Thank goodness for umbrellas!  We certainly needed ours on Friday when Mr Cooper and myself took the train to Portsmouth, to visit the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, armed with our year's pass for £25 (thanks for that, Travelzoo!)
As it was sunny when I woke up, I dressed accordingly.  As the day went on, and the rain grew heavier, I seemed to be the only person in Portsmouth wearing only a summer dress and beautiful blue crocs.  But, thanks to Mr Cooper's foresight, it remained a dry summer dress. (See, I do say nice things about Mr Cooper………..….sometimes!)

If you are able to visit this museum before December, please do.  For in December, the Mary Rose museum is closing for a while, while she undergoes the final stage of her restoration.
The Mary Rose museum is absolutely fantastic!  I visited years ago when she was in the first museum, being sprayed constantly with water.  Very atmospheric, but all a little unclear.  Now, she is displayed so effectively, with the artefacts all around.  We both kept marvelling at the fact that we were seeing a ship that had spent 437 years sunk in the Solent!

History does make you hungry, though.  Mr Cooper really enjoyed his meat pie, chips and mushy peas, and I discovered that the broccoli and runner bean salad looked far better than it tasted.

Then onto another vessel, an M33.  Again, the museum have made this warship into a very effective display.  The ship is just one of 3 warships from world War 1 still in existence.  And now, because I am an artist and not a historian, we are moving away from the guidebook and onto a photo of the M33….

……………….the shower room, complete with soap.

There is an artwork evolving in my mind that will involve figureheads, and we ended this visit by visiting the figureheads in the National Museum of the Royal Navy.  I had visited this museum many years ago, when I was about 8 and on holiday.

 I have never forgotten the figureheads, and little did I  know then that Portsmouth would become my home for 10 years in the future.

Here are a couple who pass the time by people watching, and making rude remarks.

This is one of my favourites, from HMS Albatross.

And this one reminds me a too much of the weeping angels in Dr Who.

She is Eurydice, nymph wife of Orpheus.  HMS Eurydice sank tragically in a snow storm off the Isle of Wight in 1878, with the loss of all but 2 of her crew of 319 trainees.  

If I was a trainee, I would really have had second thoughts about boarding a ship with this as the figurehead

Back to the world of my artistic achievements. Has Fluffy been surrounded in Heaven by what she loved on earth yet?

I am pretty happy with my ideas for flying milk bottles,

But I am still in a dilemma over the mice……real or sugar?

Either way, I am looking forward to getting back into the shed to complete 'Fluffy in Heaven' and also 'Cinderella', which I have managed to avoid thinking about for a long time now!

The book of the week has to be 'Goose Fat and Garlic' which I bought a few years ago now, after a lovely week's holiday staying in south west France.

As a reaction to this 'fast food' nation we have become, I try to spend quite a lot of my weekend cooking.  And last week, in response to 700g of ox cheek that Mr Cooper brought home from Tesco 

( one and a half pounds of meat reduced to £2) I got this book down from my shelves, and on Saturday I made 'La Coufidou ou La Daube Aveyronnaise'  (Beef in a rich wine sauce) served with 'Le Millas Gras' which is a type of polenta.  A really fab beef stew, made richer by adding belly of pork.

 And having re-discovered this book, I now need to make all the recipes in the meat chapter.  I have warned our local butcher that we will be asking for trotters and veal knuckles in the weeks to come.

On Sunday, as well as enjoying our customary roast, Mr Cooper and I went on a walk.  Last week, he announced that he wanted to walk the Pennine Way, but with Kevin, not me! (Rejection painting number one)  My most sensible bro told me to look at this another way, and join in as the coordinator,  taking our luggage from pub to pub, which would then leave me with a free day to fill as I chose.   Sounds even better than walking!  Mr Cooper was very taken with this suggestion, and when I said he had better get in training, even he agreed that a 5 mile walk with Kevin every fortnight was not quite enough!  Hence our new aim, to do a fairly substantial walk on a Sunday.

So this Sunday found us completing our first session, a lovely 6 mile walk starting from West Marden.  Stunning views and not too many ups.  Then we went to the Queen Victoria and ate all the free bar snacks (home made pork scratchings) which were a great accompaniment to pinot noir. Then home for a little lie down with some bars of chocolate.  Walking 6 miles made one of us very tired and both of us a little peckish. (Hersyey's nut bar, a duo Mars and a Caramac.)  So after stuffing them down, we spent the next 20 minutes moaning about how bars of chocolate are not what they used to be.  (Us older people really know how to have a good time.)

We are aiming to increase the mileage to 12 miles from 6.  Goodness knows how much chocolate we will be eating after that!

So a lovely end to the week, and lots to do in the coming one. I hope you are looking at a week ahead filled with lovely things to do, and I look forward to catching up with you again very soon.