cloudy and cool
day one
feeling very lucky
lying here in my princess bed
listening to the bells ringing in the hour
to know I’ll wake up here
everyday for 4 weeks
I get up, I eat, I run, I walk about
I ride a pink bike
it wobbles all the way
to Grandfresnoy and back
not sure if it’s the bike or me
when I get to the shop,
of course, it’s shut !
trying to slow down
to notice, to pay attention
to listen, to see
H is keen for text on my project
for the Mayor
and to print for the presentation
in 3 weeks
…shit
I walk around some more
there are plenty of outbuildings
and gardens with low hedges
and weedy, untidy patches broken up
by lines of tomatoes, rhubarb
lettuces – tended by 2 young
and friendly Woofers from Canada and Taiwan
there are chairs, and logs,
an outhouse for bikes
one for bits of wood,
H and I clear out the old gardener’s workshop
so I have a place to work (no pressure !)
years of iron mongery and sticky spiders webs
5 litre bottle of unidentifiable liquids
croquet mallet bits and wooden balls
previous artists too
have left their traces
a folded mirror screen
at the dark back edge of the barn
lights you up
folds you, and repeats you
into neat long rectangles
in another rustic building
another artist has left a trace
sheets of yellowing A4 paper
line the wall like fish scales
and opposite an impossible
tall and narrow ladder stands
painted cadmium green pale
or as near as
in the upper barn
the roof is held aloft
by hefty square beams
here are the paintings by
this year’s other artist
featuring closely seen purple lilies
and smeared figures
who move across canvases
with patterned grounds
later, a glass of wine, a meal
another list
a slight anxiety and
exhaustion …
