Mr. Michie had a late school evening tonight, so I took advantage of that and ran a few errands that I needed to get done after I left school today. My last stop was dinner. I wasn’t overly hungry, but I was craving something naughty, so my dinner of choice tonight was Five Guys french fries with lots of ketchup. They were delicious!
Another great find while catching up with the last threads of things I stored on my Instapaper account over the summer, I discovered a film on The Fox is Black site. Simply entitled Tone, it’s focus lies not with the art of painting itself but rather the medium used to create works of art: paint. The film was created by NY based filmmaker Trent Jaklitsch, who filmed Alyssa Monks while at work.
I was completely mesmerised by the colors bleeding and swirling into one another as they are blended. I love cleaning my brushes, watching the paint swirl around the water, like a squid that has just extruded a puff of ink. The water beginning to cloud with color like a storm rolling in.
The paint hues tangible, the bristles of her brush sweeping through the paint and stirring it into peaks and ridges as if she is creating mountains of color. There comes a point where it doesn’t appear as paint any more, it materializes almost as if it has come out of the cosmos, a star burst of color. Or, like bodily fluids, blood pulsing through the veins. It is an intoxicating film to view.
“Sometimes life is tough and that’s okay!” That was the caption under this image when I found it ages ago. I know I have used it before in a post and again today, it perfectly sums up how I feel. I feel exhausted, bedraggled, I’ve got a humdinger of a sinus infection and I want to be like this little bunny, laid out on my couch.
This has been a very busy week at work and in our house. Mr. Michie has been sick as well, so neither of us are getting a lot of sleep, I feel like a zombie. The thought of getting on the tube to go home tonight and have insane people try and cram into the carriages when they are already filled to capacity, made me want to cry. But, I persevered, I just want to get home in one piece and as stress free as possible, so I refuse to fight people for space, or rush past them to grab a seat, I just take it as it comes.
I’m so happy tomorrow is Friday, for that means the weekend is here and I am going to just rest, even though I would rather plow through my to-do list, the wisest thing for my mind, body and spirit will be to let them rest. I’m gonna try very hard to do that!
It has felt autumnal all day. This morning was crispy and although the sun came out it never truly felt warm. I went for a walk in the park over lunch and spotted an old bench, spotted with lichen. The sun was streaming through the leaves overhead and undulating back and forth over a small patch, almost as if the sun was beaming through the water on a patch of coral. It made me smile.
I have known of Chilly Gonzales for awhile now. I enjoy his work. Somehow, I missed the Solo Piano II album. As I was catching up with a few things I had earmarked to Instapaper, I read an article I had saved from the Fox is Black about this album in particular, being Bobby Solomon’s go-to album for working to. This song, is stunningly beautiful and haunting. It fit the chill of the morning air as I walked to the train station. A little Chilly for a chilly day. What a terrible pun, I know, but I just couldn’t resist! Happy Monday.
We stayed in on Saturday, Mr. Michie was a bit under the weather. Which was just fine. I cleaned the house, he rested, we listened to music, made dinner, the house was calm and quiet. It was a lovely feeling compared to the hustle and bustle of the week.
Today we ran in to Marylebone as I needed to run a few errands and Mr. Michie came with me. The day was cool and sunny, it felt like Autumn. We took a short stroll through Regent’s Park to sit beside the miniature waterfall within the island part of the Japanese garden. Being there restores my soul. I feel as if I have stepped in to another world and it is all my own.
Slowly, the leaves are beginning to change, there were the hints of gold and red and orange around us. As we headed back out we walked by a ginormous sunflower that was starting to lean over as the starburst of a flower head was just to heavy.
We stopped by the Farmer’s Market before heading home. The air was filled with the scents of sausages being freshly cooked, sizzling away in a large cast iron skillet with onions slowly browning next to them and the heady scent of apples mixing with that to perfume the air in an intoxicating way.
We stopped by one stall selling a variety of vegetables and fresh eggs. He had the most beautiful duck egg blue fleshed heirloom pumpkins. One of them just jumped right in to my hands and came home with me. It was lovely to be out for a few hours, that is not something we normally do on a Sunday as work seems to take it over, but I was happy to reclaim back some time just for us.
This was my brief glimpse of the sun this morning. It tried so hard to peak out from behind the clouds, but alas, the clouds won and the sky has turned to ash grey again.
It rained last night and the morning air felt clean. The air was crisp, but by the time I made it into the city, it had started to become muggy. Everyone was moving slower this morning. Not the usual exciting pace a Friday morning normally has. Maybe it is the weather, it can’t decide whether it should be hot or be cold. Everyone seems tired, worn out already, waiting for a pause to catch their breath.
This has been such a busy week, I will confess, that I have been living for today. Waiting for a break. I got back in the pool for the first time since our summer vacation this week to put in more hours towards my scuba certification. I was a little rusty, but I remembered the majority of it! It was wonderful to feel the weight of the tank on my back and the rush of water washing over me as I jumped in. I love being under the water, it is a certain kind of freedom.
I have tried very hard to come in to my space this week. But, it has proved difficult. I must work harder to find my balance as this little space is also a freedom for me. A freedom to write, to think, to share.
There are papers to grade this weekend, a cottage to clean and hopefully a long meandering walk through the park. I can feel the Japanese Garden in Regent’s Park calling my name. I want to walk from one end to the other and cut down our “secret” path that is behind the London Zoo, so we can look down at the animals from the hill. The camels are normally outside munching away and if we are lucky the warthogs will be out lying in the mud when we cross the bridge.
Here’s to the weekend, long may it last.
I’ve found it harder and harder to come to this little space of mine this week. I had many things to share, but as the week wore on, it took me right along with it. We had many plans for this weekend, but it turned in to a quiet one instead. A weekend to recuperate from the week that was.
The sunshine was out and about today, but the air was cool. The shadows are changing, the sun sunk a little sooner into the evening. We are coming to a bend in the road, we haven’t quite got there yet, but you can feel it’s approach. Summer is starting to lose her grip and we are slowly slipping from one season in to the next.
Pumpkin weather is coming and I’m ready for it!
{Image found at This is Glamorous}
Quiet moments. I am trying to grab as many as I can at the moment. They seem few and far between. School is busy as it always is, trying to get back fully in to the swing of things and find our rhythm again is tough. We will get there I know. We move around each other in the morning, slowly, quietly, a kiss, a small smile, a gaze over a bowl of yogurt or oatmeal or cereal.
I normally read when I travel, but this morning, I listened to music and soaked in the cool air while I walked to the station. The weather is starting to turn. The morning was crisp and I could see my breath as I exhaled in one continuous stream. A mist had settled over the fields as the train sped by and the sunlight streaming down made the lake sparkle as if it was on fire.
I was tempted to veer off in to Regent’s Park this morning and sit in the Japanese garden with my cup of coffee. But I didn’t. I inhaled the scent of coffee beans and vanilla before tasting my first glorious sip of the morning. I disappeared again down in to the tube station, but since I chose to take an overground train this morning, sunlight dappled my path and danced around the floor as the train made it’s way along the tracks. I listened to my music and swayed with the motion of the train. I was content. I found my quiet this morning, no matter how briefly it lasted, it was mine for a moment and in that moment my world was still.
{Image found HERE}
