Sometimes I worry that I'm losing my marbles entirely; this morning, for example, I completely forgot how to access my blog... didn't have a clue what to do. For anyone impressed by the fact that I maintain a website at www.isleofwightlandscapes.net, I have to confess that a friend does it all for me... you can guess why. Unfortunately, his computer is currently down - so there's not likely to be a huge amount of activity going on there, just at the moment.

Oh dear.... typical artistic temperament and mentality, or senile decay? Could so easily be the latter.... And I'm not (quite) 60 yet...

My friend the novelist Edward Upward, on the other hand, was entirely in control of all of his faculties until the last few years of his very long life - 1903 to 2009. I sketched him from a photograph (courtesy of the Allinson family) the other day, and although it's a touch on the cartoon side, I thought I'd show it here, as a mark of affection for a man I'll never forget. Google Edward Upward and you'll find a website devoted to him, on which appears the full text of his greatest work, The Spiral Ascent.

While I'm at it, I'll also show a recent watercolour - Walking the dog turns to running from the storm; one of my dark ones....

Did I mention that all work is for sale (I just bet I did.... email me at robertjones@ratville.freeserve.co.uk - why ratville? I used to keep rats. Splendid things; you should get a couple.