This week I've been doing a lot of wandering and thinking and wishing I was a landscape painter. Yesterday, I realised that I've probably never spent such long periods of time alone and I have to be very careful not to get too used to it. I could easily become a bearded hermit, muttering at passing hikers ( and sheep), especially now that my dear friends are so far away (we had pledged to keep each other's old lady whiskers and grey roots in check as we dash towards decrepitude). It is a strange contradiction that finds me sometimes pining for the days of dancing in a crowd of smokey, loved up strangers; with thumping bass and ecstatic breaks still ringing in my ears as the sun comes up.... whilst at the same time finding peace and contentment by total immersion in an empty landscape with only birdsong to dance to.
I met this friendly soul yesterday as I paused for breath, she seemed to think I needed to work on my fitness but was happy to chat for a while and pose at a jaunty angle to the rock face. In the evenings I've been doing a bit more needle felting and by accident this bear emerged, looking so terribly sad and serious that I had to give him a beaded necklace to cheer him up. I'm hoping to visit an exhibition of Herdwick Sheep photography before it ends next month and also The Wool Clip for more woolly inspiration.
Meanwhile, as well as sitting about like a contemplative hermit I've also been having wildly exhausting weekends when Rupert comes home. Last weekend we went to Seascale where an old school friend I hadn't seen for nearly 30 years had told me about a Beach Clean event she was organising. I'd never been to the Cumbrian coast except when cycling for Greenpeace as a protest against the nuclear power station at Sellafield in the 80s! It was actually really beautiful.... except for the rubbish. Why do we do this to our precious planet? These pictures show the more savoury debris but stuff like this, known as "ghost gear" can cause all sorts of problems for wildlife, while what we thought were lolly sticks turned out to be ear-bud sticks (eugh) that silly people had flushed instead of binning ( I won't go on but you can imagine) .
I took some pictures and collected a few pieces to help Sara with her final project at university. Her illustration work is based on the pollution of the oceans and plastics in particular, how it affects marine life and even enters the food chain.
I'm really looking forward to seeing her exhibition in London's Truman Brewery later this year , but first the group need to raise some money to pay for it so here is a link if you have some spare pennies:- Degree Show Fundraising
Oh there is so much to tell you ; there's a woodpecker outside on the sycamore stump, the hens are laying like mad, I saw a red squirrel yesterday ( bright red in a field of purple crocuses), all my post including my bank card has gone to an empty holiday cottage miles away... and so much more good and bad. But for once it isn't raining so I promised I would walk and try to draw (my lovely friend Jane sent a miniature sketching kit including woolly mittens so I just need to make a flask of something). So I will leave you with this picture from Saturday (after the beach) which is Great Gable from Yewbarrow (Yewbarrow is one of those walks that makes your arms ache too as both ends are protected by steep rocky crags that needed scaling and scared the s*** out of me!)