Theo's Trike Trek 18

Back on the trike this morning, enthused by the donations which arrived yesterday from my darling Ann Hutley and Julia Ogilvy. Total now stands at over £8,000 and the mileage: 44.60.

Here is the link to my Fundraising Page

You can follow all of Theo's blogs on the Miracles Facebook page here.

I met a friend this morning who has just opened a rather chic Estate Agency here in East Preston. With the place beginning to come to life again after lockdown and with the hope of warm Summer sunshine not too far away, I think they should do very well. Certainly the value of our house in South Strand (where the Miracles office is housed) has soared since my parents moved here in 1977. It is such a lovely place (as I have said many time!) and is now coming back to its hey day when anyone who was anyone congregated here for the Summer Season.

For those of you as old as me you may know the names of Jack Buchanan and Gertrude Lawrence, Noel Coward, Stanley Holloway, and The Crazy Gang. Elsie Randolph is buried in our churchyard, too, right behind my parents! My mother would have loved that! This is the view from my front window in 1979. It was the first water colour I ever attempted. Let me tell you how it all started.

1988/89 was a particularly stressful time for me. My father’s dementia was deteriorating, and I had to walk and care for his lovely cairn terrier Nupsy, Badger had just gone to ‘Big’ school and I was trying to juggle a daily commute by road to my job in London plus all the repairs of our old house. Then Daddy was moved into a Care Home which he hated and to top it all off the dog died. I all but snapped. My lovely doctor suggested - well, ordered and arranged—for me to spend a few days at a convent in Sayers Common, the idea of which utterly appalled me. However, with Badger well looked after by my friend Peta and others, off I went .and there I found a little piece of Heaven. One of the nuns asked me to paint her a picture. No way! My sister was an artist and my father loved to doodle but the only thing I could draw was a teddy bear. Nuns, however, can be very insistent and when I came home after four days I was armed with paints, brushes, sketch pads and an order to send her my first effort. It was Heaven sent: a talent I had no idea I possessed, but as the years went by I discovered the joy that it brought me. Thank you God for that wonderful gift and the peace it has brought me.

This is my first attempt at oils. East Preston Beach at low tide. It isn’t for sale but some of them are—pictures of pets, like the one of Alice’s cat. My portrait of Badger painted when he was on gap year out in Bosnia I will never part with. I’ll show you more another time.

I will even paint one for you if you like. Maybe as a ‘Thank You’ t for a donation to my Fundraising Page?