Sunday 11 January 2009

A Gentle Day

It is taking the sky is taking a long time to wake up these last few days. It remains the same misty silver pink of a watercolour dawn until well into the afternoon. As we were driving to Chepstow this morning I saw charcoal treelines against a horizon that changed from pearl to rose, topaz to olivine - all lit up by an opalescent sun. For over a hundred miles it made me want to paint...

Other than admiring a jewelled sky, there is little better in life to sit in a castle, well wrapped up against the cold with a thick woolen cape and the knowledge that a beef and barley stew is on the fire, waiting only for the sword practise to finish before we can tuck in, having spent the previous hour teaching a youngster how to use a drop spindle. A girl's determination to make a workable yarn defied chilled fingers and awkwardly slippery merino fibre. She made a very creditable first thread which many a spinner I know would be content to call an "art yarn" or "textured" (for that you can read "lumpy") but for an eleven year old, there is nothing wrong with that.

Hope your skies are soft and beautiful too

2 comments:

Patois42 said...

The world in which you live sound so much like the fantasy world I envision being so blessed to live in myself.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a painting both outside and in. Made me feel cozy just to read.