It’s been a while, hasn’t it. More than three months, to be precise. Steve and My Man and I went to Europe at the end of February for another family-event-with-stopover-in-London-on-the-way. While we were there, Covid-19 started ramping up, which did spoil the fun a bit, so when we came home in early March, we hunkered down with the family and pretty much stayed put.
I’ve been spending a lot of time ever since making things. Getting my hands into clay and garden dirt and bread dough (not all at once, silly! I do wash my hands in between) helps my soul stay grounded and cope with this very, very strange and disconcerting time.
Here’s a few pictures:
And now it’s almost summer; the garden is growing and so are the dust bunnies in the corners of the house; I’ve almost run out of good clay and need to reconstitute the dried-up stuff I’ve been saving up for several years; I’m part-way through editing a novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo a few years ago; and Steve is telling me I ought to get back to writing some stories with bears in them (he’s a stuffed animal of a one-track-mind).
So now you know. How’s things been with you?
Life, the Universe, and Coping in the Time of Covid-19. Making things helps.
I love the beads!! I have done baked “dough” and made them into Christmas tree ornaments. Great photos! Glad you made it home safe, but you got some extra time with family!! We’ve been pretty much hunkered down here too in the prison that is Covid-19. Lol. Did tons of work in my garden though.
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I’ve got a blog post coming (sometime… eventually…) about spindle whorls like that. I’ve made some in my clay endeavours. I found it fascinating that the markings are intended to show the speed of the revolutions.
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It is so cool to me the way you just know stuff like that!!
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What’s that saying: “That’s what I do: I read books and I know stuff.” 😁
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Thanks for the update. I love the photos and the glimpse at all your wonderful projects. I am baking bread and gardening but most of my energy goes into house renovations.
Have a great summer.
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Renovating is a very creative thing to do. Or re-creative, as it were. Good for you.
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Your photo of the Tower and Tower Bridge make me laugh with a tingle of regret … in England for 18 months and we never made it to any of the touristy spots! The closest we came was seeing the Tower Bridge from our train on our way to Gatswick the day we flew back to the States. We were planning on being tourists with my parents on our visit back this spring, but alas, Covid-19 had other ideas. Oh well, there’s always next year.
I still have the wool and the drop spindle you gave me on OUR day out in London, but haven’t had a chance to get started practising with it yet. Moving does rather take a lot of time and energy … hopefully this fall and winter I’ll have some brain space to devote to it. I am looking forward to learning a new skill! Maybe one day I’ll even work my way up to a wheel.
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The Tower is a place best gone to in not-summer (it was a lot less claustrophobic in February than in August). But worth it, in a check-it-off-the-list way. You’ll get there!
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You’ve been so creative. I imagine you’ve also been reading. I hear about people who are bored with the isolation.. Boredom is not something most creative people suffer from, I believe. The senior centre in Como x with its fully equipped clay studio is closed. I donated my slab rol!Dr to them. I did bring home all my underglazes, but I’m feeling frustrated not having a kiln..I made mollds of various fruits for tilrs. The blaze On tiles I’d made for a backsplash totally didn’t work. The Neolithic spindles are fascinating. I never knew the decorations served a purpose. My spinning wheel has been moved into the living room. I’ve just about finished drawings for the Australian animals colouring book. When this started, I thought “Oh good, I’ll get it finished.”. Instead, I started trying to organize the house. I’ve also started summer quilt- now I think I need to use it to bring some sunny days on. Today I’m going to work on to tiling downstairs
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Absolutely, creative people don’t get bored. Blocked and depressed, perhaps, but even then, it has to get pretty bad to not be able to do *anything*.
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