sold out

Within an hour of people getting up and reading the New York Times over skinny skimmed soy lattes and lox and cream cheese bagels Julian, in our scrappy unrenovated little corner of the Vaucluse, had sold out. Two computers running on full speed, two sets of dodgey maths skills and one bottle of champagne and 29,000 page views later we are exhausted. The car bill is paid and, for a brief moment, life is utterly other-worldly. Even the knobbly lemon, so rudely commented upon but which has hung affectionately in our kitchen, found a home. Well, several actually. It doesn't know what has hit it!

My mum the astrologer says it is 'Neptune in Aquarius transiting opposite Saturn in Leo'.

Now all that remains is the late risers' disappointed 'all sold' emails, a request for dog portraits to deal with and tomorrow's celebratory lunch at Pernes les Fontaines.

For the hook go to:

http://nytimes.com/pages/garden/index.html

(scroll down the right column to multimedia and click on 'currents' - 19th Century art sold the 21st century way....)

Meanwhile I would like to raise my glass to Jo and George(our dear friends whose fault this all is), Donna (who wrote the article), and of course Julian (who is 47 tomorrow). 'Way to go' as they say over there in the land of frenzied painting buyers.