THINGS change. When I made one of my regular visits to Edmonton Green I missed one or two of my regular marketeers -- or stall holders to the rest of you.

I discovered that one of them was off to Austria to enjoy a ski-ing holiday while another was basking in the Caribbean sun.

The period immediately after Christmas and New Year is certainly a dead period as far as customers on the Green are concerned.

And it is a good time to take your holidays without denting your bank balance -- for when you are self-employed things like holidays and illness have to be borne by yourself.

This is the time of year when those with friends and relatives in Australia and New Zealand make the trip for the very good reason that it is hot over there.

Just watch the tennis from Australia on the television and see the sweat pouring out of the players.

While on the Green I heard disturbing news concerning the viability of the great scheme for redevelopment -- new partners being brought in and changes in design beyond those which were the basis for approval in November.

It's really early days, and I wish the council and councillors well as they seek to give Edmonton what it deserves but lacks -- a really classy heart of which we can all be proud.

Amongst the many attractions at Edmonton Green is a lovely shop, and stall, specialising in framing pictures as well as selling prints etc.

After an interval of almost 50 years, the powers that be in the House of Lords decided to commision a painting of the Lords.

There is a glorious one of the House during the Irish home rule debate in 1893, followed by one in the late 1950s -- but none ever since.

Andrew Feesting is a wonderful portrait painter and he has produced a stunning array of the members of the Lords -- warts and all.

It finished up as six separate scenes showing the various benches in the House and those of us who commissioned it, paying £150 each, had a copy of this work of art to commemorate the event.

I decided to have it suitably framed, and the shop in Edmonton Green has done a great job of which I am very proud. It is hanging in the hall of my house.

As I am keen on such things I have already booked my tickets for the Monet exhibition in the Royal Academy, and was very impressed when I was in the framing shop to find one of Monets's paintings of his garden, hanging in a lovely frame on sale for £10.

I tell you, if you want a bargain on the Green you are not restricted to tomatoes or grapes -- you can have a masterpiece for a tenner.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.