Blessed

 

"The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed."  Maya Angelou

A more apt quote for Monday, really, but with so many people facing all kinds of difficulty, it's just what I need to put my minor mutterings into perspective.

One of those days

Yesterday was one of "those" days.  Started off ok but spiralled down as it went on.  The final straw was discovering I'd retrieved the wrong version of an essay I had written last week when the gas man blew the power in the house.  Sadly, although the wonderful Word autosave retrieved everything I'd been working on, my own inability to save different versions of the same file with recognisable names left me with a fair bit of work to do yesterday afternoon, when I'd been planning on having some fun.

At least I didn't have to deal with one of the "hurdles" in this pack of cards. 

As I try to complete the course of study I've been working on for the last six months, much "reflection" is required and I've found that my main weakness is an inability to rebound from failure.  Not only that, but I'm not very good at fitting my woolly, fluffy thoughts into neat little boxes on a computer screen.  Oh well, hopefully it will soon be done and I will be able to refer to myself as.....well, the same as always I guess!

 

Anyway, since January, I've been looking for a regular challenge to set myself.  I thought I'd found something online, but when one of the first prompts involved fairies, I knew it wasn't for me.  But Helen Suzanne blogger and fellow Artful Dodger proposed a weekly theme and I knew it would be far more my kind of thing.  So, this evening, I've been taking a fresh look at my blue chair.

Just the distraction I need to take my mind off behaviourist theory, the Johari window and other thoughts about the learning process.

Thing is, I just couldn't escape from those reflections.

At last!

Ever since we got back from our trip to Cambodia, I've had it in the back of my mind to do something with the photographs I took at Angkor Wat, in particular these doorways which immediately said "log cabin" to me.

Today I did something.  At last.

And for the first time (possibly the last) I'm happy to reveal the back.

I used Melody's method to create it, since my limited piecing skills wouldn't cope with so many tiny pieces.  I might even feel a series coming on...but the bondaweb supplies will need to replenished before that happens.

Tuesday? Today? Tomorrow

On Tuesday, we were in Wharfedale having returned to a place with all kinds of memories.  Villages where happy days had been spent, places with familiar names from my childhood and most recently, somewhere where we'd been last October when we received bad news and from where we had to rush away.

On the third Tuesday of January last year, we had the call we feared but expected and we rushed to Mummy's bedside to spend the last days with her.  It was the following Tuesday, the 22nd when the last call came, at 4.45am.  Of course, in many ways, we'd lost her so much earlier, the previous August, when she was so badly affected by a stroke.

But today is the anniversary of her death and the date on the certificate.  The 22nd January.  And I know just what she'd have said - it's just another day.

She's right, of course.  I don't need to mark a significant date to remember her.  I'm not sure that I feel any different today than I did yesterday, last Tuesday, last August Bank Holiday, because both parents are there in my mind a good deal of the time.

Sometimes, like now, the thought brings a tear to my eye. 

But most of all, I am simply thankful that I have so many very happy memories to hang on to.

They'll still be there tomorrow.

Art

Most miserable day of the year?  In Gods Own County?  No way... 

We're here at the colourful and art-filled  Devonshire Fell  hotel once again, with a view of the ~River Wharfe and the fells which is simply breathtaking.  But it is January, it's raining/sleeting/snowing and a day indoors was called for.

So, this morning we headed for Salts Mill, depicted here in part of David Hockney's painting, a print of which hangs in our bathroom here in Burnsall.  But the real thing is hanging there in the Mill, together with many of his drawings, paintings, sketches, photographs and photo montages and we spent a happy morning mooching around this fantastic place.

This afternoon, we headed over to Dean Clough, hoping (expecting?) something similar in the mill there, but finding just one exhibition captured our interest.

Jake Attree's Marks on a White Ground drew us into the gallery immediately.  Heavily textured in a subdued and restrained palette, these large paintings rewarded the viewer in so many ways.  Close up, the deep textures and rich oil colours intrigued but stand further away and the whole effect was rather more impressionistic in feel.  We especially loved the York Minster series and would happily have snaffled one of them home with us...

By the time we left Halifax, the rain was turning to snow and we chose to head back to our comfortable bolt hole in Burnsall, from where I write, snug and warm and just about ready for an aperitif!