10-4°C, frost developing, clear skies, NW wind

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Night Walk with Rosie on Cannock Chase. Wow! what a fascinating experience. Only illuminated by my head-torch, I walked in fire-breaks and some undergrowth on the Chase. Starting on Castle Ring, in all totalled about 2 miles soon startling a small herd of Deer in the Ring. All that was visible of them were pairs of silver eyes, watching at us. Suddenly, they turned to escape- their white hind quarters were clearly visible. Next, we walked down into the densest woods, here occasionally, pairs of white lights caught the head-torch, animals were everywhere. On returning to the ring, I shot this photo of Rugeley Power Station. Next time, take a tripod.

12°C, clear, sunny and fresh.

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The air: is lighter today. There is a lot of personal turmoil underway at work but my mood is lighter. So many have personal-life-falling-apart issues, unscheduled absence, disintegrating families (not just me then). What is going on this year?
At least my day was lighter in spirit; no visits to the blue study for me. I did escape to the Arboretum for some air, some light and time.

Letter writing: try this for an intriguing website.Sleeptrip. The site is full of love letters, 300 of them (possibly more). Have a read.

20°C, sunny.

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Thinks: there must be something about the end of summer. Why? After a nice day walking the dogs, sharing a meal with friends and stuff, I lay in the garden hammock until the sun went down listening while to my iPod*. I had that feeling that crops up, the one about the close of the season, time to finish unfinished business, lament, take stock and look back on the time of year that makes us feel alive.

*iPod: I need to upgrade, it’s a real pain that this Nano has such restricted space (4Gb) so I am looking at the Classic (which now start at 120Gb) but are much more bulky and heavy. There are some odd stories on the web about reduced sound-quality over the Nano series; they probably relate more to the 2nd series though.

14°C, light clouds, warm afternoons.

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This is: the new me. Or at least I am back, after wandering in the mires; I have returned. I shall not be stifled this time.
My cold is nearly over, my legs have the urging fizzy feeling again, so I rode at race pace to work today despite my lungs not being clear, none-the-less, I am out of the slow country. I draw breath through flared nostrils and the air smells sweet. My heart pounds against my chest in the old way it used to.

Wyeth: much to think over here, the more I try to understand the visual language, the more I am drawn in. I have two problems to solve, one is my own lack of experience with tempera painting. The other is the desire to become more fluent in this visual language. I shall read on.

9°C, rain & it’s heavy.

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Sketchbook in watercolour: it came out as I expected, but it’s just too close to post here: take my word for it.
Instead, a short line of verse that entered my head in the early hours:

Goodbye, but not for too long.

19°C, Dry, it’s been a beautiful looking day.

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How is this all going to work out?
The open threads, they ought to lead somewhere. When we get there we ought to be able to look back along the threads and see the story spread out in front of us, back across time. Even those threads that lead nowhere, or were just not followed up could be visible. We can journey in only one direction, but at least we can look in the other. If we look.

Crass! Life doesn’t have a plot. The only thing I do know, is that I weigh 14st 1lb.

17°C, calm.

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Crane Fly: one flew in through the gap in the curtains this evening while I was painting. He flitted his strange legs against my shoulder then tottered off in another direction, I wasn’t sure that he knew how to work the direction controls.

17°C, clear, still with high cloud.

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For that matter, where are the crane flys?
Is it too early?
The wasps are worryingly sparse. I hope nothing terrible has happened.

Painting (Turpentine): got off to a good start today.I’m trying to be more methodical with this one, no leaping in and hoping to clean up afterwards. Portraits are more critical, this one is bigger than my usual A3-4. To reduce the risk, do the groundwork first and use first class source material- (good quality photographs).
Tired: well not exactly, but sleep has been poor this week. Today feels fine to me, there is lots of energy in my legs so tomorrow I intend to get physically exhausted (guess how ).

Poetry: is all new to me. Some of you will think this is no big deal, but I’m reading Noël Coward’s "Collected Verse" and now Thomas Hardy’s "Selected Poems".
It’s new to me, it feeds a need in my life right now. In those moments of introspection, which can be quite short, a passage of prose is just the right  dose.
Thomas Hardy initially seems more difficult of the two, but I am sure I will get used to the language. A colleague lent me this copy today, she must have had it since college days as it has been annotated throughout. I love annotated books, second hand books are great for this. Thanks Sarah– I will look after it.

Coward made his living as a song-writer but he says he made an effort to move away from the rigid rhythms and write more freely in his prose. I am really quite excited by all of this; the fact that just a page can hold a thought, one that deserves to stand on its own- not part of a plot or scene. It’s really something, something powerful. As I have said elsewhere, there is a universe in the little things, those often overlooked and deserve close attention. These small pages with a few hundred words do the looking in close-up.
It’s been over ten years since I read any poetry- and that was Spike Milligan. This life is changing (hold on, I don’t have any others).