Week Thirty Two
“The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection; The water has no mind to receive their image.” Alan Watts 
The humpy bumpy grass is beginning to change, it’s a gradual change; underneath the glorious humpiness, a secret world or colour and texture exists. Some bumps are now brave enough to allow these secrets to peek through. Rising above their royal mounds, a myriad of rich green mosses and elegant new shoots stand tall, their heads held high and gently swaying in the breeze. My favourite aspect to this new development is the colour of the shoots, they are a deep rich orange, which makes the whole bump look orange. Think about it, a field of orange bumps…I personally cannot wait for this extravaganza to unfold. I of course, want all the humpy bumps to become orange, however nature my have another idea. I have been trying to take a photograph for several weeks now; somehow, I just cannot capture its glory, or in fact get a shot that’s in focus. Maybe it’s my excitement, perhaps my hands just shake under the thrill of finding orange bumps dotted around. So apologies for the photograph! 
Another addition to the fells is a fluffy ‘Cotton Grass’. They are rather beautiful; I’ve always held magnetism towards fluffy things. As a little girl I used to pick the leaves of a plant, I have no idea what it is called, I suitable named it ‘bunny ear plant’ and would stroke them continuously if found. Seems since childhood I’ve been a texture fetishist then. With the tease of the sun, there has been some exquisite light ‘dapples’ and shadows, especially along the main driveway to Highgreen.
I filmed a video diary sitting in the dapples as they danced and played on the ground, I’m hoping it will look fantastic. The many fir trees around the National Park have new bright green tips to their branches. From a distance it looks like they have their own in built Christmas decorations, it makes me smile every time I walk towards them. 
I have finished drawing my line on the road from Highgreen to Burdonside. It took fifty rolls of paper, each twenty metres long, and various helpers, as it was near impossible to do on ones own. Shona ‘the shepherdess’ helped me finish the final stretch, we giggled and laughed all the way, especially when we had to take the paper over a car that was blocking our way. I have never drawn over a car before so it was all very exciting! We drew the line over the threshold of the house and into the heart of the kitchen. I have marked on the paper what’s on either side of the drawn line, for example - gate, field, remains of gravel hump, perfect gravel hump with weed, bunny hole in wall and bunny, orange bucket, sheep poo…etc, etc…you get the gist. I have not decided yet how I will finally display them, but for the VARC celebration weekend they will remain rolled up with labels attached stating their contents. You can see the line if you look down the roll.
The artwork will be called “On the Road”. Interestingly, Jack Kerouac taped sheets of tracing paper into a long roll of paper, 37 meters in total, so he could ‘spontaneously’ type his famous novel ‘On the Road’, without having to worry about reloading paper. I wish, I wish, I knew this story before I started my ‘On the Road’ project. On reflection, tracing paper would have been wonderful to use! I am considering joining them all together, creating one gigantic roll that could be reeled out to see the entire journey, I also like the connection to Kerouc. However, I also like them rolled up with most of the line hidden and looking rather scroll like. Any thoughts will be appreciated on this! 
Although at first I was unsure whether to complete my skin project on the history of heart surgery (‘Heart to Heart’), I have been working on it. It was something that I had to get out of my system, and has been a real cathartic journey for my own experience of heart surgery. It is, I suppose, the closest to my past and pre Highgreen artwork. Although she is not finished yet, she is getting there. Due to the amazing content of ‘U-tube’, I’ve learnt how to do proper surgery sutures with the strange curved needles that are used. I’ve been fascinated for a long time about the history of heart surgery. In 1894, Alexis Carrel a French surgeon learnt sewing and embroidery for three years in Leon. 
After three years he could stitch five hundred stitches on a single cigarette paper without tearing it. He went on to develop surgical stitching that basically transformed all surgery today. I have used a variety of stitches and different threads such as nylon and horsehair to reflect historic developments. It is really a very personal artwork, but one I felt I had to make. I do know, that this piece will sit uncomfortably, as the other artworks stem from inspiration of the direct environment, but on the other hand, it is still a journey, a retracing of steps…just of another kind. 
It is only five days to the opening of the VARC event, so it will be all action stations next week. I am not sure how bloooogy blog will therefore pan out. Blooogy does take a fair few hours to produce, so for my regular Sunday readers, it may be delayed by a few days. I’ve been working hard but also trying to have the odd time relaxing. Went to a fabulous barbeque at Shona ‘the Shepherdesses’, with her pet lambs, chickens and ducks running around.
The lambs insisted on mucking around or taking the duvet up, which was supposed to be our sunbathing area. Apparently lambs have a favourite game, its called flattening molehills, you now see funny flat circles of mud all over the place. Fed the hungriest lamb ever this week, its expressions were quite crazy as you can see from the mad picture! 
I received a beautiful surprise in the post the other day. Andy had made a book via the Internet of some of my photographs. It looks fantastic; I can’t quite believe that I took the photographs. Thank you babe x Week thirty two …..done!!!