Week Forty Three
It is quite magical to know that my artwork will be sharing a barn with an owl. It has only recently taken up residency there; every morning when I visit my wall to say ‘good morning’, all I see is the majestic wings taking flight. I am rather happy an owl will be a guardian of my artwork. As the recent weather reports keep suggesting…the climate has been rather ‘severe’ in Northumberland. Of course the challenge whilst walking is to see if I can succeed a whole trip without getting drenched. The downpours are pretty dramatic, brief and heavy, then the sun shines and the tarmac and the trees in the distance begin to ‘steam’ like New York sidewalks. When the rain stops the flies come out, and unfortunately they come out it their hundreds, buzzing around frantically above your head like some weird frame from a cartoon. I find them a complete and utter nuisance, and I’m considering taking a fly swot out with me wherever I go! I am rather amused though, that the flies sound like miniature formula one cars whizzing around a tiny circuit, so for the humour factor alone, I’ll leave them be. 
Pinks and purples seem to be the predominate colours around at the moment, there is Heather on the fells, and Knap Weed, Scottish Blue bells, thistles, Buddleia, and even raspberries all along the roadside; these colour schemes are most resplendent with the luscious greens around. I never knew that there were so many different varieties of thistles, and never really appreciated before just how spectacular they are. Thistles are beginning to seed at the moment, so there are divine delicate fluffy parachutes floating around. The grass on the fells has grown so tall that I often find myself knee deep and wading through it; I must admit I actually prefer the winter landscape for an easier terrain to walk across, then again, perhaps longer legs would be a help instead! The other day, the fell looked like an ocean of grass rippling in waves as the wind fiercely blew across it.
My imagination wanted some kind of boat that would be suitable to sail across this strange but beautiful sea…I wonder where I would have gone? There is a huge assortment of different fungi, most of which I have no idea what they are, so no skipping off with my basket in hand to pick them. I’ve seen the biggest mushroom I’ve ever witnessed in my life and my first ever ‘Inky Cap’, which is splendid. 
Steve chose to visit and complete some filming on the only glorious day that Highgreen has had in ages. Sunday was literally a backbreaking affair, which involved a time-lapse of my feet walking. This time-lapse is going to be used in a collaborative artwork. The distance we needed to cover was just over one and half kilometres, from Highgreen to Burdonside. The process took just over five hours to complete, under somewhat challenging conditions.
I would take three steps, then Steve had to crouch, bend, or even lie on the road to take a still on a long exposure of my feet. Six hundred and ninety frames later (that’s a lot of bending over…and that figure does not even include the rejected stills), and, over two thousand steps (which doesn’t include the retakes) we finally reached our goal, it was, we feel, akin to climbing our own Everest. We encountered a cool mist and man-eating midges, searing heat, hundreds of flies, kamikaze flying ants in there thousands and buttered malt loaf and tea at our final destination (which incidentally saved our lives!). Not only did the end result look absolutely fabulous, Steve’s body felt like he had played ten football matches in a row, and the scorching sun had turned my face into the colour of boiled lobster! I was quite glad that it was only my feet that were being filmed. 
Although I cannot remember the exact wording, and I’m not sure who came up with the expression, “you have to suffer for your art”…but sometimes it’s obviously true! In the evening we were rewarded by the Earth passing through rock and dust fragments, left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle, so we could watch the glory of the Perseid meteorites. Although our bodies were exhausted and sun exposed, we still had enough stamina to whoop and applaud the glory of the heavens rather impressive show, whilst drinking hot chocolate.
Today is a very exciting day as I saw the first draft of my catalogue, and although I was initially disappointed with the photographers images last week, the graphic designer has made a superb job with good cropping and neat layout skills, quite frankly, he has made it look exceptional and needless to say I am rather pleased. There will still be a few changes however, but it is all so exhilarating to see. It is quite a relief to have finally sorted out the two difficult titles of artworks that I was struggling to name. My newspaper dry-stone wall is called ‘The writing on the wall’, which now seems so obvious it must have been staring me in the face all along. The hanging keys is called ‘Portunes Shower’, and as my key installation is hanging in an old stable, I was rather pleased to discover that Portunes is the Roman god, of would you believe it, livestock, keys, and stables. 
Anyhow sorry the blooogy is late this week, but that’s the way at the moment. I am treating myself to an adventure in Edinburgh next Sunday, so I’m afraid blooogy will be late again. Only a couple of weeks now and you’ll all get to see all the finished artworks…..blimey! A fabulous week and huge thanks to Steve for all is hard work and for having the fortuitous insight to bring kneepads with him. Week forty three….done!