Trying to keep it exciting I bravely take it outside into the back yard. It's warm enough to wear my bikini top and shorts and I feel liberated to do so. With only the birds, a big black and white butterfly and some biting ants (left ankle, ouch!) for an audience, I begin. Holding it comfortably yet firmly in my right hand, I start really fast, then slow down (is that the right way to do it?). It soon becomes a steady rhythm I can control. My HB pencil swoops and glides, scratching its gentle sounds onto the grey lined white paper. The pages of my notebook are soon full of letters joined into words, creating sentences hopefully making sense. Apologies if I led you down a different path.
It's great being able to write outside and it gives my eyes a break from the computer screen. My right eye has been a bit sore lately, possibly due to a small sand dune forming in it. Or there may actually be a large Biblical plank in there which I need to remove during this season of Lent.
Ellie looked so lovely and happy going off to her first ever concert one evening last week. She went with a friend to see Ed Sheeran and his guitar at the Qatar National Convention Centre. He was born in hippy Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Is there no end to the talent found in my home county? Looking like an H&M catalogue model, Ellie cat walked down the drive to the waiting car. I almost cried at being left behind, not sharing in this coming of age moment with her. I suppose going to see The Stylistics at Huddersfield Town Hall with my mum was exciting for me at the time, however vague this recollection is. The thrills came much thicker and faster for me at 17 years of age travelling to St. George's Hall in Bradford by bus to see The Pasadenas with my girlfriends. Hamish did smile, wink and sing just to us didn't he? I will save my eclectic list of concerts I have attended for another time.
Threading the thin fishing line-like string onto the small 3D, glow-in-the-dark planets was a tricky operation. Gravity seemed to pull them out of my fingers and thumbs. Hanging them from Joshua's top bunk to conspire with the constellations already in the space there, weighed heavily on my shoulders. What if I put Venus and Uranus in the wrong position? What in Heaven's name could transpire then? I consult Joshua's Big Book of Knowledge and try my very best to precisely position all the planets in their true alignments. Once again, I marvel at the awesomeness of the cosmos.
We awake to discover Saturn has fallen out of space and onto his duvet below. It appears as though we will need some stronger force other than the adhesive putty provided to keep it in orbit.
As I mentally begin to prepare for the fast approaching swimsuit season I physically attempt some exhausting aero-boxing, upper body and fat burning workouts. It will be a wonderful moment when I arrive at the same state of mind as American writer Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), described as being 'big and floppy and sandaled and not caring a damn.' Why does the force of gravity have to be so strong?
Be encouraged by Embrace as I am, (the band are from Brighouse, wait for it, in West Yorkshire).
'' You should never fight your feelings,
You have to follow nature's law.''
Gravity was written by Coldplay and given to Embrace. It's on their album Out of Nothing (2004).
The above lyrics are from their song Nature's Law, from the album This New Day (2006). That summer Joshua was born, my brother Neil married Kate and Nigel's brother Eddy married Claire.
Keep embracing those you love. I will have big hugs waiting for my mum and dad when they arrive tonight.
''A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.''
Gertrude Stein
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