Week Thirty Five
I confess, I am rather hung over today, so lord knows how this weeks blog will pan out…. 
It has been a rather enjoyable week. My head is back in the right place (albeit the hangover) and I have been a busy, yet relaxed bee. I’ve spent time writing lists for artworks that need commencing or completion. For the ‘Eight fold Path’ drawings I needed to establish whether my original idea of hanging them off beams would work. I fixed long strips of paper to the beams in the barn and began to play. I came to the conclusion that as the drawings are so detailed, hanging them from great heights wouldn’t work. So I am now toying with the idea of hanging them horizontally, so as you walk alongside the drawings, they will look like raised pathways. However with the paper strips hanging I was taken with the notion of experimenting with bitumen and footsteps. So with a pair of old broken walking boots, paint brushes and sticks in hand, I began testing. As the sun streaked in lighting up the barn beautifully, I had such fun squiggling my feet in sticky bitumen, walking up and down on paper whilst my headphones blared luscious music. 
I like the footprints, and have decided to create it properly. The strips will be longer so they will loop in and out of the top beams stretching further away, and will also run further along the floor. There will also be less of them and simpler. It will be the simplicity, the scale, and the impact that I feel will be the strength of this ‘new’ piece. 
I have also finished ‘Heart to Heart’ she is hanging in the potting shed and it feels the ideal place for her. I found it difficult trying to cut my self with a scalpel in order to dab some of my own blood onto the reindeer skin. After a few wimpish failed attempts, I did finally manage to draw blood and made note to self, that self-harming would never be on any future agendas. I would love to show you a picture of the finished artwork, however I will reveal why I cannot, later on in this blog. I only have to work out the lighting now to truly complete her. 
At the moment there seems to be an abundance of buttercups, fields and fields of beautiful yellow that look glorious in the sunshine. I wonder if there is someone whom documents the rise and fall of buttercup yields over the years….surely there must be…somewhere? Highgreen is at its ‘greenist’ that I’ve witnessed so far. There are beautiful wild orchids on the fells and silver weed, cow parsley and daisies along the road verges. The lambs are getting more used to the sun and seem to form ever increasing gangs that rush and bounce along the road. Some of the elder sheep have had the fleeces sheared off, but shearing starts in earnest over the next month. The midges are beginning to appear and there is a love/hate relationship forming, they love me…and I hate them. No one told me they were so tiny yet their bite was so big. Thankfully they have not arrived yet in their huge swathes forming ‘black clouds’, something that I am not looking forward to, maybe a full body netting will be required after all! 
Went for the longest walk to date, a nine-mile hike around Keilder Lake. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt relieved that my feet could cope with the distance. I am hoping to do a longer walk soon. Although Keilder Lake is a man made affair it has beautiful views and sculptures along the route. I was especially fond of three over large ‘James Bond’ stylee chairs that sat at the waters edge. I am tempted to go and spend the night in one of them and swivel in the moonlight to my hearts content. In another lake I witnessed billions of tadpoles, masses of black wriggly things that actually made feel somewhat squeamish! 
Not only has my week been enjoyable, it has also been a rather clumsy week. I’ve had quite a few mishaps, scaling from really small, incredibly annoying to quite devastating! It all started with realising that the paper rolls I bought in Hexham last week, were not as I expected in the back of my car…but in fact were still in …err Hexham. So the tiny return journey of fifty-two miles to the nearest metropolis had to be repeated, that’s finally when the shop managed to locate them, as I had wondered around everywhere. Whilst making coffee (a new acquired addiction) I had the misfortune to drop my favourite cup, a glorious spotty affair made by the luscious Hannah Rysgaard, it is my daily coffee cup, and cup and me were friends. I am somewhat upset. However I was more upset, well actually more to the point, in diabolical pain, when I managed to drill the nail of my thumb with a high-speed drill tipped with diamond that cuts through practically everything. It is I add, only a small hole, but trust me that doesn’t reflect the size of the pain that I experienced. 
The most devastating mishap however involves a nest, a camera…and myself. First I must tell you a little history - Before I discovered the joys of photography, camera and me regularly dabbled with the laws of gravity, it regularly fell to the ground, and on several occasions, thus camera, had to be fixed at an alarming fee. On the third, or was it the fourth occasion, the purveyor of the camera hospital suggested two things: firstly, that I should perhaps consider purchasing a camera case and secondly not to bring thus camera back if I dropped it again…it would not be worth it! Since I’ve been at Highgreen I have tried my hardest not to drop the camera, and the three times, yes the three times that it errrr…slipped from my hand, it still miraculously worked. I discovered the other day a glorious sight, something that I have never seen with my own eyes, I was so excited. 
Above an alcove is a swallow’s nest, the swallows swoosh in and the four chicks rise like little organ pipes, and open their beaks as wide as possible. I clicked endlessly away, and as I skipped away from my discovery, my finger decided to rest inside the shutter just as it was closing. And yes, gravity is not always required to jam your shutter…fingers can do equally well. Much to my dismay not only did the shots look terrible but the camera is well and truly broken (hence shots are missing etc), and I feel somewhat naked as I am so used to carrying it everywhere. 
I am now waiting for a new camera to arrive, so bloogy blog I am afraid will be effected, firstly I am away next week to my brothers wedding and secondly I have to receive and learn a new camera. So no blooogy blog next Sunday….and hopefully bloogy will return ASAP! Blimey…week thirty five…done!