A date with an artist...

Or rather, an artist's date (see last blog post).

When I talked about this last time, I emphasised how artist's dates are supposed to be for you and for you only (i.e don't bring a friend along). The more I thought about this, the more I felt it was probably aimed more at people who have regular jobs, a family, and basically no time for themselves at all. For me, it's different. I am on my own pretty much all the time. So for my artist date this week, I decided to make a concious effort to surround myself with people.

As proof that the universe supported this decision an old friend of mine who I don't see very much emailed to see if he could stay over as there was a wedding in the area. Normally my defense mechanism would kick in: social interaction is dangerous - avoid! avoid! avoid! But this time, I overruled it and set myself to manual control. Basically, I said 'yes, come and stay.'

As the weekend drew nearer I was plagued with misgivings. I worried we would have nothing to talk about, that there would be awkward silences, that I wouldn't get him off the topic of Playstations and X-boxes. All in vain! In fact we sat up until 2am drinking red wine and talking about books, tv, film, love, relationships, travel... most nourishing for my inner-artist, and my soul. The best bit was a late night text from another friend inviting me to join her for a long walk in the countryside the next day. My friend and I were delighted to accept.

Sunday was sultry and hot and G and I roared off into the Dorset countryside with a picnic in my rucksack, memory card in the camera and a taste for adventure. We arrived in the car park of Badbury rings raring to go.

Badbury rings is a beautiful spot. An old Iron Age fort overlooking Dorset country. The inner sanctum is crowded with beech trees and sun dappled paths. I felt like we were entering a fantasy novel by Charles De Lint, I'm sure if we had waited long enough a spirit guide would have appeared and asked us to choose a path and follow our destiny.

However, we had many miles to tread and so we began the journey proper on a long roman road, the sun high in the sky and feeling like we were in the beginning of the movie 'Stand By Me.'

What followed was one of the best days I've had in a long long long time. We spent a perfect June afternoon bumbling about the countryside. We got lost a little, adventured through fields of barley and fields of 'hmmm - not sure what it is, beans maybe? peas? cabbage?' that grew higher than our heads and were splashed with the red splatter of poppies. We dabbled in streams as clear as air and as cold as ice. We ate lunch in the shade of an old 13th Century church. We followed a river that twisted and turned through meadows rich with flowers and dragonflies and we waded through a river-ford when we realised we'd missed the stile.



We arrived back in Badbury Rings car park just before 5pm and there was a flurry of activity as we all changed in or around the car. It was time to take G to his wedding reception.

The evening was spent getting lost down country lanes, chatting in pubs and politely gate crashing weddings to semi-dance to a fantastic Gypsy Jazz Band.

A wonderful wonderful day.




And yes, I have continued my morning papers. Next post will be revealing some of the tasks I've been working through this week.

For now though, here's a quote to ponder...

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."

Until next time,

rb x