Friday 30th October - Restless

 Oh yes, I am feeling very restless these days, while at the same time full of a dead-weight inertia which mostly prevents the restlessness from turning into anything active.

So he goes off for a brisk stroll around the block, come wind, come weather, while I stay inside and do... well, not a lot. It's half-term, I tell myself. I can be on holiday for a week.

We did get out twice this week; on Monday, or maybe it was Tuesday, certainly wasn't Wednesday - what day of the week is it anyway, and does it matter? Anyway, earlier this week we went out, ignoring the dark clouds building up in the direction we were headed which was a nature reserve called Ebernoe Common. Halfway there it was clear that the rain which had just started wasn't going to stop, so we changed our plans and headed home along a different route to avoid the roadworks we had just spent ten minutes hanging around in.

This meant we passed a Quaker Meeting House called The Blue Idol, which I have always wanted to visit. 'Turn right up ahead', I called out, and he did, with admirable caution as the right turn was on the point of a blind bend.  

It was well worth the diversion. The rain eased as we parked in a space outside the building, and the small garden was open.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Idol_Quaker_Meeting_House,_Coneyhurst,_West_Sussex_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1523865.jpg

The meeting room wasn't open, but we were free to wander round the garden - very informal, very peaceful, just the sound of birdsong and dripping leaves. It was very like this picture - if you go on their website you will be able to discover more about this lovely place.

Today we went out again, even though it was raining and grim outside. I had read about this curious abandoned church in woods near Petworth, above a hamlet called Bedham. I recommend you follow up the link - turns out that this tiny hamlet was a centre of artistic endeavour, including the place where Elgar wrote his cello concerto - who knew!

It rained all the time, but since the church is deep in the woods, it wasn't too wet.

The church was built in the 1880s on a flat ledge of land just below the road, surrounded by trees. During the week it was used as a school for local children; on Friday afternoons they turned all the desks round to face the east ready for Sunday services.

  

The beech leaves were everywhere, totally covering the ground, a wonderful bright copper colour. Apart from a despondent donkey, braying in the misty fields below the place was deserted - until a family with three young children and a wildly over-excited labrador came tumbling down the path and began traversing the muddy slopes above the church - at least the children and dog took to the woodlands, the adults were more - adult.

I've been driven crazy by having 'restless legs' this evening - it happens every so often and is extremely irritating. A glass of ginger wine, some gouda and black pepper biscuits, and typing up this blog seems to have effected a cure.

I'm typing too fast and making the keys rattle, so it is getting hard to listen to the gang on 'Have I Got News For You' - time to stop...

 

Tuesday 20th October - To Do Lists

 I reckon to-do lists are 

amazingly useful

helpful to keep on top of things

a bit of a bore

a total waste of time

It all depends on - well - things. How I feel. How much I have got on my mind.

I've reinstated them after a couple of week's break, and it is noticeable that updating the blog has appeared as a recurring item for a while now. 

So, here I am.

What has happened since the last post - hmm. To quote number one daughter; 'same old same old'. Which is a hugely unsatisfactory answer to be on the receiving end of, but, actually, pretty much describes things. Piano teaching, trying to do a drawing a day, thinking about going out, but not actually making it out of the front door because it looks cloudy or cold or as if it is going to rain - life is full of excuses.

We did go and see the sea a few days ago - everything oddly shiny silver grey - depending on where you looked at the horizon, the sea was darker than the sky, or the sky was darker than the sea, or they were the same colour and you couldn't tell where one stopped and the other began. It was a Saturday afternoon - the weekend isn't a good time to go out as everyone else does the same, so walking along the path is a complex series of chess moves. It is noticeable how attitudes to giving each other 2m, or even 1m, space have changed over the past month. 

The garden is my salvation. It is full of surprises; the climbing nasturtium seeds I planted back in the summer and gave up all hope of have made it to the top of the fence, forcing their way through the passion flower vine and are now flowering. I suspect they have gone over the fence to next door for a quieter life, rather as Tigger the cat used to go next door (to the other side) when we had visitors with small children.

I shall go and walk the card round to the post box card once the paint is dry, and I've finished typing this blog post. Hopefully the threatened rain won't happen until after I get back.

Christmas is in my thoughts now. I shall have to think about teaching Christmas Carols again - Jingle Bells and all that - soon after half term. Half term will start on next Saturday afternoon (I have piano zooming in the morning); I have managed to get hold of a lino-printing kit which I am desperate to get stuck into (literally!) but am restraining myself until I have the time and space to give it my full attention. We did lino printing at school a hundred years ago when I was about 12, and I've always wanted to do it again. The sound of the roller going over and over the deliciously tacky ink - ahhh.

I've got 'making a list of ingredients for home-made mincemeat' on my to-do list, for the next grocery order. It's a long time since I bought mincemeat as I have found most of the brands, even 'luxury' once sadly disappointing. Th same goes for bought mince pies - but I'll eat them rather than go without!

Right. Time for the gallery - so if you like you can click away to something else now... 

I thought I'd see whether washing over the ink drawing would improve them;

There are two pages for the prompt 'teeth'; this is the second because I wasn't pleased with the coloured one of the zipper

 

This is the first picture I did for 'teeth'.

It was around this time I gave up on the prompts and decided to go my own way!

This is another one that I went over with wash to see how it changed - the first version is a bit further up

This page unintentionally left blank. I might fill it up with something at some stage...

We had beds a bit like this (smaller, and plainer) at boarding school, with horsehair mattresses dated '1943' in laundry ink at one end. 

The day before yesterday

Yesterday

and today. On youtube there is a version of 'My heart's in the highland' Robert Burns, set by Arvo Part, which is bleakly beautiful, and I copied this from the black and white photograph accompanying the recording as I listened.

Right. Coat and hat and gloves and scarf and go and post that letter.

Friday 9th October - where did the time go?

 I was looking at the last post and saw it was dated 30th September - I hadn't realised nine days had gone by.

October now. There has been a Harvest Moon (missed it - oh well) and INKTOBER is well under way - an internet challenge to post a picture created using inkpen every day. The official site has a list of daily prompts, and so far I am only one day behind.

Here they are

1 Fish

2 Wisp

3 Bulky

4.Radio

5 Blade

6 Rodent

7 Fancy

8 Teeth

I didn't like what I did for this one yesterday, so will be re-drawing it.

9 Throw

Haven't done this yet

But this leads me on to the cabled blanket that I was painstakingly trying to rescue in the last post. I tinked all the way back and then started knitting again, only to discover so many problems along the way that I decided 'enough is enough' and frogged it back to nothing.

I'm much happier with this; 

I've decided to use up all the wool (two balls) to make one giant granny square. It is already the size of a cushion, and I can just go round and round and round and round while listen to audio books and podcasts or watching television, using hardly any brain at all.

What else is new? I don't know. I feel as though I'm living inside a Barbara Pym novel, 200 or more pages of trivialities, none of which amount to much but taken as a whole, and written up in her style, magically become some kind of story. Only, as I am inside the story, I can't see the overall plot. 

I suppose there may be a story plot in this feeling of not having a plot - all a bit Alice in Wonderland.

Ah, yes, here's something to look in to - I've discovered that in the BBC sounds app you can find talking books to listen to. Alice in Wonderland is one of them. I shall make a cup of tea, or coffee, and have a listen.