The temperature and wind however were quite another matter.
An over large and over optimistic deck chairNormal sized deck chairs acting as windsocks.
Deck chairs had been put out but their only useful function was to act as windsocks.
On reflection and protection from a bitterly cold wind Lola dragged us into a warm cafe.
Lola staring into a cafe mirror.
Now the truth of this blog is that Lola is always a cafe dog. Even on our late night walks she is known for resting her brown nose on the door of any cafe that we have ever visited.
So a bit of very cold, very strong wind was absolutely in her favour. She doesn’t always get her own way. Today she did.
Our house faces East. The sunrise greets us every morning. Our evenings begin as the sun dips below the five storey houses that share our back lane to the West of us. Now there is more equilibrium to day v night and the mornings are brighter, every wake up is also an early prediction of the day ahead. Yesterday was as dull as ditch water. Today already promises to be better.
Spring is struggling to get a good hold on things. Which is doubly disappointing after a long wet winter. Boots not sandals are still the better bet for dog walks at either end of the day.
Is this still the scrag end of Winter? My clothing choices would suggest this is the case but early mornings are beginning to suggest that Spring is on the move. Easter weekend is upon us in a weeks time. 7 days to get Spring sorted out. No pressure.
So much for me being inspired to be creative yesterday. There were good creative intentions but there were some tedious domestic tasks that also needed attention. Somehow they became the focus of my need to be creative. And when I say tedious they were really very dull. Stuff needed to go into the roof space. Other stuff needed to come down. Car detritus from the old car needed sorting and put in the new car or the camper van. Along with daily domestica. However all those dull things achieved gave me a power burst and I framed some pictures, which is not the creativity I aspired to but is actually creative in its own way.
Two paintings are the illustrations for today. Done on 26th March in years past when my muse did not direct me to domestica. The 27th has not bloomed either, maybe the muse was just teasing me.
I don’t always know where a blog will take me, in the same way a dog walk can be an entirely different outcome from the one I imagined. So off we go with illustrations that were already chosen but a blog that will wander off a bit.
I chose sunflowers because today’s blog was going to be about thermal underwear. Because the sun is really making a sterling effort to turn up, bright and joyful in the sky. The temperature outside however is bone chillingly cold. Springlike clothes seem appropriate but layering is essential. The Covid years have given me a supply of thermal underwear that will outlast my lifetime.
I chose sunflowers because thermal underwear is not exciting and because one of my all time favourite photographs turned up on a time hop.
This simple bunch of sunflowers were laid on an altar in Havana 10 years ago. I was attracted to them for many reasons. At first glance they look a little like a sleeping person. Something that was all too obvious in the back streets of Havana, but also because their wrapping was simple newspaper, still bearing the crumpled hand print of whoever had laid them.
Sunflowers, although not flowers of Spring, somehow represent creativity to me because they are robust and vivid and Springtime seems to be the time to reset a creative phase. There is nothing fragile or whimsical about a Sunflower.
This one photo never fails to spark my creativity, which is where I go off on a tangent.
While walking the dog in my Springlike clothes with thermal underwear underneath, I met a friend who is a composer. Unlike me she has spent the winter months being creative, writing music and lyrics on a theme of Witches. Spring for her has seen the culmination of her creativity. I was quite put to shame by her productivity. She offered to make me a coffee and then shared two of her compositions. Singing to me as we sat in her light filled room.
I was immediately inspired to come home and get back on the creative borse.
This earlier Green Woman painting was inspired by her Green Man Song Cycle a couple of years ago.
I am now quite excited to discover what her Witch Song Cycle will inspire.
So many lovely thoughts from a sunny dog walk in thermal underwear.
83 days ago we were in Melbourne, Australia. Yesterday we were in Bristol Historic Docks, gazing at the S.S Great Britain.
This is a tiny snippet of a blog built on a coincidence. Had we travelled on the inaugural S.S Great Britain trip to Melbourne we would have only just arrived. The journey was scheduled to take 60 days which would not have worked for our coincidence. 60 days non-stop became 83 days because there had been a miscalculation in the amount of coal required for the steam engine. So an unplanned visit to Cape Town, South Africa, occurred and many of the passengers took the opportunity of climbing Table Mountain.
Our flight arrived about ten minutes ahead of schedule, no mountains involved and we were fragrant enough to hug our friends on arrival. I suspect the greeting would have been more at arms length, or further, if we had been travelling 83 days and thrown in a casual mountain climb in a hot climate.
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
I am not someone who habitually says ‘no’ to things that interfere with my goals.
Primarily because I am not hugely rewarded by goals being achieved in a pure and prescribed way.
Of course, goals, targets or intentions need to be achieved most days, But I am a lover of the serendipitous outcome generally being better than a perfectly planned one.
I like to allow chance a chance to improve calculated outcomes. The word ‘no’ may well be useful to hit goals reliably . Predictability is, for many people more than enough. But predictability with the embellishment of just a little jeopardy can bring the most astonishing and interesting results. Always have an open mind.
Getting from A to B with even a tiny detour is so much more interesting. Sometimes a moved goal, caused by serendipity turns out to be a much better goal in the long run. And a missed one can be much the best outcome.
Lola is in the midst of her busiest family gathering as the only dog in the family.
Lola sleeping
Ordinarily at family gatherings she and Hugo worked the room together. Him all showbiz, a confident white male, shmoozing people with his glamour and eccentricity.
But Hugo left the building in December. Leaving Lola the enormous responsibility of attending their human Great Grandmothers funeral alone. Where normally she just requisitioned cuddles, she has been obliged to both Schmooz and Cuddle.
With an age range of 3 to 95 she has had her work cut out. Cuddles remain her priority but also gratefully accepting smuggled snacks from the mourners who attended the Funeral After-Party on the day. And then helping the family to eat left over After-Party food for the next 24 hours.
Her world has been primarily consoling and accepting compliments. The very mature mourners from her Great Grandmothers Dance clubs obviously waited to share kindly words with family members before they left the After-Party but Lola had her own queue of departing well-wishers.
As her minder I spent a lot of time saying farewell to peoples knees while keeping lola on her very best behaviour with quiet tickles.
Saying goodbye to people predominantly from the knee down was an illuminating experience for me Women who are over 80 and still dancing have not given up their heels in the same way many other women have. Shoes that would not look out of place on the dance floor queued patiently to say farewell to the great grand dog.
No rest for the only dog, the next day her closer family set off to the depth of the New Forest for some Forest Bathing. A long walk in bright sunshine amongst massive trees.
Which is why this morning she is very determinedly sleeping.
I like being a busy woman but I am a great procrastinator. I choose to be busy to keep procratinarion at bay. At least I always thought I was a procrastinator until I looked the word up for this blog.
Absolutely none of the given reasons are the causes of what I consider my procrastination habit.
I delay tasks because experience has taught me that doing a task too early or at an inopportune time often results in a re-do or a less good result.
Procrastination suited me because it is just one word. Now I am left with a great word salad. Thinking, Planning, inspiration, mulling. Timeliness
I prefer to do things/stuff when all my ducks are in a row.
Many ducks, many rows.
Sometimes all my deliberate delaying tactics are waiting for just a few things. Sponteneity, Serendipity and inspiration.
Picking the word procrastination apart I realise that I necessarily delay or postpone some tasks because I know that doing something too soon can result in a less good outcome.
I love ticking off lists of things achieved but feel really disappointed in myself if I do something sub- optimally because it was rushed or completed just for the sake of a tick on a life list.
So what do I wish I could do more every day?
Just a little more thinking and a little less doing. It is a discipline thing because I have more time than I ever have ever had. But thinking time is undervalued as an achievement.
What will I be doing now I know that I am not a procrastinator but something else entirely that currently has no name. And if it has no name how can I possibly do it?
Heading East across Dartmoor on the Spring Equinox, for a day of family and a funeral. As it turned out you couldn’t really ask for a better day for a funeral for a 95 year old who had , for the most part, lived life on her terms. The sun shone, our singing was shocking.
And for our, blended, extended family she is the last of that generation to slip off to another realm. No more pre-war generation.
Sunshine has arrived in Stonehouse and has decided to stick around. Sunshine dog walks without a coat two days running. We don’t know ourselves. Lots of social interaction.
Social interaction of a different sort also springs to mind. My new car responds to me talking to her. Unlike Alexa, in our house, the car likes good manners. A simple Yes or no is not enough. Please and thank you are required. Alexa takes a dim view of good manners . She is puzzled and confused when I am polite rather than assertive. I prefer interacting with the car.
Inexplicably two days of sunshine have made me very busy indoors.
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