I’ve been planning a new project for sewing this week; and I’m sure Amy will do it in due course and probably unravel a mystery at the same time. It’s a Victorian crazy patchwork quilt that’ll be heavily embroidered and uses a bag of offcuts of velvet that came to me from the Aunt of a dear friend after the Aunt died ( I also inherited her cookbooks, so we really would have got on and I wish I’d met her.)
And that got me thinking, which I sometimes do, no matter what people may think, and that tied in to when, purely by coincidence, another dear friend sent me details of a group called Loose Ends who exist to finish projects for people who have died, as a last gesture of respect and a way to complete the circle, I suppose. You can find details of them here https://www.looseendsproject.org/?fbclid=IwAR0t0ljmol6rZ_GLrK08IcwbIjrY-pA6WGiSEqcCm5wx_4bN2YPey22POZM and I think it’s an amazing idea.
Anyone who’s read any of my books will have worked out that I think creativity is very important, especially to women because it’s a way to carve out a tiny space that is ours and do something because we want to, not because we’ve got to. A big part of my idea of heaven is my sewing and a good audiobook and peace and quiet. A mug of tea, coffee or hot chocolate close at hand is good too, and a sense that I am doing something that cannot be undone. Unless, of course, I end up having to unpick it, but even then I’ve learned something, even if it is just to have a simple project on the go as well as a complicated one.
I get the same feeling from cooking and photography and gardening and even tidying up if I can get into the right headspace. A feeling that I am achieving something rather than rushing round chasing my tail, A sense of achievement and of peace and a way to dsitract my mind from dark thoughts. A little moment when I declare ‘yes, I am here and I do matter and I don’t care if you approve or not. This makes me happy, it’s not hurting you and I’m going to do it.’
Speaking of photography, I think I’m getting better because I’m getting fewer decapitated birds. This week’s picture was taken on a blowy, cold morning and shows a very cold, fed up egret huddling into the shelter of part of the ruined sea bathing pool that dates from the days when my beloved Harbourside was cut off by high tide and the location for a fever hospital. I really hope you all have better weeks than he’s having!
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