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.
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.
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?
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.
The weather took a very dim view of our Mothers Day Outing to the beach yesterday. As usual what cannot be seen is the biting wind. The project which kept us busy and warm was collecting sea shells and sea glass to make a beach themed condolence card. A niche project for sure but one that was very effective at passing an hour in fairly dreadful weather.
With a stroke of luck I found a perfect illustration of Mothers Day in seaweed.
A mother seaweed with a small baby seaweed. Currently entwined and destined to travel the tides together . The pebble they were both attached to has been split by being thrown onto the beach with force during the rough weather.
At some point they may be torn apart by another storm or they may float closely together forever. Just like mothers and their children. Who knew seaweed could bring such emotional depth.
And Emotional Depth is exactly what the ‘romantic’ filter brings to some photographs.
Yesterdays blog was written using an old stored prompt, because we were having a busy day doing really dull jobs on industrial estates. So I just needed a little help getting motivated.
More about yesterday’s blog later. Because the Industrial Estate jobs were not without their moments.
We have been having a rocky patch car and campervan wise. Both have required a lot of attention recently hence the all too familiar trips to Industrial Estates.
Yesterday’s industrial Estate trip took us to the inner edges of Dartmoor, where traffic problems almost immediately take on a different meaning.
Somnolent sheep and prancing ponies are the biggest hold-ups to hitting a mechanic’s deadlines.
Even when they clearly have deadlines of their own.
We all know the feeling on a Friday afternoon when the last client/patient/customer does not arrive on time.
3pm said the man with a workshop on the edges of Dartmoor. We made it, but not without the anxiety of waiting for the sheep to shift, on their own somewhat slower schedule.
So that was why a slow day blog needed a bit of a prompt.
Anyway the daft idea that anyone could create a small list of things that were essential to life, must have irritated my sleep because I had a vivid dream of absolute panic that I had not included Christmas Cake and Mince Pies on my list.
Why on earth would my sleeping head think these two items would need to go on a list of just three things?
Having had a disturbed night of sleep, I can confidently say that the list of 3 would be unaltered.
Daffodils
Books
The Sea
However were I to compile the list of 300, I would certainly include Christmas Cake and Mince Pies.
P.s I used to commute diagonally across the whole of Dartmoor for work. The traffic jams were unimaginable…
This prompt has had me stumped for a few days. The obvious answer is Nourishment, Shelter and Oxygen. None of which are likely to abandon me anytime soon. Because I am fortunate.
So to rewrite the question . What are the three objects I would rather not live without.
In the scrag end of winter, where we are now, I always like Daffodils in the house. If I could only have one variety of cut flowers throughout the year it would be Daffodils, heralds of Spring. Evidence that there is life after Winter.
Books, my life would be a much less vivid experience if I had to give up books.
The sea, it just makes everything in life, good or bad, take a step back.
Looking at these three frivolous choices is a privilege that comes because I am Nourished, I do have shelter and as long as I choose to breathe Oxygen will be available.
I could live in a shepherds hut on a Cornish cliff and read books for days on end in February. My 3 essentials easily to hand but then there would be more lists of 3.
My car.
A Waitrose delivery every two days
Jolly coast path walkers to chat to. Unless the coast path walker was Raynor Winn. Her books are also excluded from any lists. Unless of course I had a solid fuel heater in my Shepherds Hut and Waitrose failed to deliver any charcoal. Her books could be rolled and burned as paper logs.
Then there would be another list of 3
Radio to listen to the Shipping Forecast
Raincoat for walking on the Daffodil strewn cliff edge.
Chocolate for the pocket of the raincoat.
This list malarky just goes on and on . Better just to stop with the Oxygen, Shelter and nourishment because after that I just get shallow and vengeful and eat chocolate. Alrhough it could be argued that chocolate is nourishment.
Honestly just a daft bloody question
I think 300 would be a better number. Does wanting more make me shallower or does it show hidden depths?
theoldmortuary.design 