I’m SO excited - this picture of mine, taken in France in the summer of 2007, is on the cover of a book published this month! The book is the very latest edition of “French Bed and Breakfast”, one of Alastar Sawday’s Special Places to Stay series. The picture is one of three - it may not be huge, but that’s not stopping me smiling from ear to ear! You can (just!!) see it on Amazon  if you click here.

I’ve been burning a lot of midnight oil recently, preparing for an exhibition at the Arison Gallery in Chorlton, Manchester, from 3rd November. Deciding, with Paul, the gallery owner, which images to use, then getting them printed to the highest possible quality, has been a slow process, with much deliberation and debate. The final selection is now being mounted and framed. Too late to change my mind now! I’m pretty excited, as you might imagine...  Arison will exhibit a selection of my work - people and places, cityscapes and landscapes, all taken with passion and pleasure.

I found a huge onion plant in the kitchen garden at Auberge de Concasty in France, and got right down onto the ground to photograph it against the incredibly blue sky. That was before the inn’s owner, Martine, mentioned  that she always wore boots in the garden as there were occasionally snakes around. I’ve had the picture blown up to a metre high and printed onto canvas - it has considerable impact! It’s hanging in my current exhibition at the Arison Gallery and is proving very popular - I’ve taken orders for three copies in the last fortnight.

How's this for a different portrait for the wall? Framed in acrylic, it really glows. It seems to light up the hallway as soon as you come through the door - just fabulous! This cool dude wasn't too sure that photographer would fit into his busy day when I arrived for the family's shoot, but he's more than pleased with the result - despite having never heard of Andy Warhol. Mind you, Mum and Dad also have the other pictures in an album, so this won't be the only memento of the day.

A major task this week is deciding which images to use on the new website, which Sophie and Matthew have respectively been designing and building for me, with great patience as well as wonderful skill. Decisions can sometimes be ridiculously difficult - I've several times thought that I should perhaps ask someone else to do it for me. I get distracted, looking through the portfolio, remembering each shoot, the people I met, the quirks of the day, the wonderful light...But this tulip is for sure a contender.

The rest of the country seems to have had so much snow, so surprisingly early in the winter - the papers and tv are full of it. After a few days of ridiculous snow envy, we finally got snow in Manchester overnight, so I zipped off to my little local park this afternoon to see what I could see. Well, perhaps not 'zipped'; boots squeaking on the pavement, walking like some sort of ridiculous arthritic heron, I was hoping that I didn't slip and fall. Snow envy doesn't survive long once we realise that in practice it's a nightmare! 

  Back from Venice and beaming - it was wonderful. It's ages since I've been, and it was even more surreal and astonishing than I remembered, with the added layer of the Carnival, and the masks and costumes everywhere - some were jaw-dropping!

People who love Harris tend to do so with a passion, and my trip there recently was instigated, encouraged and facilitated by some of them. Three - not surprisingly - are photographers, and I thank all them all.