Another brick in the wall*

I find that I look forward to the days I can 'art' for a couple of hours. As the weather warms up and I return to my seasonal garden work, my time to get the brushes and pens out has reduced. The escapism it provides is turning out to be cathartic so I am going to try to ensure I can still 'play'.

The small group which we have started at work seems to be enjoying 'arting' too. I am not the only one benefiting from the results. There is a wonderful small wave of pride as the books and work are shared - including one or two who I quite wrongly suspected would not even participate - how wrong I was!

Between us, we share the theme choice - so some are quite out of my comfort zone (as it is for others) and my results each week are rather variable. Below are some from the last few weeks.

World of Whimsy (I went down a rather dark route with this one rather than the cutesy style the others did)

Thunderstorms and Cloudy Skies

Communication - poison arrow frog 

I am also playing around with different ways - so at the moment one of my favourite things to do is 'art-small'. I found a rather tiny tin, cut papers to fit and paint mini pictures to fit the tin! Pocket painting💙

You can not believe the joy this brings me! I have made a bit of a traveling art studio in an old pencil case, small enough to fit in my haversack and plan to do a painting or two, when we are out walking. (Cue eye roll from Himself!🙄🤪) Fortunately they are surprisingly quick thanks to their teeny tiny size.

And, what have I been working on today? Well, this week's theme is 'Building' - happy heart jump! I love drawing wonky houses, tumbled stones, shingles, slate roofing - so - happy me!

It was at this point I discovered that the black pen I'd used was not water fast and as soon as I tried to apply a sepia colour wash - it smudged - oh well, c'est la vie!

Post Script: The title? Well, I was wondering what to call today's post when on the radio -  Pink Floyds' Another Brick in the Wall was requested by a listener - cheers mate! 

Vanishing into the edgelands

This last weekend was a simple treasure made all the better by a bit of gentle spring sunshine which managed to slip through the ever present grey cloud - the kind that warms your cheek and feels glorious on your back. I have missed that feeling.

We spent Saturday quietly feral up in the South Lakes - walking along the coast, through woodland, skirting around Leighton Moss and Leighton Hall, choosing pathways less trod. Admittedly with one eye on the sky at all times, we managed to miss getting too wet by staying in the woodland every time there was a passing shower.

On the Sunday we came back down below Lancaster to an area we love - an 'edgeland' where mainstream life seems to have passed it by. Himself and I feel comfortable in these often forgotten 'wastelands' where life is a struggle, jobs are few and far between yet the folk are real, hardy, dogged and somehow make the best of what they have with apparent haphazard joy and defiance. 

We both have jobs where we are surrounded by busy folk, mine takes a lot of from me - not just physically but emotionally. I work with a lot of damaged people, those who trying to claw their way out of poverty, depression, stress, breakdowns, loneliness. So these weekends away are healing.

And it gives both of us the space to breathe.

Post Script: thank you so much for your comments on my last post - I was having doubts about continuing blogging - not because I don't enjoy it, I do - I just seemed to have lost the spark. But, if you are quite happy to read my wafflings, I will continue to waffle 😊

I have read a couple of bloggers saying that it is now difficult to find new blogs to read.  I found Blogger has reduced the ability to go 'shopping' for someone new to read. So, I now go on to the 'followers' menu on a blog I already follow, open a random name (their own blog link is never available) and go and see who they read and find new blogs to follow there. 

Belated HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

 I have to admit that even with my newly harnessed 'powers' of reluctantly accepting winter as winter, am finding this dreary transition over to early spring a rather long and drawn out affair.  We seem to drift beneath lingering mediocre grey skies and incessant rain or bitter winds. And yes I know it is the bleak end of the year weatherly speaking - however a blue sky no matter how brittle cold the air is - is more cheerful than the 'nothing' which seems to idle from horizon to horizon. 

A couple of weekends ago we celebrated my Eldest son's birthday - and yes it rained - however we swarmed around the diningroom table and beneath strings of fairy lights and accompanied by candles, ate good food, played board games, laughed and talked and were entertained bossed around by cats. We also tickled goats and played in the garden during a brief but most welcome stay in the weather - now that is what I call a good weekend!

Post script: am I the only one who wants to blog but when I start the words feel trite or the stories not worth sharing? I have over the last couple of weeks, opened the page, thought about what to say (which sounds excellent in my head by the way) only to press delete.

Murky waters

 A fair bit has happened since my last post - life does that. It happens and then suddenly you realise you've not actually written any of those amazing stories, sad things, wonderful walks, funny moments and silly snapshots and when you look back - are they really worth re-hashing in a witty or waffly post?

Nope.

So, instead I thought I'd share a photo or two of some recent arty stuff, not brilliant, but for me an achievement. Getting back into art has been a bit of a slog and now I am regularly sketching and painting I can see I am out of practise. 

It is however bringing me a lot of pleasure - which is far more important to me now than the need to perform or provide work for a paid commission  - and a relief. I am painting for me.

An odd post, I agree but, isn't that what life is? 

Post Script : and if you are wondering what on earth the cat is resting her head on in the first photo - she has a fabric toy fish stuffed with catnip which she uses as her pillow - we call it her 'cuddlefish' 

Random Notes on a Thursday

The promised snow has arrived, swirling small pellets of white covering the garden and dusting the trees. Despite this, the blackbirds are cheerfully kicking around in the flowerbeds unearthing morsels and the robin in fiercely guarding the bird feeder. I am so glad I am not at work today!

Definitely knitting weather (and red petticoat weather too!) I have the warmest red flannel 'underskirt' I wear with my tartan pinafore - that with thick leggings - I find cozier than wearing jeans, tights and boots. 

At work we keep finding conkers the local park squirrels have buried in the kitchen garden. Some have started to germinate. So seeing the same squirrels keep digging up our snowdrop and bluebell bulbs we see this as payment and have gently planted up the Horse Chestnut seeds and hope they all grow.

It is so dark inside today - I have switched on our fairy lights and moved the glitter ball to bring a little 'light' relief into the lounge. I also lit a candle for the wax burner and now the room smells gently of amber and warm spices, perfect for today's weather outside.

Yes I am waffling - sort of procrastinating too - I am part of a weekly art challenge to get us all back into 'arting' and once I have started - I am fine, it is the STARTING I am dancing around. That and the theme this week - PIRATES. Hmmm. I don't want to draw something gimmicky or box office inspired (think Pirates of the Caribbean) so this needs a bit of thinking. Last week's was BIRDS and I was in my element!

 

Still snowing..... Oo arrr me hearties - I better get swashbuckling!

Post Script: Blogger is still playing up - I am unable to comment on several blogs - so excuse me if I seen to be silent, I am not. I have, however, found a couple of ways to get around signing on and not be anonymous hopefully things will get back to normal soon - here is to spring xx

Don't believe the hype

I am - or so I thought - fairly savvy when it comes to the 'ideal and perfect life' that the majority of instagrammers imply. Often with a rather cynical eye I will view a post and wonder how many folk were AI-deleted or if the image was snapped quickly so to avoid the inevitable crowds.

But...... Apparently not, even I can be drawn in! 

A couple of weeks ago,  I saw a lovely little reel of a pair of pretty legs in black leggings with the lightest grey casual crocs daintily tripping along some stepping stones. Now - what you would not have picked up with me just saying 'stepping stones' what how WHERE she was and WHERE those stones were going made me over excited. 

They were in Cheedale not far from where we were staying a couple of weekends ago - so I showed Himself and begged to go. (Visions of photos opportunities and stories to share filled my tiny brain...)

A quick screen grab of said reel - see what I mean! (images from @ukhiddengems)

Himself checked out parking and said he'd found a pull off place just above the river and planned a route. Great excitement!

When we pulled up - we could barely find a space (that should have been the first warning), we were fortunately in my little car rather than Zeb (our converted van) and slipped into a small space which had been previously rejected by larger vehicles. The place was CRAWLING with folk - mostly in pretty faux fur hooded parkas and white trainers. However, the amount of red faced, mud covered and sweaty weary walkers returning to the carpark should have been the next warning....

From where we parked, I looked over the wall down into the valley are marvelled at the row of houses at the valley bottom, wondering how much sunshine they would get down there while we strapped on our boots.  Then we set off. Down into that valley - all you could hear were shrieks as folk were slipping down the path. Squeaks of alarm as they grabbed each other. Groans as mud splashed up on them. We finally reached the bottom fairly unscathed but even we agreed that the recent rains had made the stony track rather slippery.

Crossing the burbling river towards the cottages I'd spied from above, we then turned right and followed the well worn path along the river. It got muddier and muddier, there were kids and dogs and fed up parents trying to stay upright as they herded their families along.

The path had obviously been hammered by previous flooding and in places was quite trickly. As we continued passing day trippers and their white trainers I wondered if they too had been taken in by the reel and were expecting to recreate the same magical moments along the stepping stones......

The river was just a turbulent coffee coloured mass of water - that and the pale sunlight and drabness of winter made for a rather sepia glow. However the brightly coloured parkas and kids coats dotted the length of the pathway added colour to the valley bottom.

We then caught up with, and became tangled up in, a huge family with lots of chatty children just as we arrived at the first (did not know there were two) stepping stones. It is at this point I shall mention the word MUD. Please keep that in mind.

All thoughts of daintily tripping along with my cellphone and my not quite as pretty jeans and boots along the lovely stones in crystal clear water beneath a loomingly HUGE rock face just went out of the window. It was every one for themselves!

Slippery? Did I mention Slippery - No - ok SLIPPERY SLIPPERY SLIPPERY - like B/@@&# HE|| SLIPPERY!

Himself set me off first - he knew I wanted to take pictures, so he and the extended family let me go first ...................... ooooof, I very quickly discovered that I could not happily walk (they were just a bit too far to stride - I had to slightly jump step to reach) and balance (not good since my knee surgery) and film (I needed BOTH my eyes and HANDS to feel safe) and oh yes ... mud. Slippery mud. Not sure if I mentioned either word.

As I reached that corner - where the stones go round to 'nowhere' - a  woman popped round with a cheery grin and her family .... and we HAD TO PASS EACH OTHER! She stopped smiling when she saw how many folk were behind me (possibly about 12 - 14 in the family along plus others we'd over taken and had now caught up as the family passed each child from rock to rock...)

When I reached the far side back on to 'dry' land I was quite relieved. Himself and I then strode off leaving the good natured traffic jam behind us and after another five - ten minutes of slipping alongside and below the huge outcrop we came to the second set of stepping stones - I sent Himself first this time!

These stones were larger and slightly closer together so I was able to get some film and the folk at the other end fortunately waited for us to cross before setting off. Talk about the relief of walking on a muddy slippery path again! (Is it at this point I mention I saw and spoke to Steve Backshall?) 

At the furthest point of our walk, we left the river, returned up the valley side and met the now disused railway (turned into a lovely dry - mud free - road) we sat down, drank tea and nibbled our snacks. Going back was a completely different beast!

Tunnel after tunnel burrowed through the hill sides made for a wonderful return.

Each one had it's own personality and resonance - the interior brickwork was fantastic and the slow progress along the muddy path in the valley bottom was soon forgotten as we strode back towards the start.

Was it a good walk? - definitely, despite its challenges - yes, was glad to do it. Would I do it again? No. Some walks I will return to year on year, this one - not so much. Been there, Done that, Not doing it again! Will I be taken in by another wonderful Instagram post? Hope not - but.... you never know!😆

Post script: I am writing this as the rain is hammering it down outside - absolutely lashing it down. Snow has been promised for a couple of days time.... I am ready for spring. And you?