10th February 2011

I've not had the  chance to catch up until today.

Monday 6th Feb was extremely windy with intermittent showers. Carol and I met up from the shop to go for a walk. We had planned to do Nicky Nook but unfortunately Carol had to be back for 1pm so I decided to take her on our canal round. Carol is local to the area and has lived here all her life, she is in her late 50's but has never done the walk, only the canal section.

Carol's dog Benji a super 7 year old black and white collie had never been over a stile in his life before, I have to say I was amazed. He was nervous about going over and we ended up have to drag him across unless we were able to get him to go underneath!

There are spring lambs in the fields already, we kept Benji on the lead as he has not had experience of sheep, Carol seemed to think that because he is a sheep dog  that he automatically would be ok with them, but that is not true, a dog is a dog and they are trained to be ok with sheep and are not always naturally sheep friendly!

I slipped going down the steep hill, I had hold of Benji on his lead and he pulled but not excessively, the problem was all the rain we have had lately, the ground is completely sodden, no grip on my very worn boots so it was inevitable I would end of on my arse! Luckily it was a soft landing and the only way I suffered was from embarressment and having a brown bottom!

We arrived back home safely and I waved Carol goodbye. It was a good walk, I liked being able to take someone out who is new to country walking and showing them a different side to it. We will be going out again next month!

Tuesday 8th February.

I spent quite a few hours drumming up business for the land art workshops, writing letters to schools etc, I was pleased as I managed to get quite a bit done, the sense of achievement was good! I popped over to Ginny's my neighbour for a cuppa, she is a drama lovvie and has her own business running drama classes. I wanted to see Cassie the cat, I have missed Cassie since Ginny came home from Australia, Cassie remembered me and let me stroke her and pick her up.

I took over our land art books for Ginny to have a look at and she was impressed enough to ring me and say how amazed she is by the sculptures. Even though I had explained what we do she had no idea what land art really meant. Apparently she has a friend who is an artist and runs her own studio, Ginny wants to show her the books, it will be interesting to hear what another artist makes of them.

Wed 9th February

Off to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park today. We wanted to see the David Nash exhibition again, before it ends on the 28th February. It completely blew us away the first time we went. David's sculptures are amazing, the amount of work he must put into each one. The smell, the texture and colours of the wood made the senses go into overtime. I wish we could have the park to ourselves, it wasn't busy at all, but I would love to walk around it with no one else about, I would also love to meet David Nash and see where he works at his Church in Wales.

We had fish and chips from the local chippie when we got back, it was getting on and we did not feel like cooking, a good day.

10th

It was foggy first thing this morning. It hung around until about 10ish then the sun broke through. It has been a lovely sunny day all day, the washing is out and even though it is sunny I am not sure it will dry as there is very little wind. I have been finishing off my school land art letters and I am glad to say I have finished all the local Lancashire schools, some I will send via email, Im sure it will get more attention via email, I really hope I get at least one booking!

I have a lot of art inspiration going on in my head at the moment. One in particular is starting to forge ahead. I am creating a Anthony Gormley sculpture and I will post a photo on here as soon as it is finished. I just hope it lives up to my expectations and Mr Gormley's presuming he will ever see it!

Anyway, I think I might get on with something else now that does not involve the computer, my hands are feeling quite achey from all the key board work I have done today!

J.