A busy last few days, as usual.  Full of fun times, sad times and productive times.
 But on the whole, good times.
On Sunday, my keyboard/case for the ipad was delivered.  Mr Cooper and I admired it, then put it back in its packaging, for we felt we needed a child to help us with the next step.... bluetooth connection!  So I did what I know I am able to do, and arranged the washed china on the dresser.

Then we went swimming, I completed 24 lengths, always a struggle to swim on a Sunday. Afterwards we sat in the jacuzzi, which was not such a struggle.  I said that I thought I would aim to swim 3 times a week, once to do a half mile, then to do three quarters, then finally a mile.  "Why don't you swim for a mile each time?" asked son John.  I mumbled something about 'variety,' and Mr Cooper added 'time factor' and the conversation was shelved.  But when I was swimming away and thinking about this later in the week, I knew the real reason, which is that it would require greater effort to do that. And as I swam I thought that really, I should just 'keep buggering on' with swimming as with working, painting, writing and life in general, and just put the work in!
Cue swimming image.

One warm, moonlit night in Kefalonia, Mr Cooper and I were looking at the action of the moonlight on the waves, and we both saw an army of people, who were Greek Gods from throughout their history, walking through the water, and then swimming across the moonlit path to the other side, when they emerged to continue to walk. (This is a true story, and no mind-altering drugs were involved.  I started a series of sketches the following day, then based a series of work on that night, when I returned to England.)  If you love this image, all are for sale, contact the artist!

On Monday I met Sonia to discuss the forthcoming workshops which are textiles based, with memories as the theme.  I am excited about this project, and as it is so much in its infancy, we both are not quite sure which way it is going to grow.  Which is, as always with anything in its infancy, part of the excitement.  I will be working with women who have arrived fairly recently from Bangladesh, so the emphasis will also be on visual explanations, more than on verbal.  I am looking forward to showing you some of the results.

Also on Monday, connection was made between my ipad, and the keyboard!  I was so thrilled at this, but apparently if you are younger, it is a commonplace occurrence that you don't get excited about!
Then off to my volunteering session at Trinity in Winchester.  As I sat there in the group, creating a page of imaginative doodles and happenings, I said "What a treat to be having an afternoon of art, right at the start of the week."

All official now!  And if you look closely, I am wearing my dinosaur necklace.


On Tuesday I was thinking about my New Years resolutions*, and armed with my ipad plus keyboard (still thrilled) I decided to stop asking everyone under the age of 30 to explain instagram, but to download it, then work it all out later.  When I told Sam that I had successfully completed this task on my own, he turned his head slowly to look at me, with an expression on his face as if he was seeing a creature emerge form a primordial swamp. (On the other hand, Mr Cooper was dead impressed that I had done all that on my own!  That's another plus about marriage to Mr Cooper, I am regarded as the IT genius of the partnership!)

And, thinking again about my resolutions on Wednesday, I swam my first ever 48 lengths (one mile) , then returned to arrange a little more clutter tastefully around the kitchen.

Then Mr Cooper and I had a good discussion about 'feelings' and how it was necessary to sometimes talk about them, especially if you are female and an artist and then we were both happy again.

Thursday, back to washing up, and all the fun of sharing a kitchen with 3 chefs.  There was a strong commentary running through the day, which I am not able to share with you, or indeed many other people! It is never dull, usually entertaining, and I always get to eat the most delicious salad. (Thanks Jordan)
When in Stockbridge, I usually give Hybernia some grass to nibble on.  John assured me that she loves apples, so here is Hybernia studiously ignoring her apple treat.  This photo does not reveal her true size.  When you look at the apple, it is a largish one. 

Having mentioned both of my sons this week, I will show you my 'found' painting; one which I started many years ago, when the boys were as young as they are in the painting.  John used to say to me that he would take a star from the sky and put it in my pocket, so I would always have shining starlight with me.
When I have finished painting walls and ceilings, I shall gladly return to complete it.

This morning, Friday morning, I have returned from swimming my second mile ever (KBO)**
Yesterday I was listing in my head all the things I needed to do, and at the end of that I was saying a little frantically 'But when can I write my blog?'  This morning, probably around length 22, I thought that the more important things in my life should take priority, and not be 'brushed aside' to make way for constant decorating (slight pun there).  So after swimming, I went to have my eyebrows refreshed, then on to buy 2 more tins of paint. As I walked towards the eyebrow refreshing shop, I passed between some scaffolding.  The sun was shining, and the scaffolding had a coloured protective layer around it, the effect was really most uplifting.  Much better than grey!

When I got home I put the paint tins onto the side, and went upstairs with a cup of tea to write this blog, then later a trip out with Mr Cooper to spend some time alone with him.  Going out is always good, as you are not visually bombarded with unfinished jobs to be done.
Selling the house is important, but ignoring friends and followers is ridiculous.  And how better to start my weekend by writing to you all, then having some quality time with Mr Cooper.

I hope you all have a week ahead that will be, on the whole, good.
See you all in a week's time!

*  Improve my understanding and use of technology and swim 1 mile regularly.
** Keep Buggering On!

These last two weeks have been a time of exciting and creative happenings (plus the usual work!) punctuated by manic painting in the gaps left between all of this.  Nothing unusual there, you may say.  After all, you are an artist. Well, the painting has been purely practical, not imaginative, and on a large, tiring scale.  The decoration of the kitchen has been my latest project, and it is slowly drawing to a close. But so as not to lose the feeling of being an artist as well, I am painting it using expressive brush strokes, and sometimes using expressive language alongside.

It is also continues to be a time of finding older paintings. This week's discovery had been hanging on the kitchen wall for so long that it had become invisible.  And now I have looked at it again, I am pleased with what I see, moreso than when I had actually completed it.

It is all about the making of an apple pie, and is a mixture of my photography, and my painting.
  I am thinking it might lead to another exploration of cookery through art, perhaps to become the first of a series about the processes of cooking. But not quite at the moment.  It will have to be after my intense 'beautiful but more neutral' house decorating project, with view to be on the market in May!

Whenever I decide to really de-clutter my possessions, people must sense those emptying spaces, and feel the urge to replenish on my behalf.  This is an 80s knitting pattern book from my Aunty Sally.  There is a tank top pattern in there that I really might make one day......but who on earth would knit, let alone wear, this pattern?

It is truly hideous......perhaps if you were going to a Beryl Cook convention?
 If I was wearing it, there would have to be a large cash reward at the end of the day.

Well last week I promised you a glimpse of my newly re-vamped kitchen, complete with me with my newly refreshed eyebrows. And if you get close enough to see, my cream paint-speckled hair.

Here I am in the old style kitchen, lots of wood, grease, horrid cracked tiles and yellow walls.

And here, in the gleaming, 'beautiful but more neutral' kitchen.  My eyebrows may be hidden by my
painted fringe, but feast your eyes on the cream units, gleaming white tiles, gleaming gas hob.......

So excited am I that I have moved from 'cooking with wine' to 'cooking with gin!'

Our new oven is just as exciting as a new television.  I can't remember when we were last able to see what was cooking through a clean oven door!  Mr Cooper and I have been quite transfixed by the sight of pastry cases turning golden, pheasants becoming bronzed, parsnips becoming dangerously
darkened.....Yes, I do know we need to get out more.

Last week saw me do my first stint as an art volunteer at Trinity, working alongside the art tutor with the women's group. http://trinitywinchester.org.uk/ 

 It is really good to be working with art and people again, especially in a non exam-driven way. 

And, to add to my creative excitement, I attended another creative writing course  at Tuppenny Barn.

http://www.tuppennybarn.co.uk/  This one had 'Journeys' as it's theme. A smaller group this time, which was great as we all worked well together.  I have decided to take up a writing exercise during lent.  When I wake up, before actually getting up, but after a tinkle break if needs be, I spend ten minutes writing things that come into my head, with no hesitancy. But what I have written I do not look at for 30 days. 

 It is surprisingly easy to write for 10 minutes, but I have surprised myself so far by having a very practical  content to my writings, I had thought it would be purely emotional....... did write about my dream for the first time this morning.

The composition of 'Naked and Surrounded by Cake'  has been bubbling away in my brain this year. First deeply, and now coming to the fore.  Each year I produce a significant drawing about my life. Each year I enter it into two prestigious competitions, and each year, both reject me.  But it has become a tradition now.  Rather like actually enjoying dry turkey.
This year, the drawing will be a sort of companion to the one below, 'Naked and Surrounded by Cake', but with a very different background. In fact, as I write this now, yet another idea has sprung into being.  Almost certainly the start of a series! (you can start to see now how room painting is seriously hampering my creative work...there is not enough time! (Oh well, only 5 more rooms to go......arghhhhh!))

Here is my usual Sunday treat with Mr Cooper.  Sitting down in a nearby pub for an hour or so, for  a chat, fully armed with salty snacks, Shiraz and the trusty sketch book.  This one is showing wasabi nuts in a natty orange boat, mini cheddars, a large Shiraz, and the beginnings of the idea for my next significant autobiographical work, called "Naked, and Surrounded by Life.'

Whilst we were sitting there, chatting away, a couple came into the bar.  She was a little over 50, wearing a fake fur leopard print coat, red lipstick and whacky boots.  'Do I look a bit like that?' I asked Mr Cooper.  'Yes, that's how you dress', he replied.  'But she was wearing gold-stitched cowboy boots!' I exclaimed.  How tacky, I thought, as I glanced down at by beautiful blue Dr Marten sandals, much more suitable for someone over the age of 50.

Before I leave, let's not forget Valentine's Day, and for once, I actually didn't.
Here is a biscuit lovingly decorated for me by Sam.  I had to double check that he had done the actual work as a) it showed joined-up writing and b) he only calls me 'mum' when talking about me to other people.  But on reflection, a)you have to use joined-up writing when piping and b) he decorated it at work. At home no doubt I would have been 'mother' or 'ma'.  Or sometimes even 'mate'

And here are some of the gifts given by Mr Cooper.  I think he is getting to be really quite artistic.
I can't show you the other two gifts, as by the time we had started to cook the Sunday Roast, one had been eaten, and one had been drunk.  Both delicious!

 And here, so as not to feel left out, is Mr Cooper himself, sporting his Valentines t-shirt.

 I hope you all had an enjoyable Valentine's day, and that your week has continued to be mainly enjoyable. And I look forward to catching up with you all soon, when hopefully I can show you the other half of the kitchen! (That's the half that is mainly still in the living room)
So I must go downstairs now to clutch a paint brush, and keep buggering on.
 Ah well, there is always tea, and radio 4, it's not all bad.

Each New Year starts with good intentions, but also with a sense of looking back as well as looking forward.
January has not been so much about the 'achievement' of these good intentions but rather, a more gentle approach as we 'move towards' them.  A soft approach is usually the best, I find. 
Me and Mr Cooper always start each year with the intention of 'moving towards' a healthier lifestyle, and we embraced these issues by consuming vast amounts of vegetables with our Sunday roast chicken, plus all the added goodness of that delicious fermented grape juice. 

 

I received my first commission of the year, to make a funky birthday cake.
Using my last year's successes as inspirations, I came up with 'Bartholomew', the latest hedgehog cake.

I wasn't present at the sacrificial devouring of the above, but I am told he was delicious, and the birthday girl ate so much she became very ill. As she was 24 and not 4, another explanation of the sickness was an excessive intake of fermented grape-juice and other related products.

Here is Bartholomew looking decidedly anxious.
 The candles have been lit and now the knife approaches................

As well as earning money baking a cake, I have been boosting my overdraft by helping Sam out at Thyme and Tides in Stockbridge, when they were a KP down.  Sam very cunningly didn't tell me that my duty on 'Fish and Chip Friday' was to help cook, and well as wash up!  But after a quick tutorial, we made a dangerous team, rapidly producing succulent fish, chips and peas, whilst singing along to our faves.  

We did salad and squid too, yum yum.  Well worth a visit for a Friday evening treat.

http://thymeandtidesdeli.co.uk/fish-chip-night/

As me and Mr Cooper continue on the mammoth task of de-cluttering (nearly a month, now!)  I keep coming across paintings from more than a year ago.
It is always interesting to view old work after a long absence. 
I loved seeing my two paintings, based on the medieval bestiaries which tell stories of how the natural world was perceived, all those many years ago.


In this one, hedgehog parents roll in the fallen grapes, in order to bring back food for their babies.
As they are feeding their young, they are acting very responsibly, and avoiding any grapes that have started to ferment.

And in this painting, it shows you how to steal a tiger cub away from it's mother. You never know when this method may come in handy. You put a mirror on the ground, and when Mummy Tiger looks into it and sees her reflection, she thinks she is seeing the face of her cub.  Act quickly, as now is your chance to gather up said cub, and gallop away with it.  so do not attempt this manoeuvre if you have no mirror, or horse.

Don't worry or be sad, in this particular story, the woman feels so remorseful after a few galloping strides that she returns the the cub to his mother.  She is doubly pleased, for now she can gaze on both her own and her cub's beautiful face.

And as for stories of the week, this is my favourite.  In fact, favourite of the whole year so far, even including our book group's choice.

In this story, the main thread is of a surgeon's survival of himself and some of the men under his command.  They are captives in a Japanese POW camp, on the Burma Death Railway.  Threads from this story untangle and form their own story, whilst still being attached to the main thread.
What is really very good is the way the differences in different cultures are shown.
And throughout, in the midst of enormous depravity and brutality, so much so that reading about it is sometimes challenging, are the most beautiful Japanese haiku verse.

In this world

                       we walk on the roof of hell

              gazing at the flowers.

Issa

I would say this book definitely approaches, if not actually becomes, a 'must read' novel. Not 'you should' but 'this should be compulsory'.

Back to the writing that I am/should be doing..............

As I think a little more about the cookery book that will be written by me, images of tea parties from previous years are discovered in old sketchbooks.

This day of cooking with my friend Sarah was always undertaken with the intention of becoming the  inspiration for food art, which it was.  I am gazing at the image now, hoping it will inspire me with ideas for illustrations for my, as yet, transparent cookery book.

Back to actual baking, this weekend we had a late Burns night, and I made an Ecclefechan Tart from 'Jamie's Great Britain'.  It is so delicious that I have added the recipe to the end of this blog.  If you like whisky and dried fruit, this is a 'must eat'.  Do make sure you also make the accompanying cream to go with it.  Both the tart and the cream are contain black treacle, providing such an intense and elusive depth of flavour.

 And now, to a photograph that definitely shows the present and the past.  This is me, cooking the last ever Sunday roast in the old kitchen.  The very next day most of the kitchen was removed to be re-constructed by Shawn, Toby and B&Q.  Shawn and Toby were absolutely amazing, and B&Q were satisfactory, in the end.  The sales assistant who 'helped' us was also absolutely amazing, but in a different way.  I had thought that employees should have greater product knowledge than members of the public.  Well, it was 3 hours in B&Q that I will always remember!

 

So the next photograph you see of me in this familiar pose will be less familiar...............
I might be wearing the same apron , but the transformation around me will be amazing!  In fact, I might even look a little better, as I am having my eyebrows done next Friday.

On another amazing note, one of my resolutions was to regularly swim 1 mile.  This morning, after having been stuck at half a mile for a little while, I swam 3/4 mile. (This is amazing for me...)
And as for the other amazing occurrence this week (well, another was that Mr Cooper had to be up at 7.30 am, Monday to Friday)  I have decided to become a user of 'Instagram', when I can find a younger one to explain it all to me, very carefully and slowly.  And hopefully kindly.

I hope you have a productive and happy week ahead.  Keep a look out for snowdrops now.  Always such a welcome sight, the beginning of the end of winter.  Take care and keep warm, I am looking forward to catching up with you again next week.