcorn maker by some well meaning relington at xmas, and whaddayaknow, best method of making the stuff e-va! no oil, no burning, no washing up, very few old maids left on shelf, no standing and shaking (the saucepan, not yourself). awesome! moving along ... largest kid - ie, kid #0 - back to work yesterday, smaller ones back to work next mon so we're doing the 'still going to bed at holidays oclock but getting up at crack of dawn in prep. madness. tired as blazes I am. anyhoo, house been full of guests past two weeks. waaaaay too many socials, mostly on my largesse so more cooking and catering in that span that I did in entirety of last year - or so it feels. still, tomatoes are producing their heads off and we have our first apple :D picasso? fantasticle to the max. could have done it 5 times, and then once again for good luck. even the kids enjoyed it - to a degree. that degree being about the one hour mark .. when no amount of parental waving of arms and "just look at the quality of the light in this one, dear!" was going to revivify their interest. if you can go kidless, or only take kids that can sustaint an hour of enthusiasm for mental and mysogenistic renderings of the femal form, then do yerselves a favour. my favourites were his early portrait and still life efforts. olga, in particular. and the pears .... love the pears. quite like "the musician", too, s'far as laters go. other stuff, other stuff, other stuff. oh yeah, betty, appreciatin' your food delvings. chips are straight from the kitchens of hell - which is a shame. gosh they're yummy. more later. kids still hovering!