Another Thursday, another month and while everything seems "normal" on the surface, underneath is shifting and slipping and bubbling like a house built over a sink hole...or a Baked Alaska pudding...no Chicken Kiev! My attachment to "home" and the difficulty in uprooting me, even for a day out, has been a bit of a joke over the years; so it's hard to express the almost physical effect the threat of eviction has had on me this past month. However, the garden won last week and I couldn't leave it alone, for so long the meditation of working in the garden... totally absorbed to the point of almost forgetting real life has been the way I've coped with bad times. Ok, mostly I retreat under the blankets with Jack Daniels but once outside I soon become lost and "carried away" as Sara and Jake used to say. The temporary nature of everything I do now does not fit comfortably with my bear like urge to build my winter den and feel as safe as this world will allow...and so the coal shed is empty, the logs have not been delivered yet and is there any point in turning the compost?
Such negativity! If you are still reading I promise the next bits are more uplifting...
Over the past week the Morning Glory in the Freecycle greenhouse has been glorying like mad , heavenly blue and as short lived as a May Fly... if only I was more Zen in my outlook I'm sure there'd be a lesson there! Good things have been happening though. The Saltbox Gallery where I work a couple of days a week took an order for some of my Natural Partners cards and so it was nice to put them on display and overhear the occasional comment about the lovely polar bear! The gallery also took some of my good friend Susie's needle felted creatures which makes me happy as I love to feel that I've helped promote another struggling artist. If I was suddenly rich ....
There have been a couple of much needed trips to the Lake District, partly on a potential house hunting expedition and partly because being made to walk up hills like a reluctant pack pony (admittedly I don't carry the pack!) seems to be as spirit lifting as gardening. Re-visiting Castle Crag I nearly pushed Rupert over when I spotted a little red squirrel person busily collecting things under the Scots Pines. There were deer too, and autumn colours and that wonderful smell of Autumn woodland and earth still warm from summer. Somehow the North York Moors feels hostile and barren in comparison ( or is it that just a reaction to my situation?) with the only wildlife apart from sheep being there only so it can be shot.
Now I am setting myself the task of drawing something everyday and e-mailing it to Sara who is now in her final year of Illustration at UWE in Bristol. She is meant to do the same so we'll see if we can keep it up, unlike our various attempts at giving up crisps or taking regular exercise.... I'd like to be able to draw landscape, and clouds but it doesn't work so I think I'll leave the clouds to Daddy.
Last night I started a new book having finished Rogue Herries in an all night session. I enjoyed it...maybe the story more than the style and I can see a bit of myself in all the characters. Now it is time for a mug of tea and some more drawing... a rabbit and a pony were the requests on my Facebook page last night....
Reading:-Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami Listening To:- 6music