Week eight
There is rather a large window in the dovecote that I can see from my bed. It has rather large shutters and I tend to keep it open, as it is wonderful to wake up to the view just by opening my eyes. To my delight I woke up to snow this week, huge chunky flakes silently tumbling down the windowpane. I think it is possibly the fastest I have gotten out of bed and outside since being here. Who wants such things as breakfast when there is snow to play with. It was only a small amount really, a flurry, I think is the technical term. However I still found walking rather difficult as every minute I had to stop and take more photographs. 
The next morning I was blessed with frost and sunshine, and my walk took even longer than the previous day. I never new frozen puddles on a pot-holed driveway could look so beautiful. It took me hour to cover a distance I normally take five minutes to walk. 
The textures of the landscape looked phenomenal as the particles of frost glistened like diamonds in the early low morning sun. Every way I turned I uttered squeals of delight as I viewed the frosty ambience. The grasses looked liked frozen threads, and burnt heather looked like frozen wire, I must admit I felt I was in a textile paradise. 
However there is one disadvantage I’ve found to rushing outside in excitement, not quite properly dressed and staying out for ages, yep a simple lesson really, one gets cold! Really cold! Consequently my back for the rest of the week decided to complain and ache. 
I’m not sure if it was an accumulation of all the 98 miles that I have walked so far or crawling around on snowy ground for hours. Whatever it was….it hurt and my body deciding to rebel. 
After a couple of days dosed up on pain killers I had to ignore the creaks of my body and get my studio ready for an open day; in which the Tarset community come and view my work. I was rather nervous about showing work that was still very much in the experimental stage; it is quite a vulnerable feeling. Nevertheless the open day was a success, especially the mulled wine! All the same I am wondering whether I am working on too many ideas at once! Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated! Anyhow these are my ideas……so far: 1.‘Me, my stick, a pedometer and walking…..priceless!’ Recording all the data collected on my walks with the pedometer (kilometres, steps etc) and writing a diary event of that walk. All this information will then be turned later into a sculptural piece. 
2. Textural Landscape This drawing is a response to the amount of textures I see in the surrounding environment. It is an abstract expression in mark making of what I see. 
3. Captured Moments A drawn diary capturing a moment of a walk. I do not consider myself a skilled drawer I am a mark maker, this is therefore pushing my boundaries of my own drawing capabilities. So far I am very uncomfortable about these, I do not know how they should develop and I also don’t like a lot of the drawings! (Advice?) 4. Days at Highgreen For every day that I am in Northumberland I carve into my walking stick and mark the memory of my time spent here. 
5. Off shoot small textural drawings Rejected cut up drawings are used to experiment different ideas of conveying routes. Unsure of its development!
6. ‘Feet That I Meet’ Photographing and documenting feet of people that I meet on walks. 7. Roads, pathways, routes I am researching the historic tracts that surround this area;
I absolutely love the road here. I have never been so enamoured by a piece of tarmac before and constantly take pictures of it. I am considering large sculptural standing works and hope to incorporate memories and tarmac somehow!!! 8. ‘Heart to Heart’ 
Before I came to Highgreen I had been researching into the history of surgery. Heart surgery particularly holds an important resonance for me as I had open-heart surgery at the age of eleven. My intention is to ‘re-fabricate’ the information onto skin. It is still at the samples stage! 9. Keys!!!!! 
I have been collecting keys over the past year in Bristol and have invited people here to give me keys also. I am thinking of a large hanging installation. 
All keys collected are labelled with information and any stories involved. I have been experimenting with ‘traces’ that keys leave behind on paper when heated. 10. Enamel From the textural drawings I will be working on some new enamel pieces. 11. Paper Bricks This is still very much at the experimental stage. I would like to make a large number of stitched bricks from local newspapers to recreate an historic site. 
12. Texture Boards I am experimental with projecting the drawn line outwards utilising, threads, wire, pins, sheep’s wool, horsehair and other things that I find! Oh I’m also taking lots of photographs, working on a weekly blog and filming video diaries. Week eight…..done!