Small update
There’s a certain point where an entry on my todo list (I use Todoist) spends so much time at the top under overdue that I just assume I am a person that doesn’t do that thing, otherwise I would’ve done it by now. So I became, in my mind, a person that doesn’t write newsletters, or at the best, I’m a person that only occasionally writes newsletters. It’s a shame because I’ve started writing this in my head about 16 times and some of the openers were really good. I can’t remember them but I remember thinking they were good (which is is no guarantee they were but probably better than this)
Since my last offering, I finished this seaserpent:
entered it into the handprinted collective prompts, and won this:
Very exciting. I can’t wait to not get round to using it for three months because I’m hopeless. It’s also in the shop, here: Please buy a sea serpent
Block party has now started, a more reasonable than most, but still difficult, challenge of producing one print a week for five weeks. I’m determined to keep up with it, so there should lots from me to report before summer holidays throw a spanner in the works. I’m past the plotting what to do for each weeks prompt, and well into the flailing hopelessly about because there’s so much to do until I’m too overwhelmed, and then retreating to my hammock.
It’s great in my hammock. I’m there right now. The false acacia is dropping little flowers on me, which brings me endless delight, as the false acacia was chopped down just after I moved here. I was very sad because it was pretty, and it was my hammocking tree.
It was also rotten, and likely to topple in the wind, but the tree surgeon left a really big stump for hammock purposes. So big, it transpired, the false acacia grew back. It grew branches which directly coming out of the trunk would largely snap off, but some stuck and they are now flowering, some sort of reminder of persistence in the face of fortitude. It’s still quite rotten, full of woodworm and fungus, but whatever time it has left I delight in, swinging gentle beneath on hot days.
My first block party print will be a swallow, which is well underway, as are the swallows that nest in the stables opposite, swooping through the garden gathering insects for the nests full of hungry mouths.
As ever, if you like this post, don’t forget to recommend my Substack to friends in the hope more followers encourage me to write more offer; I’ll update you on the swallows next week