A summery mix: art, music, fungus, & my new book!

Let's start with Frome's new photography gallery, part of a major focus on this art form this summer launched by Lockhart Murdoch on Friday evening in party style.  Previously a charity shop, this is small but conveniently sited in the main precinct, by Boots and filled now with Lockhart's collection of  amazing black-and-white photographs, many from the 1960s. 

Frome is also looking forward to a Festival of Photography this summer, starting on 21 June and overlapping with the general Frome Festival (July 1st-10th) - there's an insight into the wide range of photo-related events here.

 
Still with visual arts: as Frome gears up for its annual arts festival, internationally renowned artist Corinna Sargood treated me to the tale of an earlier incarnation in 1996, when banners and coloured 'washing' transformed Paul Street into an Italian-style street festival. This hit national headlines by clashing with the BBC's filming schedule, with opinions divided on the 'Bloomers Battle' between the quirky festival and the Harvest Moon production team. The Beeb won the day with a donation to A.D.D but the Outdoor Laundry Installation was reinstalled once filming finished.

And this week's extended art spot goes online too, with the latest of National Gallery's occasional talks: this month's is Une Baignade, Asnières (A swim at Asnières) painted in 1884 by Georges Seurat, a favourite for me because of the suburban location - no false pastoral image but factory-land just north of Paris - and the two boys in the foreground, seemingly self-absorbed in private solitude. Disappointingly, this short 'talk' in superimposed text argues the artist's theme was apathy and loneliness. But it's a fabulous painting, whatever you decide.  

Music! Saturday night was a big night for big sounds: first a trip to Bristol with Rosie Eliot to see the Postmodern Jukebox in a live show at the O2 - a great chance to posh up! - and then a dash back to Frome to catch the final half hour of UNIT4's brilliant band act at 23 Bath Street. Poor picture quality, at each venue, is partly my phone's fault and partly because of dancing...

Also this week, several rural walks around Frome to enjoy the emerging green on the trees and the abundance of white below as dense clouds of cow parsley join the wild garlic and bluebells rampant around our woods and verges. While you're imagining all that, and the birdsong, and the fabulous lipstick pinks of the blossoming  trees, here too is a fascinating fungus found on Nunney footpath which was identified by keen-eyed Kieron Bacon as a firerug inkcap.

And to end the week on a high note for me, here's the sneak preview of my new novel Blow-ins, about to be published by Hobnob Press - cover design by David Moss who was also responsible for Déjà Lu.  This is a tale of not-quite everyday not-quite country folk: it's meant to be funny and maybe thought-provoking, and I'm immensely proud that two bestselling writer friends have given it the thumbs up: 'wonderful...and original', said Katie Fforde and 'funny, sharp, and moving - a vivid and intriguing read... ' said Francis Liardet.   This is the proof copy: when it's been corrected you'll be hearing more...