Putting down roots

The holidays are over and school’s now back in full swing; Joe’s finally getting a haircut (on Friday) and the hot weather has cooled right down again. Normality is resuming.

The past week has been filled with small adventures: local trips to places like Oxenhope and back home to Rossendale, to pick wild garlic like we do every spring. I finally gave in to Joe’s endless requests and we did a blog post over in his Nature Notes. ‘We’ meaning ‘I’.

We visited my paternal grandparents’ grave in Holcombe village on a sunny morning and we had a picnic then stocked up on art supplies in Ramsbottom. Joe’s been loving his new oil pastels and is churning out pictures like there’s no tomorrow. We went to the art shop in Hebden too, and bought some air drying clay and made pinch pots.

On Saturday we surprised him with a trip on the Worth Valley Railway. I think we last did the same trip for his fifth birthday, so it’s been a while. This was the first time they’ve been running the steam train since lockdown; we had to book tickets in advance and we got a compartment all to ourselves.

The sun was shining on West Yorkshire and it was so nice to look out of the windows as we chugged along.

Joe used to be such a train anorak. That’s faded a bit, but he was still keen to get up onto the footplate and look at the firebox and chat to the driver.

Then it was off into Haworth for sweets and ice cream, and a look around the shops. We wandered up past the Bronte parsonage and out through the fields.

We’re lucky to have such great places close by. I’m familiar with some of them, having hopped over the border a lot over the years, but there are so many more to explore yet…

After tea we noticed there was a game down at the local cricket club (you can see the pitch from our back garden) so we walked there and watched the village team win. It was a nice evening. The next day we took a walk along the river and through the courtyard where the peacocks live. One stood right next to us (we had to brush past) and opened its tail out fully. It was spectacular. Typically, we didn’t have cameras or even phones with us to get a picture…

There are surprises on the doorstep too. We’ve been to the food market in Hebden a few times - there are 40 stalls and it’s pretty quaint - but Joe and I stumbled across a flea market there on Friday. Apparently it’s a weekly thing (with arts and crafts on Saturdays).

I picked up a necklace for the princely sum of £2.50. I was drawn to it, magpie-like, because it reminded me of fly agaric mushrooms. You know how I am about those. Apparently the entire stall consisted of the belongings of a 100 year-old lady who’d just moved into a care home. She was well known locally for her flamboyant hats, and she wanted to sell her jewellery and tea sets and trinkets off to give the proceeds to her grandchildren.

Along with the muumuu (kaftan? I always call them muumuus like Homer Simpson does) I found in The Souk, I’ve been enjoying a bit of thrifting. A quick wander into Hebden last week ended up being an entire afternoon of Joe and I marvelling at the antiques emporiums and their curiosities. There are a lot of charity shops dotted about, and a few of them are housed in big buildings so they can sell furniture. I very nearly bought a rocking chair (£20) but didn’t.

The search continues for a Hornsea Heirloom teapot.

I was chatting with the lady who runs the art supplies shop, and she mentioned The Egg Factory - a place where you can share workspace with other creatives. I joined online, and we went to have a look around. I’m looking forward to occasionally working somewhere other than in the spare bedroom or at the dining room table. I’ve put together a list of projects which I can do there, and there are tentative plans to get the etching press out again. Most of my stock is either for sale on Skye or has disappeared into the ether during the move south, so it’ll be good to make a load more and get the online shop up and running again.

We’re slowly getting to know people by getting out and about, and I feel so much less isolated than I did on Skye.

We joined the library too. Admittedly, Skye did have the edge over this particular aspect of life. Portree library was so bright and light, and friendly. The library in Hebden felt much more old school; hushed and darker. Drier somehow. And they don’t have all the lovely lifestyle books and magazines to borrow.

I do, however, have it on good authority that Todmorden library is lovely, and we can use our membership cards there, so that’s somewhere we’ll be going.

I’m resuming my illustration course this week now I’m able to. It’s tough to leave my comfort zone and work in a looser style but I’ve found some of the exercises really useful, like making a ‘mind bank’ of everyday objects in my sketchbook, and drawing people from magazines.

As well as drawing (and planned printmaking), I’ve been writing. I set off early to collect Joe from school - it helps to avoid the high school traffic, too - and that gives me half an hour or so in the car whilst I’m waiting for him. I have a bag with notebooks, old diaries, pens, my glasses, a clipboard to rest on etc and I scribble away feverishly. That time goes by really quickly.

I went to a photographic company in Sowerby Bridge yesterday. I want to have fine art (giclee) prints done of some of my photographs so I can sell them in my shop. I put together a huge folder of them but now need to make a shortlist of five or so. It might be worth asking people what they think, to help me decide…

The test print should be ready in a few days so I’m crossing my fingers it looks good. If it turns out well there’s the option of doing calendars and postcards too.

I borrowed The Bell Jar from the library and am reading it. I thought it would be heavy going but that’s not the case - although I’m doing that annoying thing where I’ve got three books on the go at once.

I’ve just started watching The Durrells with Joe. He seems to like it, but I’m having to skirt around some of the more adult themes. I think he just likes the young Gerald Durrell and his menagerie to be honest, and a lot of it goes over his head. I’ve been to Corfu and a lot of other Greek islands and they’re some of my absolute favourite places on the planet. I tried to explain the blueness of the sea, the smell of lemon groves and wild oregano, the friendliness of the people to Joe. He half took it in but again, he wants to go there purely to find lizards and befriend pelicans…