Pastures New

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I'm thinking this blog could become a schedule of all those places I was planning to visit, but haven't. (Today Mister E and I were meant to be in Amsterdam.)


However, the last thing I want it to be is a tale of woe and missing out. Retirement is all about new experiences as well as places and in the case of Amsterdam, as you can guess from the photographs, I have been on a number of occasions before.

Whilst there can't be many people who have a pandemic on their bucket list, I have to admit that the past week has certainly offered up opportunities to wander, metaphorically, through pastures new. I've previously described the surreal experiences of collecting medication from the surgery and shopping for groceries as well as doing HIIT to YouTube videos.  I've even referred to streamed Pilates classes where elegant West Coast ladies with beautiful smiles coax you to stretch; there are occasions though when my muscles have found out that their sparkling pearly teeth do actually bite!

Zoom is a new discovery as too are live Facebook classes, like the art class I participated in the other afternoon delivered by the wonderfully talented Carole Ann Hall who hosted that workshop I went to 18 months ago. Can it really be that long? Painting along to a livestream is not something I had ever considered before and unlike a video you can't pause and replay. That, however, was part of the enjoyment of the exercise. Without time to deliberate, it was very much an opportunity for the urgent application of paint with immediate return.

She extolled the virtues of creating movement and light, ignoring accuracy and generating feeling. It was rushed but rewarding; an indulgence of colour and brushstrokes. I loved it and this was my finished piece:





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