Covid 19 is still with us, but spring has sprung! We have six new lambs this year and they are adorable! Three sets of twins, bonny and blithe and full of leaping and racing and of course, the joys of spring!
Saturday, 17 April 2021
Sunday, 14 March 2021
Saturday, 13 March 2021
Sunday, 30 August 2020
The nights are drawing in already...
And in a normal year we would be returning to school, college, university and work after the long summer holidays. Which this year would have been splendid, with some of the hottest, driest weather for years all across Europe. We would be ramping up at work, with students signing up for assessments and starting their new term of work, and the eleven plus cohort making a final push for the red tape with the exams in early September.
But this is not a normal year. We have Covid 19. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and we are all just staggering around dazed at what has happened to the economy of the world. People don’t want to go back to work, although most must, and parents are worried sick about letting their children go back to school when no one knows what the virus is going to do this winter.
Our business closed in March and we had hoped to reopen come the autumn but it hasn’t happened. A few parents are contacting us to restart tuition, but not in large enough numbers to make the business viable. And the thing is, we haven’t got it in us now to make this work again. This is one blow too many. So it’s over.
Luckily though the sales of paintings and the little alternative business I have set up is doing reasonably well. So today as it was a cool Sunday and I had the urge, I took the opportunity to reorganise the last section of the Studio, the sewing, spinning, weaving section in the mezzanine - the Sheepy Sheep Shop.
Fleece from this year’s shearing along the wall, and the carder clamped to the old desk I bought at auction in Doddington. The loom I’ve had since the 1980s and last warped by Paul is sitting expectantly on the table I bought from a second-hand shop in Crowborough and is ready to be warped anew.
All I need now is a project!
The overlocker Tamsin gave me for my birthday sits in pride of place on the repurposed dog grooming table we brought back from the Bahamas, supported by the scavenged chest of drawers originally used in Crowborough, now containing sewing notions. The Ikea tubs hold fabric supplies; nothing to stop me now!
Useful shelf unit donated by Alexander contains more sewing notions, threads, patterns, knitting needles and so on. The BerninA sewing machine Chris bought me in the eighties still doesn’t show its age much and is pressed into service often.
A trolley from Ikea which has now been pressed into service as the Spinning Repository and holds spare bobbins for all the wheels, repurposed dog combs and slickers for yarn preparation, my niddy noddy from Ashford in England, and the like. In the background sacks of fleece from Karmen, Dora, Larry and the rest of the lambs. In the foreground a decorative basket holds 700 metres of handspun destination Ireland!
The Ashford drum carder was a coup I never expected to manage, but there it is! Very labour saving, and almost free! I think it must be three decades old, but it came from a lady living in Morlaix who was selling her mother’s spinning gear. Always a great way to pick up a bargain! The Louet Klik loom has been sadly underused during its life, but that’s about to change. Chris and I bought it when we were homeschooling the children, and I used it to make a few tapestry type weavings before giving up and packing it away. More recently, two years ago or so, Ingrid reminded me how to use it, and we made a few scarves together. Ready to embark on weaving some of my handspun this winter, as we aren’t going to Spain.
Monday, 4 May 2020
May Corona
The world has been turned on its head in the last two months. As someone who has been accused of hyperbole and extreme opinions I shouldn’t find it hard to put into words what has happened and is going to happen in the world soon, but I will find it hard because this situation is unprecedented, therefore indescribable.
Everything we have learnt to take for granted, for good or bad, has been scrapped. We cannot be with people. We cannot shop, work, worship, study, eat or talk in groups. Our world of commerce has collapsed. Governments and banks are having to find money to support billions of unemployed people for an indefinite period. Hospitals are overstretched. Many have died. Many more will die. Very many have been ill and might suffer the consequences for a very long time. Everyone is afraid.
Some good things have happened. The air is cleaner, the roads are quieter, cities are less crowded, animals and birds are more relaxed. We all have more time to be at home with family. But if you live alone, have a health problem, have a mental condition of any sort, have no money, live in a third world country, used to have a business, have children, have an abusive relationship, are stranded abroad, have lost a loved one or are suffering from the virus yourself, it is not good.
And if you start to think about the specifics, your heart sinks. The new business which is still-born after a lot of effort and cash has been sunk into it, only to have its launchpad removed from under its feet. The kids who won’t go to university this year, meaning universities will struggle, meaning cities will struggle and people will lose jobs and spend less and businesses will do worse and everyone will be worse off. The people who can’t go on holiday this summer, meaning that the transportation companies will go broke, the hotels will close, the host countries like Spain will suffer, our food chain will be affected, food prices will go up, people will have less money to spend and we’ll all be worse off. There are many, many scenarios. Most of them too dire to even start to describe.
What are we going to do?
Everything we have learnt to take for granted, for good or bad, has been scrapped. We cannot be with people. We cannot shop, work, worship, study, eat or talk in groups. Our world of commerce has collapsed. Governments and banks are having to find money to support billions of unemployed people for an indefinite period. Hospitals are overstretched. Many have died. Many more will die. Very many have been ill and might suffer the consequences for a very long time. Everyone is afraid.
Some good things have happened. The air is cleaner, the roads are quieter, cities are less crowded, animals and birds are more relaxed. We all have more time to be at home with family. But if you live alone, have a health problem, have a mental condition of any sort, have no money, live in a third world country, used to have a business, have children, have an abusive relationship, are stranded abroad, have lost a loved one or are suffering from the virus yourself, it is not good.
And if you start to think about the specifics, your heart sinks. The new business which is still-born after a lot of effort and cash has been sunk into it, only to have its launchpad removed from under its feet. The kids who won’t go to university this year, meaning universities will struggle, meaning cities will struggle and people will lose jobs and spend less and businesses will do worse and everyone will be worse off. The people who can’t go on holiday this summer, meaning that the transportation companies will go broke, the hotels will close, the host countries like Spain will suffer, our food chain will be affected, food prices will go up, people will have less money to spend and we’ll all be worse off. There are many, many scenarios. Most of them too dire to even start to describe.
What are we going to do?
Sunday, 22 March 2020
Coronavirus Pandemic March 2020
Since the last time I made a blog entry the world has stopped, turned around and started off in a totally different direction. A deadly virus has escaped from a lab in China, so it seems, or perhaps nature has designed a virus which would jump from animal to human, but no one really knows where Covid-19 came from. Or no one has admitted to knowing. All we know so far is that a killer virus is on the loose and is taking out between one and three percent of the people who catch it. The death rate is high and the spread is accelerating worldwide. Covid-19 is particularly dangerous for anyone with a weak immune system, which includes all people in the last third of their life, all people who have a chronic illness, and as far as I can tell all people who have been taking medical drugs, are relatively unfit, who smoke, have mental health conditions, live in close proximity to one another and have many intimate contacts with people or come into contact with large numbers of people. The virus is transmitted directly person to person via droplets of body fluids emitted by sneezing and coughing, and indirectly by wiping nasal secretions on to your hands and then touching objects which may be touched by another person. The virus can survive over a week on hard surfaces such as metal. It is also possible that the virus can be transmitted through the air over larger distances although this isn’t proven. To avoid catching the lethal disease all physical human contact must be eliminated.
Countries have already begun to lock down their populations, but they started late, after the virus had taken hold. They have varied in their efforts to stem the explosion, but essentially there is little that can really be done. As all the horror stories say, we are more or less powerless against a truly virulent biological killer. No individual knows whether they will get a mild or serious form of the disease. Younger people tend to get off lightly, and consequently they are treating the potential of Covid-19 with scorn, and continuing to go about their normal daily lives in countries where the police are not patrolling the streets telling people to go home. In countries which have not yet lost several hundred people, and where the hospital beds are not yet all full, people are still ignoring the true danger, and putting other people’s lives at risk.
Some people are even saying that they are enjoying this. That the sound of silence is bringing joy to their life. That not being able to go to work or go to school is a relief. That spending time at home doing what you want to do is wonderful. That the clearer skies and cleaner rivers are a blessing. Well that is true, but at what cost. Why did we have to achieve a new world by destroying the global economy and taking away thousands - or perhaps yet millions - of lives before people’s time was up? How will they feel when their savings run out, when the government has used up all its reserves and they can’t afford to do the things they’ve done for decades? When war really kicks in with all the drawbacks and no perks.
The future implications of what has happened would fill a hundred books already. Both small and large, the knock-on effects of people not being allowed to leave their homes are mammoth. Here’s one example. I have four sheep due to lamb this spring. I am not a farmer and I use a local shepherd to take care of my sheep when they need help. He is over 70. He cannot come to my land to help out now. I did not expect this situation when I put the ram with the ewes last autumn. Had I known he would be unable to help, I would not have gone this route. This is just one example - there are many more much more serious than the threat of losing lambs through my own lack of skill. People who talk about how nice it is to be able to hear the birds again are not thinking it through properly.
I have always heard the birds. I already “self isolate” and the effects of the lockdown on me are minimal. But I have also had life threatening illness four times in my life and I know what it is to be rushed to hospital for emergency, life-saving care. I know what it means to be brought back to life. I also know that should the same thing happen now, you and I would stand a very much greater chance of dying than in normal circumstances. Everyone else is in the same boat. Now is not the time to have that heart attack, a stroke or to simply fall down the steps and break your hip. Now is not the time to have a baby, find a breast lump, have an anaphylactic allergic reaction or a serious asthma attack. Now is not the time to have a nervous breakdown, wonder if your child is autistic, decide to have your cataracts operated on or, God forbid, lose a crown on a front tooth. Relatively minor concerns become insurmountable problems when the hospitals are overwhelmed. People will go ahead now and ‘die of silly little colds’ to quote Mrs Bennet.
There has already been major ‘looting’ in the supermarkets as greedy, stupid people rush to fill their garages with everything they can lay their hands on. Don’t be naive. Many of these people will not use those stacks of loo roll or packets of cornflakes and tins of beans. They will find their way on to the black market and be resold at a profit. Whenever there is a national crisis the criminal element will emerge from the slime and in the absence of police vigilance will proliferate. The black economy will thrive, while the regular economy crashes. This isn’t hyperbole or scaremongering, it is simply what always happens, is happening and will happen more and more as the days go by. Rivalries will emerge, differences will intensify, social life will become divided between those who have and those who have not. Key figures will try to protect themselves from the masses. We will see royalty, celebrities, millionaires and more retreating from the limelight into their barricaded mansions, on to their helicopter padded yachts, into their mountain eyries and island paradises. Mark my words.
I said three years ago that if the UK left the EU the bloc would disintegrate and we would experience a shock return to the days of the 1970s. I predicted (to myself of course, because no one would listen, and why should they, it’s not relevant...) that we would see calamities of unprecedented horror. I felt that a bad genie would be let out of a bottle, and that the world would lose control. And that is what has happened. Who’s talking about climate change now? Who’s childhood has been stolen, Greta, and by whom? Have a word with Covid about that. Who’s talking about women’s rights? Does a woman deserve to survive the virus more than a man, or less? Who’s talking about their gender identity, and how they’d sooner be called ‘zhe’ instead of ‘she’ on their medical records...
We had reached a state of total lunacy in the world. With 65 different types of sausage to choose from in Tescos, how could it have been otherwise? We are a greedy, selfish, arrogant, ignorant, cruel, thoughtless, stupid, lazy, rude, uncooperative, vicious, lustful and perverted civilisation and we are being taught a lesson. Go, Earth, Go.
Countries have already begun to lock down their populations, but they started late, after the virus had taken hold. They have varied in their efforts to stem the explosion, but essentially there is little that can really be done. As all the horror stories say, we are more or less powerless against a truly virulent biological killer. No individual knows whether they will get a mild or serious form of the disease. Younger people tend to get off lightly, and consequently they are treating the potential of Covid-19 with scorn, and continuing to go about their normal daily lives in countries where the police are not patrolling the streets telling people to go home. In countries which have not yet lost several hundred people, and where the hospital beds are not yet all full, people are still ignoring the true danger, and putting other people’s lives at risk.
Some people are even saying that they are enjoying this. That the sound of silence is bringing joy to their life. That not being able to go to work or go to school is a relief. That spending time at home doing what you want to do is wonderful. That the clearer skies and cleaner rivers are a blessing. Well that is true, but at what cost. Why did we have to achieve a new world by destroying the global economy and taking away thousands - or perhaps yet millions - of lives before people’s time was up? How will they feel when their savings run out, when the government has used up all its reserves and they can’t afford to do the things they’ve done for decades? When war really kicks in with all the drawbacks and no perks.
The future implications of what has happened would fill a hundred books already. Both small and large, the knock-on effects of people not being allowed to leave their homes are mammoth. Here’s one example. I have four sheep due to lamb this spring. I am not a farmer and I use a local shepherd to take care of my sheep when they need help. He is over 70. He cannot come to my land to help out now. I did not expect this situation when I put the ram with the ewes last autumn. Had I known he would be unable to help, I would not have gone this route. This is just one example - there are many more much more serious than the threat of losing lambs through my own lack of skill. People who talk about how nice it is to be able to hear the birds again are not thinking it through properly.
I have always heard the birds. I already “self isolate” and the effects of the lockdown on me are minimal. But I have also had life threatening illness four times in my life and I know what it is to be rushed to hospital for emergency, life-saving care. I know what it means to be brought back to life. I also know that should the same thing happen now, you and I would stand a very much greater chance of dying than in normal circumstances. Everyone else is in the same boat. Now is not the time to have that heart attack, a stroke or to simply fall down the steps and break your hip. Now is not the time to have a baby, find a breast lump, have an anaphylactic allergic reaction or a serious asthma attack. Now is not the time to have a nervous breakdown, wonder if your child is autistic, decide to have your cataracts operated on or, God forbid, lose a crown on a front tooth. Relatively minor concerns become insurmountable problems when the hospitals are overwhelmed. People will go ahead now and ‘die of silly little colds’ to quote Mrs Bennet.
There has already been major ‘looting’ in the supermarkets as greedy, stupid people rush to fill their garages with everything they can lay their hands on. Don’t be naive. Many of these people will not use those stacks of loo roll or packets of cornflakes and tins of beans. They will find their way on to the black market and be resold at a profit. Whenever there is a national crisis the criminal element will emerge from the slime and in the absence of police vigilance will proliferate. The black economy will thrive, while the regular economy crashes. This isn’t hyperbole or scaremongering, it is simply what always happens, is happening and will happen more and more as the days go by. Rivalries will emerge, differences will intensify, social life will become divided between those who have and those who have not. Key figures will try to protect themselves from the masses. We will see royalty, celebrities, millionaires and more retreating from the limelight into their barricaded mansions, on to their helicopter padded yachts, into their mountain eyries and island paradises. Mark my words.
I said three years ago that if the UK left the EU the bloc would disintegrate and we would experience a shock return to the days of the 1970s. I predicted (to myself of course, because no one would listen, and why should they, it’s not relevant...) that we would see calamities of unprecedented horror. I felt that a bad genie would be let out of a bottle, and that the world would lose control. And that is what has happened. Who’s talking about climate change now? Who’s childhood has been stolen, Greta, and by whom? Have a word with Covid about that. Who’s talking about women’s rights? Does a woman deserve to survive the virus more than a man, or less? Who’s talking about their gender identity, and how they’d sooner be called ‘zhe’ instead of ‘she’ on their medical records...
We had reached a state of total lunacy in the world. With 65 different types of sausage to choose from in Tescos, how could it have been otherwise? We are a greedy, selfish, arrogant, ignorant, cruel, thoughtless, stupid, lazy, rude, uncooperative, vicious, lustful and perverted civilisation and we are being taught a lesson. Go, Earth, Go.
Saturday, 18 January 2020
At least the days are getting longer now...
January. Always a difficult month in the northern hemisphere. Down here in Spain it’s the coldest part of the year, but most days are sunny and cheerfulness abounds. What a difference the sun makes to one’s mood!
I’m working on pansies at the moment. Years ago, Hugh Brading from New Zealand came and taught a class at Rough Common for my SAA art group that I used to run. It was a wonderful class, and quite ruined me for future classes, as no-one ever lived up to Hugh’s style of delivery. He taught us methods for wet-in-wet which I use to this day, twenty years later. The other day, though, I was trying to remember how he taught us to draw a pansy, and I had to dredge back through my dusty memories to finally come up with it. And having achieved that, and established that pansies do indeed have five petals, I’m now exploring different ways of painting those sweet little pansy faces.
My YouTube channel is absolutely going nowhere. I don’t really mind, because I’m doing it mostly for my own record of what I do. Maybe one day, when I’m no longer able to paint, if I live that long, I’ll enjoy looking at the videos. Who knows. But it’s patently obvious that there is enormous corruption on YouTube. People who can’t paint for toffee are raking in thousands - tens of thousands - of viewers, and sharing their stupendous lack of skill with the world. I can’t quite see the point in it all, as it doesn’t lead to anything except stroking one’s ego to be able to say you have so many people in your ‘tribe.’ But the desire to create and to share one’s creations is unstoppable. Perhaps the act of creating, as it says in Eckhart Tolle’s book, a New Earth, is the whole point. Allowing the creative energy from the universe to flow through you. No need to sell, or even share ‘online’ your results. Just do it.
I’m working on pansies at the moment. Years ago, Hugh Brading from New Zealand came and taught a class at Rough Common for my SAA art group that I used to run. It was a wonderful class, and quite ruined me for future classes, as no-one ever lived up to Hugh’s style of delivery. He taught us methods for wet-in-wet which I use to this day, twenty years later. The other day, though, I was trying to remember how he taught us to draw a pansy, and I had to dredge back through my dusty memories to finally come up with it. And having achieved that, and established that pansies do indeed have five petals, I’m now exploring different ways of painting those sweet little pansy faces.
My YouTube channel is absolutely going nowhere. I don’t really mind, because I’m doing it mostly for my own record of what I do. Maybe one day, when I’m no longer able to paint, if I live that long, I’ll enjoy looking at the videos. Who knows. But it’s patently obvious that there is enormous corruption on YouTube. People who can’t paint for toffee are raking in thousands - tens of thousands - of viewers, and sharing their stupendous lack of skill with the world. I can’t quite see the point in it all, as it doesn’t lead to anything except stroking one’s ego to be able to say you have so many people in your ‘tribe.’ But the desire to create and to share one’s creations is unstoppable. Perhaps the act of creating, as it says in Eckhart Tolle’s book, a New Earth, is the whole point. Allowing the creative energy from the universe to flow through you. No need to sell, or even share ‘online’ your results. Just do it.
I’ve done a lot of spinning over the last couple of months too, and was happy to see these three balls of yarn in my basket this morning, slightly surprised that I’d created them myself.
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
Saturday, 28 December 2019
Saturday, 21 December 2019
Winter Solstice - the turning of the year
Like many bloggers, I’m a bit prone to having life get in the way of posting. Also, like you and many others, I have a constant inner battle over priorities, and feel periodically uneasy about how much time I spend online and what the benefits can possibly be. But this year, as the solstice arrives as the year turns along with the decade, Apple have released the most epoch changing technology yet. With the new iPad Pro almost anything you can imagine a device doing is possible. How could this be ignored? As I also have decided to begin an exploration of video making and sharing on YouTube, I’m happy to have the option of a new iPad to make it more fun.
Because at the end of the day that’s what it is all about. Many of the physical pleasures we used to enjoy have been removed from our lives or made too dangerous by the climate and nature (example, walking the dog is a hazardous experience with processional caterpillars, leishmaniasis flies, toxic stream water, lethal algae by the beach, new forms of waterborne diseases like leptospirosis and parvovirus). I prefer to stay indoors. With my iPad. And the dream of a new iPad Pro!
Meanwhile, here’s my new YouTube channel link.
https://youtu.be/OJmht0ZlzSQ
And here’s a cute bear who came to visit the other day!
And my latest poppy field watercolour.
Because at the end of the day that’s what it is all about. Many of the physical pleasures we used to enjoy have been removed from our lives or made too dangerous by the climate and nature (example, walking the dog is a hazardous experience with processional caterpillars, leishmaniasis flies, toxic stream water, lethal algae by the beach, new forms of waterborne diseases like leptospirosis and parvovirus). I prefer to stay indoors. With my iPad. And the dream of a new iPad Pro!
Meanwhile, here’s my new YouTube channel link.
https://youtu.be/OJmht0ZlzSQ
And here’s a cute bear who came to visit the other day!
And my latest poppy field watercolour.
Saturday, 7 September 2019
C’est en Septembre...
Autumn Blessing:
Brave and true will I be,
Each good deed sets me free,
Each kind word makes me strong.
I will fight for the right!
I will conquer the wrong!
Sword of Michael brightly gleaming,
Down to earth its light is streaming,
May we see its shining rays
In the Winter's darkest days.
Archangel Michael vanquishing darkness
Sunday, 18 August 2019
August
Took a few pictures of the sheep happily sharing the garden with the hens. Such good companions for health and happiness :)
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| Our cheeky ram, Blaze! |
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| Dinner Time! |
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| Add caption |
Saturday, 10 August 2019
July, July
Heatwave after heatwave for most of this month. I was luckily enough to be in England for the worst of it, having my dental work done. Temperatures well up in the 30s are not something I appreciate! On my return, got straight into the jam-making season, with raspberry, strawberry and rhubarb put up, as well as rhubarb chutney and peach chutney. The France Passion season is also going well, with the addition of home-made handcream and lip balm proving popular.
I also ventured into the field of sausage-making (see A Brit Cooks in Brittany for more details) and was very pleased with the result. However, it is definitely a two-woman job!
Excellent
I also ventured into the field of sausage-making (see A Brit Cooks in Brittany for more details) and was very pleased with the result. However, it is definitely a two-woman job!
Excellent
Seen here with some of our delicious courgettes!
It was time, too, to replenish my stock of handcream, so out came the double saucepans, thermometers and measuring cylinders, together with appropriate memories of chemistry lessons at school! I love the way thin liquids transform like magic into lovely, thick and creamy handcream at a fraction of what you pay for good stuff in the shops. Not a good photo, I’ll try again tomorrow!
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