After a seemingly long Winter of waiting, which even now has been held up by the Siberian cold snap, we have started sorting out our front and back gardens for the year ahead. The structure of the front garden was settled on in the late Autumn, in the last few weeks we've been buying and planting shrubs,plants and bulbs to fill it. Hoping they'll be kick started once Spring finally perks up sufficient interest. Though neither of us really consider ourselves experienced gardeners, we know the type of effect we want, it remains to be seen how close we come to achieving it.
Our small back patio, as I mentioned in my last blog post, is not currently a thing of beauty. It is at present half patio / half coal bunker, but this is about to undergo a transformation into minor loveliness. The decking surface has bare algae covered areas or cracked flaking paintwork, and this will have a thorough clean, sanding back and a good dry out before being repainted. We've bought the arbour and planters to be painted /assembled in our garage. I can't even think about starting any of this until the weather improves, when temperatures become somewhat gentler on my osteo-arthritic hands. Though at a time when our other major project is still as they say 'in development', its good for both of us to have one creative outlet that is easy to agree on, finalise, progress and push towards fruition.
Despite our best intentions the weekly Cottonwood planning meetings admittedly have faltered. When faced with the full scope of the project's development we can acquire an air of self-defeating fatalism, particularly around finance. Also,we have to acknowledge we're both frequently a bit too knackered, a state where the guiding flame of our aspirations and inspirations can easily fizzle out. Even 'dreaming' effectively requires good conditions, mental energy and imaginative space. Having had a couple of goes at re-energising the project using the same method and not entirely succeeding, we need to try a different approach.
Practically speaking, its important I'm able to make use of the space that my working part-time is meant to provide, in order to help take our ideas forward. That means my finding something other than cleaning work, which regularly does me in physically, is essential. The reality, so far, is that it's the only work I've been able to get. I'm currently a bit stumped for where's best to move this situation onto.
Anyway I digress. What we're now doing is reading a couple of small business start up books to see if they can help guide us beyond the stalled position we appear to find ourselves in. One of the things both books emphasise is, yes, dream the ideal the bigger picture of what you ultimately want, but think small to begin with, and in incremental doable steps. Perhaps we should adopt more of a gardening metaphor ~ have a vision for what ultimately we want our garden to look like, then we do our first planting, then see what actually grows and bares fruit. Things may bloom in ways we don't quite expect.
After nigh on two years with barely a few days break we've finally booked a weeks holiday away in April. Needless to say we are both in real need of a recharge to our spirits with a relaxing holiday away from 'the usual'. By going to stay in someone else's seaside. We're revisiting Whitby, because we really loved it when we were there five years ago. This time we'll have a car, so we wont be limited to public transport or how far we can walk, and can venture further afield. We also want to fit in a visit to the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate whilst we are 'up in t north'. Checking out the what the contemporary craft makers are up too, pick up some good ideas hopefully and perhaps source some future craft suppliers. We're also hoping to stop by and see my Dad either on the way up or back. He's now been diagnosed as having moderate Alzheimer's, which some of his recent aggressive and out of character behaviour, would appear to confirm.
The Japanese theme continues - Part One
After I finished reading Natsume Soeseki's Kusamakura ( see the review in my last post) I've started a book by Alex Kerr, called Lost Japan, which is about exactly that. As an American who grew up and now lives there, he loves traditional Japanese culture. He explains with something of a heartfelt sense of loss, how aspects of Japanese culture are slowly being subsumed by the aesthetic morass that is modern Westernised Japan. This process has been going on almost from the moment Japan opened its borders in 1853. What is harder to understand is how a culture that was once so aesthetically sensitive and sophisticated could allow it to become so undermined, its vibrancy to be diluted and dulled, to not care or attempt to preserve the best of their original culture. Kerr thinks this is an outcome of a certain single mindedness in the Japanese psyche that's become so obsessed with completing a specific project, such as modernisation, that they completely lose awareness of anything broader than that. So the Japanese culture, quality of life and environment continue to suffer and deteriorate.
The Japanese theme continues - Part Two
We were in Holt one Saturday and there was a Mind, Body, Spirit event on at Holt Community Centre. The centre was full of stalls with alternative merchandise, plus the usual psychics, healers, gongs and a smattering of charlatans. As a former Spiritualist most of this stuff was all too familiar and there was a part of me that felt wary for some reason, as if I would get sucked back into it. Because I've always wanted to give it a try, I paid for a taster session of Shiatsu, which has helped with my back, upper arms and joint pain quite considerably. So I've booked myself in for a full session later in March She only lives in Cley next the Sea which is a short bus journey up the coast from Sheringham.
The Japanese theme continues - Part Three
For some reason, after the Shiatsu practitioner talked about diet being an exacerbating factor in the severity of Osteoarthritis, I've had thoughts about looking again at Macrobiotics. I dabbled in it a bit during the 1980's - 1990's. The essence of it is to make rice, cereals and pulses the central elements to your diet, with vegetables and fruit as secondary sources. Tertiary food sources would be meat, fish, nuts, dairy, sugary or fatty foods, tea and coffee, and particularly heavily processed foods. These make it harder to keep a balance of the yin and yang food elements Well, this is its working premise. I'm unlikely to go the whole hog with it, because I never have before, though I know my diet could do with an improved emphasis health wise.
And finally, yes, we were snowed in briefly for a day, it got very cold and the wind whistled through our front door, and now its all slowly melting into sludge then water. Our garden plants and we have survived intact, both of us resuming our anticipation of the arrival of Spring.
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Despite our best intentions the weekly Cottonwood planning meetings admittedly have faltered. When faced with the full scope of the project's development we can acquire an air of self-defeating fatalism, particularly around finance. Also,we have to acknowledge we're both frequently a bit too knackered, a state where the guiding flame of our aspirations and inspirations can easily fizzle out. Even 'dreaming' effectively requires good conditions, mental energy and imaginative space. Having had a couple of goes at re-energising the project using the same method and not entirely succeeding, we need to try a different approach.
Practically speaking, its important I'm able to make use of the space that my working part-time is meant to provide, in order to help take our ideas forward. That means my finding something other than cleaning work, which regularly does me in physically, is essential. The reality, so far, is that it's the only work I've been able to get. I'm currently a bit stumped for where's best to move this situation onto.
Anyway I digress. What we're now doing is reading a couple of small business start up books to see if they can help guide us beyond the stalled position we appear to find ourselves in. One of the things both books emphasise is, yes, dream the ideal the bigger picture of what you ultimately want, but think small to begin with, and in incremental doable steps. Perhaps we should adopt more of a gardening metaphor ~ have a vision for what ultimately we want our garden to look like, then we do our first planting, then see what actually grows and bares fruit. Things may bloom in ways we don't quite expect.
The Japanese theme continues - Part One
The Japanese theme continues - Part Two
The Japanese theme continues - Part Three
And finally, yes, we were snowed in briefly for a day, it got very cold and the wind whistled through our front door, and now its all slowly melting into sludge then water. Our garden plants and we have survived intact, both of us resuming our anticipation of the arrival of Spring.
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