03 May 2020

Taking stock

We're about to enter the 6th, or is it 7th, week of lockdown. (Time flies.) 
Still here, getting dressed "to the shoes". Hair is growing out nicely, and this is a
good time to try the "no shampoo" experiment

This morning's photo of the sky includes the elder tree that has shot up in the
few years after the splendid, but diseased, chestnut tree was removed.
The first blossoms have opened on the elder, and there are so many more
to come. I used to make spiced elderberry jelly but have no access to this tree

"Clear surfaces" is always, always on my list....

So is "declutter the studio" but that's a vain hope. Currently it's set up for making
facemasks, and for the walk-mapping project, but on Wednesdays it gets tidied
and used for woodblock printing.

Outside, at 9 on a Sunday morning, all is quiet - no queue at Tesco

The box hedge is diseased, and needs cutting, but I can't seem to get started on this...

The lockdown notebook has lists and memorando and is sometimes to hand when I hear or watch something that I want to remember. Each day gets a double page and the book is more than half full

Daily walks get plotted onto a big map. No idea where this little project is going,
but it's encouraging me to walk unknown streets and keep my eyes open. I take many
photos ... another project constantly on my mind is "sort photos"

Current reading. Terrific. I loved these classic detective novels when I discovered them
in my youth and will have to reread a few more. Ironically, this is about loss of memory
and I had no memory of having read it, but experienced the same "vague memory"
 described in the book, which solidified as I kept reading; details are still
vague but I have the gist of the outcome

Today's instagram discoveries are the mineral pigment vivianite and
artist Iwao Akiyama, one of Munakata's pupils

The family keeps me happy!

So does woodblock printing - I'd like to spend more time doing much more
of it, but all the other things that keep me "oddly busy" get in the way

Photographing meals helps keep my food standards up, otherwise everything
would be "on toast" and eaten, without attention, at the computer, and much
more wine would be drunk inattentively. Protein, calcium, five-a-day....

As well as  grey sky hiding the sunrise, there are spectacular sunsets after rain

And sometimes there are letters (remember those?) to save to read over breakfast

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