how 'bout I wear one?

 a week of peace allows ideas to evolve and also come to fruition, 5 small doggie brooches; they are for sale at 15 10 euro's a piece, will make a shop page later, off for an evening walk with friends

rough idea of size in relation to human being

boredom

my shadow on Bodmin Moor

I had decided for this week at least to try staying at home, no looking for distractions, no excuses for not being here
being here and trying to figure out what it is that matters, truly matters
a holiday from everything then

my boring life, nothing like what I see on facebook, where we're all doing exciting stuff or else we're sharing what we eat

Sunday friend M dropped by, we went for a walk, talked; I pottered a bit in the garden and the studio, read an Agatha Christie
Monday 2 friends with 2 dogs came to visit, we went for a walk and talked, more of the pottering in garden,  studio
Tuesday drove youngest to the station, went to the dentist, venturing farther than I had wanted to, but still pretty mundane and back home back to the business of pottering, more reading, also lots of staring at skies, insects flitting, toads hopping, birds feeding, the dog lying in the sun and the shade

lying  on the grass, when had I last done that? Django was quite excited and wanted to play, the smell of grass, the warmth of the sun. the skin prickly, sweaty, thoughts drifting

Wednesday a phonecall from a friend closeby, within walking distance if I had time to drop by and welcome home her boyfriend, returning from a cycling tour? yes, I have time; later on a drive to collect son, becoming calm within despite these activities

lots of sketching, collages in several notebooks, catching up on these slow paced activities, how much have I missed these

past year has been so hectic with job-related unknowns, still doubting how to proceed, leaving that in the background as much as possible for now

started sewing again, yoga each morning, enjoying that

4 wooden stamps bought in Eden project shop

testing, have cut off left and right strips, they will become something else

doggy chasing leaves

a day later it seems so mean, not letting the dog ever being able to catch those leaves, am tempted to make a small pillow with doggy and leaves and use the dotted fabric for something else

the light tree I do like like this

Father John Misty, loving all he sings and says, just listen

home after a week away

books I bought in the UK

2a

2b

Imagine this: I'm still wearing my pyjama's, a grey mismatch, covered in stains from having cut fresh turmeric yesterday for a courgette soup, and what I think is a coffee stain on my left leg; I say 'still' as it's 1:30 pm and I am gradually starting to feel in a true holiday mood, letting self relax into what are to be, one hopes, two weeks of TIME to do whatever I like. I am finally sitting in the studio with yet another mug of strong tea and a desk full of books, receipts, feathers, cards, the usual bits and bobs reminding me of where we have been.

'Cos we have been away on a holiday.

We spent the first of my 3 week holiday mostly in Cornwall, and when I say we, I mean the husband and I. We motored through Belgium and in France to Calais, through the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone. Then a long drive through West Sussex (I think) Dorset and Devon, all of which we adore and love, we really like being in England together. The landscape, the scale of it, the language, the people, the cream teas, the gardens the bookshops and so on and so forth.....

I buy so many books for many reasons, the book shops close to home don't have nearly enough English titles in English in store, one has to order and wait a week and drive back and forth into town, the parking malarky etc, the library is much the same, so I often resort to amazon, which is okay I guess, but not for the independant bookshops; hence the 2 stacks of books bought at several small, independent book shops and Monk's House museum in the UK

The Cook Book in St. Just

The Book Ferret in Arundel

Kim's Bookshop in Arundel

oh yes, I also bought one on our last day's shhopping at a tesco's supermarket in Ashford, because of the title 'the trouble with goats and sheep' reminding me of Grace

I notice several things about the books I have bought:

some were intentional buys, I had read reviews and written authors' names and booktitles so I knew what to look for in the shops.

Most of the others have either animals in the title or are about the Bloomsbury group, add a couple of Agatha Christies and I am a very happy customer.

Over the years I have managed to assemble quite a nice collection of books about this group, image 2b, the stack on the right includes all my  Bloomsbury-related books.  This year we managed to visit yet another one of their homes: Monk's House Rodmell, Lewes as it happend to be on our way to Cornwall.

Don't even think for a moment that we are organised or anything like that; we kind of knew we wanted to go to Cornwall, but had nothing booked except the ticket through the tunnel on Thursday 10 August at a very early hour....I tried booking a place to stay the weekend just before we were meant to leave, no luck there as Cornwall is a very popular holiday destination and this being the high season, I couldn't find a vacancy in our price range.  I was getting a bit nervous. 'Not to worry' the man said (which could also be his middle name as far as I'm concerned) Monday evening saw us drifting through all airb&b has to offer and we managed to book several b&b's for most nights and payments went well, so he was proven right (as per usual, I suppose I should listen to him more often)

There was a slight hiccup the following morning as our reservation for 3 nights was cancelled by the owner due to family business, so yet again, after a long day in the office for both of us, we spent another evening searching for an airb&b somewhere we thought we might want to stay, we moved about quite abit I can tell you. Finally we did manage to find an even better place down in St. Just's at the tip of Cornwall*, a very romantic little holiday retreat for 2 as it turned out. Boy, was I ready to be off!

* Poldark country as it is now known, after a recent BBC series, which we will of course have to watch as we have now hiked all over the Poldark landscape!

back home: at last a bit of sunshine at the end of the day

the infamous soup, suddenly looking at the table through Dana's eyes: it is set!

baking almond flour cake (no longer tolerate gluten) lime zest, black sesame and poppy seeds, soon to come out of the oven

at last something for the dye pot: very thin cotton strip wrapped 'round avocado and onion peels, rolled and bound into copper pot, hoping this will also improve markings and colourations

Back home I get to read the news, it comes in waves and circular movements as I browse the week's old newspapers; we did not listen to the radio, watch tv or buy a paper, wifi reception was lousy so saw nothing on the laptop, the occasional glance on our phones in towns and museums to check on family apps if all was well back home.

I am horrified by what has been happening in the US, such sad news

to be continued

3 graces

it started off with me picking up acorns, quite absentmindedly on the walks in the nearby woods and once back home looking at them again and noticing how they kind of reminded me of tiny breasts, all very shiny and new; anyway, forgetting them for a bit and then a couple of days later seeing those beautifully rounded fresh green acorns had withered away and become small, brown and not nearly as attractive as before, as if they had, how to put it delicately imploded, deflated - maybe not so delicate then - a bit like how my own body is evolving, despite my efforts to keep in shape, practicing yoga, going for long walks and eating the right foods, along with of course coffee, chocolate, the occasional glass of wine (honest) and many mugs of tea, both herbal infusions as well as the dark stuff topped up with full fat milk!  a balanced diet so to speak

 this led to me wanting to use the acorns into making small dolls, with tiny beads for eyes, a mouth and a cunt (as it so happens I was not the only person with cunts on her mind, I refer of course to Grace's post 'how It is, or, appears to be', where she in turn points us towards the podcast The C-word in Kaizen's post  'words' ) and as I had 3 table-leg-stumps with which to make the type of doll I had in mind, I made 3 dolls, which of course led to them being nick-named The Three Graces, goddesses representing beauty, charm and creativity

they not only have each other for company, the long-fingered toad and the dashing Garden Tiger Moth immediately latched on, quite literally, realising something groovy could happen if they did their best tickling the Graces' fancies; who knows what could come (out) of this?

added bonus: dear friend J returned from Sweden bearing exquisite wicker work gifts: a picnic basket and the rug beater, which immediately set their excited minds racing.....


p.s. I have added a new page SHOP, which is a shop