Within the rectangular confines of the Ugly Bungalow I stumble around on my crutches bumping the sides like a bee in a box.
Through the rectangular bedroom window the days spin by.
Sometimes I feel as though I am pinned to the centre of an old fashioned revolving zoetrope or repeat screenings of Koyaanisqatsi, but life in a village is not quite that exciting.
I mark my days by the coming and going of the light and the dark, by the rain and the sun, by the frequencies of cars and birds. The “outside” comes in occasionally and then leaves. Yesterday, I looked through my Walking Notes, started on an auspicious day in the Summer. A preoccupation then was the time of dawn and dusk and the shortening days.
On this, another auspicious day, marking the turning year and welcoming the beginning of lengthening days, it seemed the perfect time to resume. I know I can’t actually walk yet but my busy brain has been out there, trotting up and down the road, along the shore line and through the wood.
Ideas and thoughts are still floating in and out and some could do with being nailed to the page or they will drift away. Today’s hobble only took me to the kitchen window. I watched the blackbird pecking at the old apple I had thrown out for him.
My note for today:
“It’s raining. Reports of flooding in West. In garden every receptacle that can hold water is full, pond overflowing. Cooked last bramley apples from Dads tree. Smell of late summer. Blackbirds love the peelings. From today, days get longer, Sunup 8.04, Sunset 15.54, tomorrow will be just a few seconds longer.. not much.. but it’s a start….
And a sketch..
Blackbird and apple in the rain 22nd Dec 2012.. not much but its a start 🙂
The past walking notes are interesting to look back on. Snippets of life feelings, colours and images. Without the subject actually in front of you, you are left with simplified impressions sifted through memory. Sometimes, from a creative point of view those are easier to deal with than the muddle of reality.
On this dreary wet day I read one sun drenched entry from a September walk. I wrote:
“Hot evening walk, stubble is crackling behind a huge combine harvester working late. It emerges from clouds of dust. High up in the cab is a young driver, beside him a pretty girl cradling a baby. They are laughing. Everything is deep yellow. How lovely.”
Ahh…summer … not long to go now!
