Well, here I am now, hands poised above the keyboard, a couple of fingers a little tender from when I had gathered stinging nettles earlier, to make an infusion with which to add to my evening G and T.
A couple of my fingers have slight puncture wounds, from gathering the blackberries that flow from our neighbours gardens, over into our own. And lots of my fingers are painted green, because I am poised at the keyboard because I now have a two hour window of opportunity between applying the first and second coat of paint to the kitchen walls. Are you beginning to get the picture?
Lets go back a month or so, and look at the larger things that have taken up a chunk of my time, such as a two week holiday in Corsica, and then then the smaller but also very important things, such as recent artworks, and travels to Scotland.
So lets start in Corsica, in Calvi, to be precise.
There were many things that were great about Calvi, the first being that it was only 10 minutes away from the airport. The second was that our small apartment was lovely, and in a gorgeous garden setting. Calvi town was not too big, with lovely waterfront restaurants plus a wonderful old town behind them, with The Citadel overlooking the town and the bay.
Here is a view from halfway up The Citadel, with part of the port area just in front, then the huge sandy beach following the coastline round.
The huge sandy beach was one of the reasons we had decided to visit Calvi.
When you enter The Citadel, you are climbing up narrow windy streets, with lots of really old dwellings on either side, before you come to the top to find the cathedral. This photo is showing you very little of all that, but is what is called an 'arty shot'. And, at the end of the day, that is what I am.
And here I am now after wandering through the waterfront restaurants, and pausing to enjoy a pint of chilled beer, before taking another 'arty shot'.
Could it be that I am an artist who also likes the odd drink?
But I think this one is my favourite, a view from our favourite beach-side restaurant, looking out over the bay. Don't you just love those orange umbrellas?
We had a lovely two weeks in Calvi, waking up late each day then enjoying breakfast in bed, before ambling out to also enjoy a day on the beach. Our only decisions to make were a) where to make our camp, b) where and when to eat and c) how many times do we float/snorkel in the warm sea?
Then in the evening it was a) where to eat and b) where to sit back and enjoy a drink or two in the warm evening, watching the world go by.
Another amazing thing about where we stayed was that we gained a cat for the holiday, who we called Stripey. She appeared the first evening when we returned from our evening out, and came in with us and sat in front of the fridge. So each night we made sure we had some Stripey food ready, and placed bets as to where she would emerge from, when we neared the apartment. Sometimes she was up the tree, or under a car, and sometimes, sitting on the doorstep. Sometimes she came before we went out and enjoyed some hors d'ouvres, then returned when we did to tuck into the main course.
It was lovely to have loving cat company every night, as after her food, she settled down to spend an hour or two on my knee, purring happily.
We really enjoyed lots of things about Corsica, and Calvi in particular. The weather was great and the food was amazing, and we would have loved to have stayed longer than two weeks.
When we got back to the UK our holiday wasn't over as we took Mum over to Portishead, to stay a few days with Mark and his family.
We tried something that I had wanted to for ages, and that was paddle-boarding. Not as easy as it looks, although I did manage to stand up, seconds before enjoying a cooling dip in the tidal swimming pool and boating lake in Clevedon.
Having viewed the photos of me on the paddle-board, I decided that a year of very little exercise, apart from walking, was taking its toll, and having decided to launch into a dynamic fitness regime in September, we returned to Selsey where we both launched ourselves into a wartime recipe of
sausage-stuffed baked potatoes. We did have them with a large amount of runner beans, as we returned to find we had a very large amount of runner beans in our garden.
Perhaps next year I won't plant all the beans in the packet..... but I will make this meal again!
In between gathering beans and harvesting courgettes, as soon as I returned it was to create two works of art for two very different exhibitions, with only a fortnight in which to do so. The first exhibition was for Trinity, where friends, families and a few dignitaries had been invited to see what the art groups had been up to, since our exhibition at Tate Modern. The work I created was made to show just how quickly someones home life can change from being very comfortable to extremely precarious. I think a lot of people go through life without realising this, and sadly some people go through life without caring about this, either.
And as 'text' and 'communication' were two of the ideas behind the exhibition, it seemed apt to add
one of my screen prints which is very much about both of those, entitled 'And You're So Well Read'.
The exhibition went very well, with a steady stream of visitors, tea and cakes, and music provided by a local (and very good) ukulele band called The Shedettes.
Then two days later, it was the annual art exhibition in Selsey, run by Arts Dream Selsey.
It was touch and go as to whether my latest painting entitled 'Seagull by the Sea' would be part of the exhibition as it was only completed the day before the start of the exhibition. Sadly I wasn't able to see the exhibition for as soon as I had dropped my paintings off, it was time to start my journey to Glasgow, to help my brother Simon who was hosting the UK Singlespeed Championships 2019.
www.facebook.com/Singlespeed-UK-Championships...
Mr Cooper did attend the exhibition, and took a picture of my 'Blackbird' series, which were also part of the exhibition. Hopefully next year I will be in Selsey at the time of the exhibition, not only to visit, but to help with the stewarding. https://www.facebook.com/artsdreamselsey
But this year I did have a lot of fun helping with a bike race instead.
My son John was coming with me to help too, so Wednesday found me driving from Selsey to Andover to pick up John and his tent, then onwards to Peterborough to spend the night with Mum. Thursday found us back in the car but this time it was 'destination Glasgow', where we were to spend the night with Si, Nik and Lu, before we all set off for the race destination at Comrie Croft in Perthshire. http://www.comriecroft.com/
If you are a fan of both mountain biking and camping, then Comrie Croft is the place to be. If you like the bike bit but would prefer glamping, excellent facilities and a fantastic cafe, then Comrie Croft is also the place to be.
When we all got there, plus Olivia and Jon, some of us set out with Simon to visit Glen Turret, the oldest Scottish distillery, to collect some prizes they had kindly donated. Glen Turret was absolutely charming and very small, but you will have to imagine all that for the only photo I took there was of a wonderful sculpture that they had outside Glen Turret. If you enlarge the image, the spot of red on the cow's back hoof is in fact a beautiful ladybird.
As I do spend much of my day as an artist working alone, it was great to be helping at this event....I had to do so much talking, hurrah! On Friday it was to spend a couple of hours 'meeting and greeting' the arrivals, and telling them where to camp and sign in. It was lovely to meet again two of Simon's Uni friends. I hadn't seen Tim since Simon's 40th birthday party, but I usually see Michael every couple of years or so.
On Saturday morning it was good to spend another couple of hours signing people in, handing out 'goody bags' and information, to be followed by a four hour stint as a race marshall.
Here I am with fellow marshall Tim, one of Si's Uni friends. As well as doing our job properly, there was lots of time to catch up, with much laughter. Here we are at the end of our duties, standing just before the campsite,
And below is the campsite. The building with the grass roof on the right had a large firepit for cooking on. And from this building we enjoyed Dhal, grilled paneer and flatbreads on Friday night (thanks Olivia and Jon, delicious) and a hog roast on Saturday which again was delicious.
The yurt to the left had the stage for the Saturday band, and the brown gazebo in front of it was a most important structure, the beer tent!
There is one thing I have found out about Singlespeed cyclists, racing like that makes them very thirsty indeed and on Saturday night I went to bed earlier than most, at 2.30am.
Then on Sunday, after packing things away, it was to reverse the journey, arriving back in Selsey on Tuesday. And after sampling much Motorway Service Station food, I agreed with son John that MacDonald's were far better than Burger King, though neither were my foods of choice.
Sadly I knew that shortly after I returned from Scotland, me and Mr Cooper had a funeral to attend. The last funeral I had attended was of one of my aunties, who had died, after an extremely full life, at the age of 98. We really did feel that we were celebrating her past life.
I had known David Carson since working at St Luke's school in Southsea in 1998 and he and his partner Sue became good friends of both myself and Mr Cooper. We enjoyed many varied jaunts together from dining out in Southsea to theatre visits, and Mr Cooper and David walked regularly together until the end of April this year.
It was with great sadness that we learnt how seriously ill David was, and four months later we were all joined in celebrating his full, but all too short life.
My thoughts and love are very much with his partner and soul-mate Sue, and all their children at this very sad time. It was a pleasure and an honour to have been a part of their lives together.
Nobody knows what is lurking just around the corner. It may be something wonderful, or something that will bring sadness. With this in mind, don't dismiss the present moment by being 'too busy'.
Find some time to share good things with partners, friends and family.
And above all, try to be what David was throughout his life, and that was kind.
