My What Life...

I woke this morning with a poem. A bemused Rummy watched impassively as I scrabbled around for a pen and paper to scribble it all down before it faded too much. This is the third this week. They keep coming. I can't keep up.

After Dave gave me a huge amount of art supplies, he suggested I sign up for an art class (or two). As he put it, why spend an afternoon in the library, when you can spend six months in the lab? I took his point. The course is a beginner's everything art course covering all possible materials over five days. It's at the end of July. It's ages away. In the meantime, I am experimenting. It's incredibly happy-making.

my dining room table is under there, somewhere

After my rather rude awakening, I was moved to take some pictures to sum up what life is like right now for me. Zoe made herself available to supervise me planting melons in her greenhouse. The hardest part was to try and make everything chicken-proof. The velociraptors like nothing more than to have a good rummage through piles of newly added compost or dug earth and can uproot plants in their efforts. We managed.

Got my melons out. I know they look a bit floppy. Don't worry, they'll perk up

I also planted out a few squashes into the walled garden. I've got far more plants than we need, but thanks to the slugs and my attempt at staggering the sowing, they are at various stages of growth. If you like spaghetti squash, let me know. There will be quite a lot, despite the slugs and snails doing their best.

Bungay has a market on the Buttercross every Thursday. I was seduced by a huge bag of bitesized peppers. It was only £1.00, for at least 30 of the little yummies. I collected the seeds and planted up a tray-full. Dave was uncertain any of them would germinate, they are after all, commercially grown. I was expecting only a few plants. Hah! All but three popped up and now I've got pepper plants everywhere. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all. I have no idea what the peppers will be like, but I'm up for the surprise. 

tomatoes to be

I didn't start this year with any of this in mind. Not really. With the space to breathe and play and indulge my creativity all sorts of weird things are happening. After a great deal of consideration, I've put the counselling course to one side. Right now I want to explore what makes me happy, what makes me thrive. Creativity in all its guises is certainly doing that. There's a little ball of contentment in my chest these days, even when I have difficult days. 

What do I want to do when I grow up? I don't know. Every time I think I know, it becomes shapes in smoke. I'm going to have to do something soon for an income, I think I'm going to follow Zoe's advice and do something innocuous to leave my creative brain the space to keep exploring. It's funny but at this point, all I know is what I don't want to do. I've got a vague idea of what I do want to do and a heck of a lot of hope that it'll all come right in the end. Wish me luck.

oriental poppies, they self-seeded everywhere and the bees love them. I do too.