Author: Kate Wilson

Spaces

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Today I started to prepare a space for making sculpture. It’s only taken 3 years!

I decided to get on with it rather than wait for the space to be…..well, more spacious!
This is what I did.
1. Stand in the middle of the space and think ‘yes I want to do something here’
2. Move some bicycle parts from a table so I could have a surface for drawing
3. Look at some old notebooks and drawing pads to see where I left off
4. Hang some old sheets over the shelves so it won’t matter if stone fragments go everywhere
5. Check that the internet works there so I can listen to Radio 4 (english) or Radio 3 (castellano)
Here are some of the images that caught my eye in my old notebook which I keep for inspiration

I don’t know what next – will have to wait and see.
Am quite excited.
Photos are Barbara Hepworth garden, don’t know(again), Fingals Cave, Carn Euny Fogou, another don’t know but I am pretty sure it was in Malta.

Communication Problems

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Is Mercury retrograde or something?
I was listening to the Spanish station Radio 3 yesterday while dozing on the sofa after lunch. Then it stopped. It sometimes does that – something to do with streaming – so I didn´t worry. But later I noticed the internet wasn´t working at all. Nor was the phone.
Today after several long phone calls with Orange we are still without either.
So all my good intentions of phoning people, emailling people, and writing regular blog posts once more, have gone out the window.
Now I am in the local locutorio on C/Girona and battling with all the usual problems of memory and faulty keyboards – what are all my passwords? how do you make this sign @ on a spanish keyboard? and why do these internet cafes always have a pause before the letter appears on the screen so that you press it hard, more than once, and after 5 seconds or so, it apppppppppears like that?

Will get back to normal soon I promise. But meanwhile I can´t do more – this computer is driving me crazy.
But I should add that today we had a wonderful swim in the sea at last. At Tossa del Mar. With dear friends from Canada and a very happy dog.

Nature Notes

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

So, I am back in Granollers and as I am finding it hard to feel settled and that is not an easy thing to write about, I decided to post some words about what is going on in the natural world.
Pathways
I am out walking Bonnie every day and as we meander along the paths which are edged with plastic bottles and beer cans and strange fluffy red sponge things, (it makes a change from the brambles and honeysuckle we were forced to endure in Lamorna), I try to find some way of encouraging my roots to sink down into the dusty earth.
Birds
It’s always good to watch the birds.
Amazingly the swifts are still here. Not so many, not so often seen but as of yesterday there was a crowd of them shrieking above the city.
By the river which is very low after a long and unusually hot summer, I saw a bird with a large yellow patch on its tail. I can’t identify it. I didn’t see it for long enough to describe it better. I looked  at images on Google and found one almost identical but it too had evaded identification and was only named ‘Bird with yellow marking on tail’ .
It was lovely though.
The heron is still feeding on the river in spite of the mass of floating plastic bags and we also saw fish – quite large ones – swimming near the bridge
Weather
At 6pm this evening the temperature was 24C. The last two days have been cloudy which has meant Bonnie and I could walk in the morning without having to get up at some unearthly hour to avoid the sun. It doesn’t really feel like Summer but neither is it Autumn yet.
The Streets
The trees have blossom in the streets around our home. Yet again I must confess to not knowing what sort of trees they are. The flowers are pink and large and plentiful. I have realised one tree near the house is a pear tree as it suddenly dropped lots of fruit on the pavement. Or was it someone with a broken bag coming home from the market?
The River
The most wonderful thing about the river just now is the field of yellow flowers on tall green stems. What on earth are they?  Surely not Jerusalem artichokes but they remind me of that kind of wild abundance.

Well, that is today’s nature diary.  I am ashamed of how much I don’t know the names of what I see. That somehow reflects my general feeling of ignorance at the moment. In answer to almost any question I feel the most honest reply is ‘I don’t know’

 

Heading South

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

The swallows are still here in Cornwall and so am I

but we all will be flying south very soon – or in our case we will be driving east then going through the Channel Tunnel and then heading south west through France.
It is always nice to stay until bramble time – or blackberry if you are English!

At last the sun is shining on them and making them sweet.

Thanking Old Friends

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Going through old letters here in the cabin in Lamorna. Well, it is raining and a good day for sorting.

I don’t keep them all but it is good to hold onto some of them and especially now that letters are so rare.  All my friendships from the 1980’s and 90’s are represented there – reminding me of small events that otherwise would have disappeared into oblivion.

One of those friends was Val Phillips – my longtime healer and friend who died some years ago – far too soon, too young, still very missed. Of course I miss all those who have since died but Val is the one who makes me ache still from the unfairness of it. She had a huge influence on the way I work and sometimes when I am  doing acupuncture I get a strong sense of her presence which brings tears to my eyes. Who knows if it is just a memory or really a visit of some part of her spirit?  All I know is that one moment I am standing with my hands perhaps hovering over a needle, to give it extra punch, and the next I have tears streaming down my face.  Which is actually quite nice in a way and luckily the patients are usually dozing off at that point so they never know.

She was the first person who ever was able to tell me in a way that I could take it in – you are alright!

Anyway, I found these two cards that she sent me – I think of her laughing wickedly and snorting and how in fact she made me laugh much more often than she made me cry.

Here they are – the first one is the taster – it is the second that really is funny for me! Hope you like.