Sunday 29 November 2009

A Question of feet


I started my first blog with a description of the weather so enough of that, least to say that I've examined my feet and there are no visible signs of Trench foot however there seems to be a permanent steam emanating from my sodden clothes. I have a short walk to work. It generally takes less than a minute but when the clouds are a bit low i can achieve this in seconds. Its about 15' from the back door to the red stable door of my studio. There is of course the view to take in on the way, the other side of the valley, the seasonal changes, small pockets of woodland and the lines of individual trees that border the vertical fields and the old hamlet of 'New Houses'. In Spring the small wall outside the studio comes alive with the delicate flowers of mountain alpines, Saxifrages and Sedums, the Lapwings return, the sheep lamb and for me the new year begins. This commute while not the fitness tonic i need does separate me from the daily goings on in the mostly empty farm house. The mice can play amongst the wiring and the winter butterflies can net themselves on the cobwebs, the house plants thirst goes un-quenched.I leave the unopened bills and payment requests on the crumb strewn kitchen table and begin my journey to work. This for me is a good walk, all that is familiar changing minutely but it is a kind of bridge between the work i love to do and the place i live.
On more perfect still days i take the longer route around the farm boundary hoping to see something among the tall grasses and drystone walls that can spark an interest in the same way it did when i was a child. On such days i wish the distance from my home to work were a field away. For me this is when my imagination is exercised and i thank the heavens for a short commute and a longer working day. On other colder days when i fall from bed and scrabble into my ever tighter clothes hoping that my journeys path will throw me a morsel of inspiration I long for a steady job and a regular paycheck, still 15' is not far from ones dreams

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