Snow Parking

Look at this!  And people say the Germans have no sense of humour.

Back In Snowy Glasgow!

 

Saint Sara

     

This is Sara, the patron saint of the Gypsies from Romania.  She lives in a sort of crypt under the main bit of the church. The low ceiling is all black from the thousands and thousands of candles that have been lit here.  There is also as small piece of bone that is supposed to be hers.  

Our Hotel Room

This is our bedroom in Le Mas Saint Florent. It is full of antique furniture and there was another room off it with a single bed.  The bathroom was huge too: it had two large wash-basins and a big bath. 

Camargue Trip

Wednesday:  long motorway drive down to the Mediterranean sea to the ywalled city of Aigues Mortes.  I think the name comes from the fact that the area used to be plagued with malaria which can be fatal.  It was carried by mosquitoes which breed in the marshlands.  Nice simple clean modern hotel by the canal with an easy walk into the town which was nice and quiet.  Later in the year, it becomes impossibly busy with tourists.

Thursday: drove through the Camargue past vineyards, rice fields and fields of black bulls.  Crossed a river on a little car ferry to get to the seaside town of Saintes Maries del la Mer.  Fascinating place.  Sara, the patron saint of the gypsies 'lives' in the church and gypsies come from all over Europe in May for a special ceremony where they parade the statue round the town.  Outside the town is an enormous bird reserve.  Some huge rare birds are in big aviaries but most the rest are wild.  We saw storks, herons, all sorts of ducks and - of course- the famous flamingos.  They are hilarious creatures: they fight all the time like ducks and charge about doing silly things and making a huge racket.  It was wonderful ... you could watch them for hours.  From there we drove about an hour to the outside the town of Arles to stay in a very grand country house.  We were the only guests so the owner gave us the biggest suite and made breakfast specially for us.

Went into Arles to get something to eat.  Nightmare trying to park the car, even at night.  Not a nice city anyway, so we gave up on the idea of exploring it and decided to go home the next day.

Friday: drove up through very curious mountains to the Millau Viaduct which is the longest, highest, and most famous new motorway bridge on the world.  When you drive over it, you feel as if you are flying in a plane. After that, we drove for hours along tiny roads to get to Albi to look for some new summer clothes for Marion.  We were going to stay the night in a hotel but decided that we had enough energy for another two hours' driving so got home to Montjoi around 9pm very very tired.

Having Fun With My Webcam

 

Death At Dawn

 Woken from deep sleep by loud bangs.  The village was surrounded by hunters who had been called in by the Mairie to shoot the pigeons.  We have far too many and they damage buildings and make a terrible mess.

When we went out into our garden, we found two dead pigeons. I had to shovel them up and throw them over the wall for the hunters to take away

Map Of Arran

 

This is a map of the island of Arran, which is in the Clyde, drawn by Katy Donaldson in 1945.  If you look closely you can see me in the sea with my mother. We were having a holiday at a village called Sannox. Then look a bit to the left of that and you will see my father at his easel, painting.  At the bottom where it says Kildonan is the famous sculptor Benno Schotz, who was also on the staff of Glasgow Art School.

FUTURIKON Animations

Watch this short animation on Vimeo and then watch Miniscule - The Private Lives Of Insects on BBC4 on March 17.  Here's the link.   Some of thier animations are already on iPlayer but maybe you won't be able to see them in time.

Mini Me

  Sorting through Katy's papers tonight, I found this tiny photograph in a small brown envelope.  On the back, it says it is David L Donaldson outside the studio where we lived in Renfrew Street - near the Art School.

I guess I must be around two years old and this is one of the earliest pictures of me.  People didn't take very many photographs in those days (1945)

Later on, on Monday, I found the second photo.  It must have been taken about the same time, outside a different door of the studio.  Some light has got in to the film and bleached me out.  Remember that you had to be outside on a sunny day to take a photo then.  That is my mother, Katy, and she must have been 21 years old at the time.

A Doll's House

Is the title of a very famous play about marriage, written at the end of the 19th century by Norwegian playwright Ibsen.  Rachel phoned to say that Alfie has got a part in a new production of the play in Manchester.  This would be as a result of him being in the Christmas play Rat's Tales.  Well done, Alfie!

Not Any Old Iron

 

Tuesday 5 March.  Today we finished re-painting our railings at long last.  We started work on them a week ago when the weather turned sunny and dry and we thought it would take a only couple of days' work.

Problem was that because they are as old as the house - 105 years - they have been painted many times in many colours over the years and now the paint was very thick and cracking up with rust showing through.  Our plan was to get rid of all the loose cracked paint but, once we got started, it became clear that we had to get almost all of the paint layers off.

We tried caustic paint stripper: that didn't work.  Then we tried a blow-torch to burn it off.  That worked OK on the flat bits.  The sculptured panels needed a traditional method: chipping the paint off with a hammer and then using a round wire brush in an electric drill.  It was back-breaking hard labour!  And it must have annoyed the neighbours ... hours and hours of CHINK-CHINK-CHINK and CLANK-CLANK-CLANK.

When we got all the paint off, we could read the maker's name - Macfarlane & Co, Glasgow.  This iron foundry was one of the most famous in the whole world.

Finally, by Monday, they were ready to be painted with two coats of a special thick paint called Hammerite and even that took two whole days.