Curiously my favourite time of day is around 2am. A time that I usually sleep through, but years of the madness of 24 hour shifts gave me a huge respect for that hour of quietude when, with luck, the previous days work has been caught up with and the dip of 3am is yet to happen.
Now the only thing that gets my attention at 2 am is a dog or dogs who need to visit the back yard. Even my occasional insomnia never kicks in until 3 am. So favourite time of day, I love you but I really don’t need to be awake to appreciate your merit.
The artist has left the building, temporarily. After three days of setting up, Private views and meeting the public. I have left my patch.
Drawn to the Valley at Ocean Studios in the Royal William Yard, Stonehouse Plymouth has a diverse mix of 12 artists showing their work and demonstrating or talking about their techniques with anyone who comes along.
We had a bit of a tidy up at close of business today. That is just me as an artist. Procrastination disguised as tidyness. Its not been all art and no life. There was a bob yesterday so I slipped out for an hour, great swimming, fabulous conversation and snacks. And maybe something to chuckle about.
A calm evening walk after a day of prepping for 10 days of Art in these buildings. The event is Open Studios which is a chance to clear out my studio and sell bits and pieces of unsold art projects.
I found these two hug doodles from the first Covid lockdown.
Who knows if anyone will choose to buy them . Reminders of a time when we all missed hugs.
My day has been spent hanging art.
Followed by a busy evening welcoming the first guests.
One lovely moment was when the setting sun reflected the name of the venue on some of the artwork.
Tomorrow will be a proper arty blog when I have more time.
I have a butterfly mind, unusually I can easily harness my butterfly when needed but like a parachute my mind works better when it is open. My motivations are sometimes opposing to one another.
Here is my list.
1. Kindness and care to those around me.
2. Deadlines.
3. Serendipity. Nothing is more inspirational than the unexpected.
4.Procrastination. or creative preparations as I often label it.
5. Concaternation.
6. Lifelong learning from all of the above.
Today I am on the final phase of, 4- Procrastination. I have an exhibition opening tomorrow. And yet there are still 2 solid hours of Studio tidying before I can hit , 2- Deadline.
The butterfly above was, 3- Serendipity when a stencil fell on an old watercolour doodle.
The 2 hours of studio tidying could have started 3 hours ago. I could already be at Deadline, but no, Procrastination was in full active mode.
I checked in with some of those I care about.
I walked the dogs, luxuriously in the sun.
I went back to the sea for a swim.
I wrote this blog.
Every one of those things will make today more productive and motivated. And that is Concaternation at its finest.
And just like that the final tidy is complete, let the artwork commence.
For the first time this morning I did one of my regular winter walks in summer sunshine. Richmond Walk was built in 1790 by the Duke of Richmond to give the public access to the coast path between Stonehouse and Mount Wise. Richmond Walk is a winter walk because it is slightly less exposed to the winds of winter, is tarmac or concrete for the whole walk and has small patches of grass for the dogs to enjoy sniffing and exchanging messages.
There are two outdoor pools which are open throughout the summer at no charge. On my winter walks they are rather desolate unused spaces. But today they were a riot of abstract blue water reflections and the noises of happy swimmers.
There have been pools and even public baths and spa facilities with bathing machines in this area for a couple of centuries. All that is left of The Royal Clarence Baths is a small beach and some stone arches.
But for me the joy of the day was the turquoise waters of the current pools.
Writing my blog is possibly the most joyful thing about writing. There is something calming and meditative about writing daily and finding a positive in the often mundane pattern of normal life.
A tiny percentage of my life makes it into the blog. The blog is repetitive and often has fairly dull subject matter. But writing daily for several years now has taught me to look for nuggets of interest and pleasure in everything I do.
What do I love about where I live? Where I live gives me my little fix of zen just five minutes walk from my front door. All of my life the coast has been my fixer of woes. I have never lived more than two hours from the coast. So always accessible easily. For two years that accesibility has been a five minute walk.
But I am a picky coast lover. I really dislike seaside tat. Garish shops and arcades, horrible mini fairgrounds, crazy golf, the list is extensive.
What I love about my current location is that for centuries it has been a key maritime military defence area and has been protected from typical coastal development. Only fairly recently completely accessible to the public there are walks and a park that overlooks the sea with not one bit of traditional seaside tackiness.
All of the bright colours in this blog are provided by my early morning dog walk.
It is not just me that loves the peace snd simplicity of our early morning walk.
Hugo and Lola are dogged in their quest for tranquility.
Why do I love where I live? Because this locationion suits me very well.
Happiness is my commonest positive emotion. It is my default setting. I have recently been made aware that I rarely show ecstatic emotion. I laugh a huge amount and do genuinely take great joy from many things. But I am not sure I know how to express the increased level of joy life brings me when my regular happiness levels get a boost. Misery or worry are also less obvious to other people, for me the indicator is insomnia. If my happiness quota most days were a colour it would be a variety of shades of orange. Extreme happiness would be yellows and crossness, irritation, sadness or anger would be many shades of red. Perhaps I need to show more yellow and some red instead of occupying a mostly orange mindspace. Always something to learn, always room for improvement. Perhaps a little blue or green should be added into my outwardly projected emotional serving.
The British Firework Championship was being held just across from our swimming zone.
We could see the flashes and hear the bangs as soon as we left home. A sure sign we had talked too much over supper. No real surprise there,we always talk too much. There were even some illuminated swimmers in our usual bobbing spot.
This morning everything had returned to normal and a dozen happy bobbers swam in the bay without the excitement of fireworks. One bobber had returned to us after being away in Abu Dhabi and another had been dealing with some family complications in London. It felt so good to have a big group of bobbers together to refresh our hearts and minds in the cool waters of Tranquility Bay. We are each others metaphorical fireworks, lighting and lifting one another as and when needed.
Nothing specific brings me peace but I find that peace often just finds me, sometimes in unexpected moments. This morning the Oosterschelde set sail from Plymouth on a two year voyage to replicate the journey of Charles Darwin.Who sailed from Plymouth on Beagle 200 years ago on the journey that inspired his work The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
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