A cunning plan

My husband has been conspiring behind my back with Another Woman.

For some weeks he’s been emailing ‘a man called Dave’ who belongs to a Microplus (boat) appreciation group on Facebook. The idea was that we should all meet up in Ramsgate yesterday to look at and talk boats. Himself was a tad vague about the expedition, but I put that down to general old-fartness and thought no more of it.

Yesterday we were threatened with a return of the Beast from the East, but as Himself showed no signs of cancelling the jaunt I said nothing: I knew he had been looking forward to it for ages.

Half way to Ramsgate he came clean. There is no man called Dave. There was no meeting of boat enthusiasts. Instead, the plan was for us to park up in Ramsgate and walk past a certain art gallery where a portrait of a certain dog would be displayed in the window….
Alas, the Beast from the East put paid to that. It wasn’t exactly blizzarding, but my husband reckoned (rightly) that a freezing cold quarter-mile walk from where we could park to where the gallery was would not go down well with me.

Instead we went to the artist’s house, where we met portraitist and illustrator Kate Oleska and her fiancé, the writer Paul Moyse. Kate’s portrait is a triumph – it’s as if she had actually met our daft Brittany spaniel – and now hangs in pride of place in our living room.

Thank you for the picture, Kate, and for the chai tea.

Purdey by Kate Olescka

http://www.kateoleska.com