BUON COMPLEANNO, GINO!

It is Gino the artist's birthday today so yesterday wife Linda organised yet another tea party. This time, she and Chiara had made teacakes, which I hadn't tasted for years:

And here is Gino very seriously cutting his cake:



I was surprised to find me staring at myself from the mantelpiece!



My present to Gino was this little booklet I had made of photos of some of his paintings and my thoughts about them:

Simi is the author of the last page and is sure you all want to see what she wrote:

“Hello, art fans! I’m Simi, the art-savviest dog in Sicily! I was really pleased when my Uncle Gino decided to paint me from this photo which appears in my EU doggy-passport because my mummy says it’s the best picture she ever took of me. She’s always telling me I have a lovely, smooth snout and that Uncle Gino has captured this. Well, I think so, too, and he got my pose and my expression just right. I don’t know why he doesn’t send this picture to the Royal Academy but I suppose it’s because all the other artist humans would just give up if they saw it.

I like Uncle Gino because he speaks to me in Italian [in which, of course, I can bark fluently] tickles my ear and makes my mummy laugh.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Gino and I hope you get lots of Bonio biscuits to eat today!

With love from

Simi la waggissima xx woof!”