What have I been doing all this time? I haven’t done much studio work, which has put me into a very dark mood at times. Not that I haven’t had the opportunity – I somehow haven’t had the heart – I don’t know why, I have had a bad case of the ‘blues’! My dear friend Mary, who visited us from Kent a couple of weeks ago pointed out that I have had a lot on my plate, and a lot on my mind, and that maybe there just wasn’t the space to think about making new work. I suppose she’s right: when I add up the hours I spend on other things in the day, and when I think about the things I have had to do recently, there hasn’t been much space for creative ideas. I’m hoping this will change soon.
So what have we been doing? March was very cold, but when we had a fine day we spent some time on the waste ground opposite the house, clearing masses of brambles and nettles away. The pond is very silted up, too much for us to clear by hand, so that’ll have to wait, and it also needs a new liner, so it’s not a priority at the moment. But it was good to be working outside, rather than being cooped up indoors at the tail-end of winter. I have also been working on the garden. Having decided that I’d reinstate a ‘lawn’ I spent quite a few days clearing roots and stones, raking the soil and trying to get a flattish area to take the grass seed. I think I sowed the seed just after Easter, but the weather has been so cold and wet, it’s taken quite a while to establish.
At Easter we treated ourselves to an evening out to see the Man-Engine at Geevor Mine. This is a piece of performance art devised to celebrate the mining community: it’s a travelling show of a huge man-powered puppet of a miner, accompanied by a story adapted from the diary of a miner in the early 20th century.
We decided to see the evening performance, and thought that, as parking might be tricky, we’d leave the car at Botallack and walk the half-mile along the cliff path, counting on a full moon to see us back to the car safely. Best laid plans, as they say…
The moon became obscured by thick cloud, and although that section of path is quite wide, we had a tricky time of it, as it’s very rough underfoot! There was some ambient light, and using the torch on my phone we managed to negotiate the huge puddles and ruts that we’d taken note of on our walk earlier. Arriving home later, the moon sailed out to greet us from the mass of cloud!
We’d offered to help marshall the Gravity Buggy-racing at Tregeseal Hill on Easter Monday, so we were up early putting on the layers, ready for another long, cold stand-around. As it happened, the rain cleared away, and the event ran a dry course, which was brilliant. The entries ranged from the basic to the highly-engineered, with some wild ideas thrown in which looked as if they’d never last the course.
The cake buggy was easily the most impressive. The least aero-dynamic, it survived three heats, coming to a sad but impressive end on the fourth heat when it hit the straw bales at the finish line, soared up into the air and over the barricade, spectacularly hurling (real) cake everywhere – bloody brilliant!
- Real (vegan) cake – tons of it! Children were not allowed to eat it!
The following week seemed a bit quiet after that. I had a meeting to prepare for, and various jobs to do, Pete was re-routing the electrics in Bedroom 4, and replacing floorboards. At the weekend he went off to Kent to collect new doors and windows, leaving me a small quiet space to contemplate why I was so blocked with my work. There was no answer. I just didn’t want to work! But I did finish the design for the mural on the barn, and I painted that during the dry spells.
At the end of the month our friends from Kent came to stay for a few days. We haven’t seen them since last year, and it was lovely to catch up. We visited Tremenheere Sculpture garden, which is magical, and spent a day in St Ives (each time we go there it is sunny!)
Not having friends and family around now has left a big hole, and it takes a long time to make new and lasting friendships. This is probably part of my problem: whenever I was blocked before I could talk to other artist friends and something would always come up…now that support network isn’t there yet
The May Bank holiday weekend came and went, gloriously warm – followed by another week of changeable, chilly weather. Last Sunday we were having breakfast when we saw a cow at the end of the lane.
Pete went out to head her off while I called the neighbouring farmer, and between us we managed to corral her back into a field, after she’d knocked down a wooden prop to the owner’s chicken run and generally messed about – silly things, cows.
A few weeks ago I canvassed our neighbours about starting a book club, and the Dowran Women’s Book Club had its inaugural meeting on Thursday evening. There are six of us so far – maybe there’ll be more, but everyone seemed to welcome a chance to meet up, and we’ve given the local Library a list of books. Our next meeting will be early June, if the library can source the first book for us in time.
It’s raining again today.
The new grass is coming along nicely, a very bright green, and most of the plants have settled in. Pete has put the new small window in Bedroom 4, and I’m waiting for the weather to clear so that I can paint the garage doors and our new sign. Onward and upward!
pwilsonsmith 