The past 18 months have been the most testing of my life. My partner was ill and I cared for him. My lovely Brian died last June, I was unable to paint part of me had died with him, nothing prepares one for the loss of a partner. There is no alternative other than to carry on and weather the storm..Having reached a point where everything has been settled.,I have disrupted my quiet life with a Golden Retriever puppy who is now 15 months old, funny sweet destructive and both a pleasure and annoying. She comes to the studio and steels things out of the wastepaper basket and anything else she can reach. i had not bargained for just how destructive she is , but I am working on ways to distract her from doing too much damage the poor garden has suffered