I sold my house.  It was a nice house, the children grew up in it and they were very happy. But this is my time.. I came here to paint.

I liked the house because it had a conservatory, plenty of light, very bright. It’s very nice..and because  it’s rented it means I don’t have the responsibility of maintenance and things like that.

I have lived here for about eight years.

I spend most of the day in the conservatory and then people just pop in and have a cup of coffee… and  I stop.  I don’t mind, because people are more important than my paintings.

I got permission to plant the garden, to dig the side of it so I could put some nice plants in and I have done quite a bit of gardening. I have a patio and I paint. That’s all.

The house where I grew up was a lovely … a big, big house and old-fashioned.  It had a beautiful drawing room and I had my piano there. It had been blitzed during the war and been restored –  not restored as well as it was before. The ceiling and doors had all been blown in.

My father had a beautiful vegetable garden in the back and my mother had a beautiful flower garden in the front. They were very happy days. Really, really, lovely house…. Big dining room, kitchen and off the kitchen was an air-raid shelter that my father used during the war. He used it then as a wine cellar. It was walking distance from my primary school.

I had this room painted but I didn’t bother with the rest.  

The house was unfurnished…. I moved all my rubbish in…. I got everything in and .. I’m very untidy so it just give me the freedom.

There are 3 bedrooms –  there is plenty of room.  I’m very comfortable. It’s lovely. I don’t need  3 bedrooms, I just happened to get them but often  I have visitors, or my grand-children come to visit. Really I don’t need all the space, but I enjoy it….

I got most of my furniture second hand. I bought it when I came here.

I had a big, big sofa and I thought it took up took too much room and I got a small one and I got a little Italian leather one. I just got things I fancied.

 I had the big dining room table for a long time and I got tired of it and I didn’t need it and  I looked around until I found what I wanted and bought a smaller one. It gave me more space in the room –  even though it is spacious.

I had an operation on my knee and it was a great success. Now I have no problem. The stairs were a great help. I recommend them to anybody for exercise. You couldn’t have better than stairs.

I studied fine art print at the university when I was 61.

I really wanted to paint and went to a lot of workshops.. and  then I tried to keep on improving my work.

I work on 3 paintings because… when I do one I don’t finish it, I leave it to one side and do another one and then I can always come back to them. Because I paint in oils I don’t do much in one day on one painting, and it’s easy to come back and then you see your mistakes and what you can do to it and add to it.

I now have someone who comes to clean once a week or once every 2 weeks but she is not allowed to clean the conservatory because it is too untidy and I wouldn’t give her that work.

I have a dresser which I actually bought new. They are really antique plates. That’s an old plate of my dad’s and some of them are from family and I keep them there as a nice memento….I just like it. ..

Someone helped me to put the pictures up because they are very big. I have one from my grand-daughter, two nephews and the rest are mostly mine. 

I go to exhibitions and may buy a few if they are not too expensive. ….Well sometimes I get tired of them and I change things around. I liked them at the time. Some were 36” by 36” and some of them were smaller.

I like prints of course, because I am a printer, but I don’t have the facilities and  and that’s why I don’t do much printing. I enjoy painting.

Home… It means  a place where I can develop and grow and meet my friends,  and they can drop in. It’s a very, very nice village……I really love it.

Everybody here is very friendly. I have wonderful neighbours. It’s so nice you can walk down the street and talk to anybody and it’s a lovely place.  It’s just that kind of air of freedom. There’s no religious divide, nothing like that. People are very, very friendly, lovely.

I can’t think of anything negative about the house – except I should keep it tidier.