Discovering things and being home

Busy weeks. When I am away I can’t paint. When I am home I need to paint. But there are other things afoot too. This week has been one of phone calls and conversations, of reading and painting, of quiet times by the fire and friends, of feeling calm and being overwhelmed. One day I emerged from my studio to this scene. It’s not possible to do anything other than smile and the perfection of it.

I’ve been working on The Unwinding, talking with Alison, who now lives in Australia. She is the amazing woman who designed The Lost Words and the hospital walls for the ROH. There’s more about that on The Unwinding’s pages at Unbound. Exciting news for those who have pledged next week… and something else, that I find even more exciting. I am hoping that we can do more than just list the names of subscribers like an index, as a way to say thank you properly. This is hard though, as the book is small and there are at the time of writing 1072. The books will close soon on those whose names are in the back as supporters, but people will still be able to buy. And if you sign up to Number Seven’s mailing list you will be among the first to hear about plans for the book’s launch.

Even as I try to tidy up and give books away I seem to gather more. This latest comes as a result of a wonderful radio program from Radio 4, The Heart of Hidden Things, about Charlotte Mew. Beautiful, filled with quiet words and wild life and sadness.

Today, again, I took Letters to the Earth to the Cross Square in St Davids, 11-12. Just three of us there today. And we read while our words were punctuated by some rain and the calls of jackdaws and rooks. Next week I will be in Hay, with Nicola Davies and will do the same between 11 and 12. Not sure where yet. Saturday, 10 am I will be on stage with Mererid Hopwood. There are still some tickets left.

I left a stone on the cross, grey on the Caerfai stone of the old cross.

Before heading to St Davids we went to the beach where I found gold in the shape of Brendan Kelly, at the end of the rainbow.

I love the mirror world of the light on the beach. At dusk time when it’s like this, you feel as if you stand differently between the heavens and earth, suspended in light.

Home, now, cold, wet, tired and a head full of rainbows. Time to paint.

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