Having sported a painful back for about a week, I couldn’t face a repeat run with Mark and Mach 2 yesterday, so I opted instead for a relaxing day in the garden… wasn’t it a beaut?!
Relaxing day in the garden is an oxymoron for me, of course. I cleared out the tea-house ahead of the autumn, cut wood for the wood burner, pulled some weeds up and generally trimmed back a bit… although this was less energetic compared to emptying and refilling the compost heap, which I did on Saturday!
Also on Saturday, Kim and I took ourselves off to Skelton Workshops for some sculpture tuition. Kim has had a piece of raw stone (a present from Karen) sitting looking at her in the dining room for 18 months and she finally found inspiration and started working on it.
We stood working in the sunny courtyard for an extremely stimulating morning… if you are ever stuck for a present for a loved one, this is a really special idea! Especially if you go along too… which was what Kim did, as this was my birthday present!
They do courses in sculpture and also in letter cutting and they also have classes for children… what a totally brilliant skill to give a child! Even a 47 year old one!
My piece has progressed only slightly from its initial rock-like state… can you guess what it is yet?
There’s a way to go with the piece yet but it really is great fun, whilst the camaraderie with the other sculptors makes for a really warm and friendly morning.
Not so warm is the ice-pack that Andy Swan (also at www.andyswan.co.uk) has told me to apply to my back circa 50 times ahead of my forthcoming session with him. Having suffered for ten days, that one call, allied to ten three-minute applications with five-minutes between (alas, no quite so regular as I’ working in between!), has already made me feel a whole lot better! Should have known to do that initially!
Meanwhile, back on the the subject of the run I opted to miss yesterday, the Marks apparently decided to go it slow, returning in a lazy 2.32… presumably saving their energy for another chance to make me feel like a slowcoach! Gits!