Woah!!  Where has time gone!  Updates are in order and some have already been made:
If you go to the New Bottes tab on the website you'll notice that I've got four new projects posted with lots of detailed descriptions of the images: Flying Scot, Schooner Virginia with Wolf Trap Lighthouse, A J Meerwald (Deleware oyster schooner), and Barque La Neptune passing the Geneva Lighthouse.  Yes, I have been busy.

In other news, the World Expo was a flop, although I sold one ship in bottle, the HMS Bounty; she is a real beauty.

After that experience, I participated in a small festival in Rolle, Le Fete des Canot.  This was a festival of small ships and the organizer, being a friend, asked me to display a few ships in bottles.  All was excellent, and what a great atmosphere or friendliness and overall good cheer!  It is certainly worth participating in if you have a small boat.  People came from Italy, France, and Germany. 

At the end of the two day event, there is an awards ceremony organized around some good humour.  This year's prizes consisted of the worst collection of maritime related paintings I have ever seen in my life.  It took two years to collect this jumbilation of failed attempts at painting, and with their huge quantity each participant was so greatly overjoyed when they found out that they would receive not one, but two of these glories!  A bottle of wine also accompanied each prize. 
Aside from the silly gifts, some more serious awards were made to a few individuals and I was surprised and honored to receive the "Challenge du Leman."  This is a half hull model of J. de Catus's canot, given to the person who has completed the best restoration.  Everyone enjoyed my ships in bottles so much, that they decided to offer me the award.  What a great way to welcome me into the community...I was speechless and  not because my French is limited.
So it was a great weekend and we hung around for the taking down of the event and a spaghetti dinner...oh I almost forgot, the fish soup, made by local fisherman, on Saturday evening is delicious and a yearly event.
So leaving with a warm feeling in my heart, great thanks to the kindness of everyone's welcome, and a full belly, I say it may have been one of the best weekends I've experienced here in Switzerland.

So here's some photos for all of you to enjoy.  I also didn't pass up the opportunity to make a canot in miniature to dedicate to the fete des canots and deliver to my friend Alain who welcomed us aboard his boat and made possible our participation.