I did something very enjoyable today… Terry came around this morning and together we spent a couple of hours dismantling the remaining decking and part of the fence. Well… dismantling is a bit too effete a term. Actually, we attacked it with sledgehammers and crowbars. It was lots of fun. Dislodged some almighty spiders! And it was nice to do something physical and outdoors for a change - when I did a detox, it recommended doing some work in the garden every 2 days, and I… nearly followed it, and appreciated the slower pace of work, the singlemindedness, the connection with the earth and nature. Since then, nearly 18 months ago, I’ve barely been outside. About time I stretched my gardening muscles, or something.
The results were amazing… I’ve always been very wary of taking the fence down. It’s a huge thing, and the house is wierdly situated on a hill, so we were totally enclosed - nice to have so much privacy, and the decking raised you up towards the sun. But actually, with the fence down the area is just as bright, the decking and the fence cancelled one another out. And although we’re a lot closer to our neighbours now, it’s still relatively private. In fact, I met a neighbour today, and Gill met another… makes it feel like we’ve been living in a bubble ever since we got here and tearing the fence down was the only way to meet people.
The garden feels so much bigger too - I’ve always been a bit disappointed with this garden, so small after our huge expanse in Ecclesfield. But with all the decking now gone you realise how large it is, just split up and round corners and stuff. For the first time I feel confident that we (well, Gill more than likely) can do something amazing with it. I can see the space for the pond, the little raised “lawnpit”. It’s gonna be great!
I also had a nice munch on the first load of rocket I planted. Tasty!
Had a wonderful blissful jam in Ed’s studio last week - Ed was playing a new harmonica through his new amp and mic, Jan and Neil were also there swapping around an electric and an accoustic guitar. I was reduced to borrowing Jan’s accoustic bass guitar, and playing it unamplified, so I was more felt than heard throughout despite plucking so hard that at times the strings nearly cut my fingertips off.
Neil had his minidisc with him, so despite some technical glitches we managed to record these few tracks (some lovely happy giggling fits in there… as I said, you can’t really hear anything I’m playing for the most part, but you can tell I’m there when were plodding along nicely in straight fours and suddenly the whole thing shoots into 31/16 time or something equally whacky).
We were a bit concerned about neighbours, and wrapped it up fairly early to avoid annoying anybody, but when I went out to grab a glass of water I met one of the women from upstairs and she was exuberant: “I’m so glad I was here tonight, it’s been wonderful listening to you play.” Was a lovely moment, made me feel all warm and happy.
Rowan made a lovely comment today:
“I know why we saw Mars on family camp” (we’d been camping last year when Mars was particularly bright in the evening sky) “it’s because my angel club is on Mars, and all the other angels who weren’t busy pretending to be peoples’ daughters wanted to see what I was doing.”
Is Guimp really the world’s smallest website?
Haha… I finally finished scanning my old sketchbook (made the HTML ages ago). Erm… another one to file under “Sumption purposelessly puts another piece of his past life online”. I quite like it though. It’s the only sketchbook I ever completed, done in 1991.
Bristol University finally caught up with me… they have my new address now, and sent me a copy of Nonesuch, the alumni magazine. Flicking through I notice a piece of books, and it mentioned A Long Walk Home by Rachel Clark, the story of Rachel’s cancer treatment and her experience with health professionals up to her death. It says that Rachel graduated as a BSc in Psychology, in 1991. I graduated as a BSc in Psychology, in 1991. Desperately racking my brain… I think I have half a picture of Rachel in my mind, but I’m not certain. I want to remember who she was, so that I can mourn for her in my own little way.
Mmmm… spend a night at Ed’s studio. Mmmm… slivovic. Mmmm… so much more. Mmmm… 170 new photos this morning, better bang them up on the website. This was perhaps the most enjoyable Life I have made so far %^)
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