The Idylls of Country Life

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where - ' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

' - so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

(Lewis Carroll)

Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash; that one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat (Mark Twain)

Life is too important to be taken seriously (Oscar Wilde)

Living in the Country is not as idyllic as one might imagine.

Being woken up by cows tapping is not the way I chose to re-enter the world of reality. Tapping? Yes, tapping: caused by the cow scratching its face against a metal pillar and something metal on the cow (I don’t even want to being to imagine what) tap-tapping against the post.

Then there is the Wild Life which ends up in my lounge in the early hours of the morning. And I don’t mean the drunk and disorderly lads from the local pub. I mean dismembered, deceased (or dying), dripping blood, or occasionally whole and live animals from the neighbouring field. An artfully draped bird the size of a chicken dripping blood from the shelf at the foot of the stairs, is quite a gruesome sight first thing in the morning. It causes me to shriek rather loudly and inelegantly. Perhaps that is why Izzi brings these ‘gifts’ to share with us… or perhaps she is presenting them as warnings to watch our step…   

Last week Lily was getting rather hysterical about something behind the armchair. In my wisdom, I pulled the chair back to see what was causing the consternation. Mistake! Lily dived in, grabbed the dismembered creature and made off to the garden where she starting munching on the lower torso of the freshly killed baby rabbit. I went out o take it away from her. A garden chase ensued, with me running, and shouting loudly, after Lily, who dodged round and round the garden and the shed. Now and again she would try frantically to bury the body. I finally managed to get her inside so I could dispose of the body. As I picked it up the innards slithered onto to the ground, with more flying out as I hurled the wretched half-body into the field. I had visions of the entrails flying and landing on my face and head as I threw it, making some awful noises (I did wonder what the neighbours thought). Luckily this did not happen!

Recently Lily greeted Tom and I on our arrival home most excitedly, she wanted to show us her new ‘toy’ and shook it in her mouth at us. As it was a ‘toy’ courtesy of Izzi, it caused me to shriek (again). I asked, “Is it a real, live rabbit??!” Tom calmly answered that it was no longer a live rabbit. Much to Lily's displeasure, he had to remove and dispose of the tiny dead body. She is never quite sure, I think, whether to take the strange vociferous utterings coming from her human as signs of encouragement or disapproval... 

Although we are in the Country, we do have a main road running in front of our house. The view right outside my study window recently, in the middle of the road, was a dead fox. A tiding of magpies swooped down and started snacking on the carcass, right in front of me! I had always thought magpies were herbivorous, but obviously not.

I find it all rather traumatic. Nothing charming, serene or tranquil about this rural life!

Deconstructing a Moleskin

Reconstruct  the world by reconstructing your mind (Unknown)

 

Some ideas occur to you only once in your whole lifetime.  Some ideas are truly the rarest of rare species, delicately balanced and inflated little soap-bubbles (Kenneth Smith)

We are swinging round the circle (Andrew Johnson)

It's easier to think outside the box if you don't draw one around yourself (Jason Kravitz)

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt (Sylvia Plath Hughes)

I deconstructed my Moleskin. I carefully unpicked the centre stitching and removed each double page. In a frenzied obsessive burst of creativity I have reconstructed each page, lovingly: with mindfulness, yet daring-to-let-go of perfection and control and just embrace the inner passion that needs to be expressed. I am aware that you might perhaps look and wonder and judge, but my little pages are my precious expressions of Self. Tread lightly with your judgement for you tread on the terrain of my soul. 

I do not have a box around me: I am standing on top of my Box. I am swinging around the edge of the circle in an ever-increasing arc.

Sometimes the smooth, neat, perfect pages of our Lives need to be deconstructed so that we can re-construct and move forward on a little, or Big, journey to new places, new spaces. I am ready to deconstruct the skeletal frame of my existence… 

I am still contemplating how to re-construct each of the individual little pages of my Moleskin. into a 'whole' again. Coptic stitching, loose pages in a box (as suggested by Tom)…? Decisions...

In the Pink

Ok, so the photo has nothing what so ever to do with the blog other than the colour is right!

Everyone is the monkey in their own zoo, the clown of their own circus, the master of their own disaster! (Unknown)

What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

(Bumper Sticker Wisdom)

So instead of putting colour in my dry hair and leaving it on for 15 minutes and then washing it, like normal people do… I decided that I would apply the colour with my conditioner (I am sure I remember my hairdresser, Alex telling me that this was a good time to apply colour because the hair shafts/follicles? were ‘open’ from washing the hair…?)

I climb into the shower and wash my hair. I then reach out for the little bowl of colour I have prepared: a splodge of ‘Magenta’, a squirt of ‘Rich Wine’ and a dollop of ‘Foxy Red’. I add the conditioner and apply to my hair with my hands, working the coloured conditioner through the hair. All the while my eyes are closed… I rinse the conditioner, open my eyes and eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! It looks like a particularly violent murder has been committed in the shower! The walls are splattered with pinky-red ‘blood’! So are my hands AND my body!

I look in the mirror, and my face is very much in-the-pink! Needless to say I spend the next half an hour, with nothing on, but a towel on my head, cleaning the aftermath of the blood-bath (rather blood-shower).

So today I have rosy pink flushed cheeks, looking very much in the pink... and very pink hands.

Note to self: 
wear gloves and hat when venturing out for next few days;
do NOT show any part of your anatomy to anyone; 
next time you colour your hair: follow instructions on packaging!! 
And always wear the plastic gloves provided – it saves having your hands as a ‘conversation-piece’ when you venture into public, and have to try and explain for the umpteenth time why your hands are bright luminous pink!

Irresistable urges

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist (Albert Einstein)

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to play of imagination is incalculable (Carl Jung)

The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person (Frank Barron)

My creativity has been dormant for a while. Earlier this week though, I was like a creature obsessed. My art making paraphernalia were scrabbled out of the cupboards. I was on a mission to make art. I worked in my journals, using older art: ripping, tearing, cutting, collaging, I created in frenzy. But at the same time, on another level, it was a calm meditation time for me; I was oblivious to the world and felt a little harried when the world intruded on my fantasical haven.

I was quite caught up and fascinated by this irresistible urge to create. My desk although I attempted to tidy it, still bears remnants of this mad spree.

If I just let go, what other irresistible urges will emerge?

On emptiness

Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them  (William Arthur Ward)

We put thirty spokes to make a wheel; but it is on the hole in the centre that the use of the cart hinges.

We make a vessel from a lump of clay; but it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.

We make doors and windows for a room; but it is the empty spaces that make the room liveable.

Thus, while existence has advantages, it is the emptiness that makes it useful

(Lao Tzu c.604 - 531 B.C.)

My life is emptier than it was last week. My heart is broken. My little Precious has gone off to university. A new journey for Ariél; a new beginning. I wish her a journey full of EMPTY moments that she will fill to the brim with usefulness and FUN.

In the empty spaces left by Ariél not being here, I am going to sew more; make more art; study more; be wilder. 

Plan of action for tomorrow:

Start the day filling an EMPTY stomach with homemade Green Monster Juice + fruit salad = RAW

Do the washing so the washing basket is empty (but the washing machine, folding and putting away pile and ironing pile will be full…)

Start sewing the dress for work – all-dressed-up-and-nowhere-to-go!

Fill empty moments with useful ones.

I was delighted by this picture outside my window last week. Sunrise. SUN. Winter in the northern hemisphere is quite long and bleak with many grey days. When I do see sun, I am elated; I really appreciate the sunny days – they are the gorgeous golden honey replacing emptiness with beauty and hope.

So, little Ariél – make each day FABULOUS, take note of the emptiness-es and decide whether they need filling, or whether they need to be empty for you to replenish and re-fill your chi… Enjoy your university life both the full-to-the-brim moments, and the reflective empty ones. 

Cirque du Soleil

Its time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap

(Stephen Schwartz)

I have grown to love the unexpected, for in it is the miraculous, here is where we are shown, events that create our lives to be more enjoyable, more loving, more adventurous than anything we ever could have planned. When we let go and trust, the mundane of life becomes the profound. Leave your concepts at the door of fate, open your arms. Today is [going to be] a good day.

(Marlise Karlin)

I have always wanted to watch a live Cirque de Soleil. Ariél decided that for our 30^th Wedding Anniversary she would give us tickets to see a live Cirque de Soleil show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/totem/default.aspx

This show was called Totem. It “traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations.

Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species.

Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential”.

It was an experience that appealed to the senses. The location: the Royal Albert Hall is very majestic, but seemed quite happy to welcome and cradle this show in its bosom. The lights and set design blended effortlessly into the Victorian décor as there is an underlying Darwinian feel to the theme.

The costumes reflected the seasons, with bright colours on the summer beach, a sense of autumn harvest in the unicycle jugglers’ costumes and a wintery feel to the roller skaters’ white fur Apache-Indian costumes at the end.

There was a wonderful sense of continuity between acts as characters from one act blended into the next.

What struck me most about the acts was the sense of trust between each performer. In order to let go and know that your partner is going to catch you before you fall you must trust them absolutely. Absolute trust equals going to new and higher heights together. I really liked that. I also enjoyed the coloured thread of humour that ran through the show.

What a treat!

Thank you, Ariél!

Last day in Rome

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832)

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science (Albert Einstein 1879 - 1955)

Today was our last day: our last day in Rome; our last day to spend with Roarke and Gina.

We planned to see the Sistine Chapel today. With much excitement we set off with ideas of seeing Michelangelo’s famous ceiling paintings. It was not to be. The walk took almost an hour, and then, en route, an elderly gentleman called out to us that the chapel was closed (it being Boxing Day).

Disappointed we headed back to the apartment where Roarke and Gina were staying, passing through a street market on the way. This market became the setting for a special moment for me. At one of the stalls there were Tibetan singing bowls for sale. The man at the stall asked if he could make one sing for me. I selected one and he coaxed the most beautiful pure sound from it that sent shivers down my spine. I placed my hands together at my heart and bowed thank you. He acknowledged my thanks with thesame gesture back to me. This little interaction made my day.

Some of the group went and collapsed at the apartment. But for some of us, after this very long walk, a hot chocolate was called for.

After this sustenance, Ariél and I decided to visit the Castel Sant'Angelo. To do this we had to cross the beautiful bridge over the river Tiber, with its many ethereal angels guarding the way. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. It was incredible to walk down corridors that are almost 2000 years old and touch the stone work that is astoundingly neat and regular.

Had to share one last hot chocolate and a big hug with Roarke and Gina before we headed off to the airport back to London Gatwick…