Walked last weekend

Saturday: sunny weather: warmer outside than in: knowing it would be better if I removed myself from chores: cross bridge, walk along river bank: I never met anyone for an hour and a half.

When I arrived at Remerle I had to cross the dam....but not to the other side of the river.

 the mill is such a beautiful image when not in a photograph ... I have seen kingfishers here.

more wilderness...more wildness...

until the ford, where often I stop and stare, listening, on that other side where a red marker shows that once a sports event must have crossed here..

 onwards,

 before looking back...

then through rising woodland paths to the tea shop where I ate tuna and cucumber sandwiches with salad.
Sunday: after four to five hours of fork digging, removing weeds in 25m of lavender, rose and plants I decided to free acute backache with one or two Yogic exercises but the acute pain remained. I couldn't lift anything! BUT I could walk.  Along the road to The American Way, down to the ford, to the watermill and along the river.. now on this side...

At night the moon arrived at the end of my garden.
Saturday night: tawny owls were heard communicating with each other. One was definitely a male! I checked on the internet.

Art Course Posting Two

Some of my efforts:

Sarah Campbell listening and making her design into a lampshade...

Sarah does rhythm in pattern making with marks on textile as well as painting negative space and then filling with pattern marks.... It has taken me a while to understand her method! One could not emulate her style! She paints the negative space then makes printing marks and brush or foam painting parks.

Her brushes:

On the right are my bird paintings on paper which transformed when I copied them onto calico with fabric dye.  Everything acts differently, the paints, the brushes, the paper, the textile...and so new designs occur!

After that I tried two more calico paintings with making marks.

Art Course Posting One

In early September I went to Bradness Gallery in East Sussex
to be on a course with Sarah Campbell.
Last February or March I was recuperating from influenza when I heard on the radio about Sarah and the new book The Collier and Campbell Archive.   This led me to do internet search and I found myself excitedly making a phone call and booking a last place.   
I have one of their designs BAUHAUS as a metre plus length of material which I have not cut - I used it and use it as a tablecloth.  It was bought from Liberty's of London in about 1972 or 3. I had no money but hacd just started teaching. We went to Liberty to sell my former husband's silversmithing work.   I fell in love with Liberty's which I knew from my college days in London and just had to have that design necause I loved the bright geometry at a time when floral prints were all the rage!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself once I'd got over my lack of confidence in making marks on paper and material!   I was very envious of all the professional and amateur artists who said THEY lacked confidence!!!!!!  Everyone is at different levels.  It is how it should be in life!
BUT... I love well presented interesting food so just for the moment, never mind the ART!
The food was part of the artistic palette!  Lots of spices, almonds and pomegranates, fruits, meats, cheeses, vegetables.  MY style of food for lunch and evening meal. There was cake that we could help ourselves to ... but much as my eyes wished to eat them, my stomach dictated, 'No', apart from some very healthy flapjack!

French Fudge Cake

Bilberries and Pineapple

Aubergine something

Quiche

Leafy veg and roots salad

Strawberry and Pomegranate Pavlova

Emma Burnett - owner of the Bradness Art Gallery with Micheal Cruikshank. 

Emma and Mike were in the kitchen.  They were always cheerful, calm, welcoming, wonderful hosts, entertaining the course participants in their newly created work area in their own home.

Sarah Campbell... designer extraordinaire.. was so charming, peaceful, supportive, modest and taught by example.  She showed and shared with us her work and creativity.  I wanted to know more on how to make marks, use different brushes and implements but she moved onto free painting and negative spaces at which point I was lost!  Different people were at different levels and some really understood what she wanted us to do.  Others more experienced than me were ready for that stage!  I quickly learned to be happy doing my own thing, trying to do what I had seen her do. As I gained courage and self esteem I began to wander around the room and watch all the other guests at work.  I really valued the opportunity to be there. I was lucky.

Sarah's design

Sarah's design of silk scarf

The last one is mine .. to begin with I got angry working only in black, then she suggested we used another colour.  RED popped into my mind... 'ooh no' I said to myself ...;try calming blue' as all the while I kept saying to myself observing the rising anger "What is all this about?"
Then it came.. It was all about an incident that happened when I was at school as a teacher.  At the time it was annoying when the little boy had already blackened not only his own work but someone else's and was about to do the same to another!  Several years later the incident was brought up in the Spanish questionnaires from the County,  that I endured for four hours one day and four and half hours another day!  Hm... My headteacher did the same for longer for other transgressions or not!
It is clear that I am still angry about the whole set- up which brought my career to finality. I am glad I retired early! Anyway, moving on.

Bathing Solutions

I have just struggled for the last week wondering how I would get a proper wash. My brain gets very depressed if I don't shower or bath in HOT water.  The last time I was without a bathroom, shower or bath I went to my former partner's house every few days but he has sold up!  I could go round to a different friends' house as suggested but I don't like to intrude on family life.
The last time I was without the bath / shower facility I had hot water from a boiler plus with kettle water I filled two orange BnQ diy buckets and went to the outhouse where I had heated (no, NOT HEATED!!) the room with the electric radiator that is out there on the wall!  The temperature outside was minus 26C.
This time I have no hot water as the water boiler has broken and it has been noisy since October 2014.  The installer eventually came in May 2015, said he would contact the manufacturer and despite my phone calls never spoke to me again. In August the machine twice cut the general electricity in the house. I had been putting it on only when we needed bath water every three days as it made such a terrible noise.
Then I was told that the compressor is dead.  It has been installed in a room too small in cubic space. It has been installed without sufficient ventilation.  It was supposed to be energy efficient but hasn't been!  Now I await the third company involved to send me the devis (estimate of costs) to make it function.. it will soon be five years old! They say the manufacturer is involved but my French is struggling to fully comprehend. I WAIT!  I have been told I have no choice!  But surely, there is always choice! Eventually I shall need someone who is fluent at French  to speak to the original installer but when I know MY FACTS!
After one week, last Saturday, desperate to wash my hair, I spent a long time...about an hour ... heating a one litre kettle of water many times.  Then I thought 'let's try the micro wave oven' as my friend has recently given me one and all week I have been trying to use it!  Never had one before!  I have some small plastic bowls and the micro oven took 8 minutes to boil the water in a three litre one.   So that made the process quicker.  Meanwhile, the towel radiator was warming the room nicely!  Eventually, I had two and a half buckets, which with a little cold water was enough to sit in the bath and pour hot water over my head bowl by bowl. After which it was glorious to lie in less than two inches of water and splash about!
What a palava! Makes me appreciate water... and electricity... and how much water I am saving on the meter. That is a good thing because last six months bill was high. I had on two occasions left water running from the kitchen tap overnight!

Wendy Ann 2

I hope my son does not mind me publishing a pic of his home. When I deviated from my journey to make an intangible connection with my son, knowing he would not be there, I took a photo of his boat.  He and his wife live aboard this steel vessel called Wendy Ann 2.  I don't know how they managed without a shower or bath for over or about five years. When the generator packed in there was no electricity!
They are both phenomenal and if you'd seen this boat as a wreck, like many others you would have said they will never achieve their GOAL... but they have and are seemingly happy.
I am very pleased to know that they now have paid employment and are project managing and more for a construction company.  I understand that he is doing carpentry, making tables and recently made a fantail for a windmill! BRILLIANT. AWESOME! He can do welding and make almost anything out of new and recycled materials. His wife sadly had to close her livery as the premises got sold for housing development.  It was devastating just when the business was making even after five years hard labour and I mean hard.  The local community fought the proposals but lost. A sad day for stables, horses and green spaces in Epsom. How lucky she was to have her dream and I expect that one day she will do so again!

Laundry Room 2010

It was June 2010. My son is super strong and had built his muscles by learning to weld 2m x 1m  or larger thick steel sheets to repair his steel tug.  There were two days of hiring the jackhammer - le marteau-piquer: solid cement that had been poured next to the property had to be removed because we believed it was keeping damp within the interior side of the walls.  It was hard on my hands so we found an old saucepan made out of a weird lightweight material, (not for cooking for us!!) to scoop out debris. It was exceptionally hot on both occasions.

After all had been scooped out, we refilled with the larger stones, then the smaller ones, then covering all with large gravel. It is the width of 'my right' to access to my building but of course 'le droit d'echelle' needs more space for the ladder!  C'est un expression legale. As you see the render was falling off and it is worse now!  I must remember but I need a good Workawayer! The sand was not mine!

The first photo below shows the extent where the lead bath / trough was.. possibly for animal feed but where I am told the lady who spent her childhood here was bathed! Presumably, it was then in an extension to this buiding!
The second photo below shows where the water gutter from my building has to pass through a wall into my garden! Why it didn't go straight through at the higher height I don' know but the lower entrance is the height of the ground on the other side of the wall.

 The next photo shows bedrock that the house wall is built upon at the roadside.

After many hours labour, my son and I cooked sardines al fresco with new potatoes eaten with salads at a picnic table in the back garden. Despite angst we shared happiness whilst bonding mother and son. They were not easy days because of other stuff that was happening. LIFE!

 WELL, that was a long time ago!!! The hair shows fewer grey strands!