Maps

 I have actually made some progress with planning out my direction for 2026. I'm doing it with the mind-mapping technique and at present have produced a draft of something that resembles a spider's web with text scrawled across it. There's quite  a bit of refinement to be undertaken and detail to be added but, if nothing else, it helps me to put options into perspective and hopefully assist in directing focus as I've realised very quickly that I can't possibly follow every strand of the strange diagram I have created, there just simply aren't going to be sufficient hours in 2026 to permit it!

Meanwhile, life continues apace regardless. Last week I spent a very pleasant afternoon in York by myself, visiting the Art Gallery where the pieces shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize of 2025 were still on display complemented by Future Tense: Art in the Age of Transformation. The latter was a huge light installation by Squid Soup and Liz West that you could wander into, conscious of the movement of colour and sound, amongst strings of light bulbs. The art prize exhibits, like so much contemporary art these days, were a mixture of photographs, videos, sculpture and painting with various themes although climate change, domestic abuse, colonialism, identity and culture featured highly and from across the globe.

Despite the depressing and urgent message emanating from many of the entries, the overall impact was still positive and uplifting. That said I do find it difficult to negotiate an exhibition where there are a multitude of digital items on display, some requiring 20 minutes or more of time to watch and absorb. I'm uncertain whether constraints of time or concentration militated against me watching all from beginning to end but I stuck to my plan to visit Yorkshire Museum's Viking North exhibition too.

There the exhibits were rooted very much in the past but like the contemporary display around the corner, a story of colonialism, identity and culture unfolded as the Kingdom of Danelaw was established, grew and then overthrown. Far from being simply brutal invaders, the Norsemen who overran our Northern shores were farmers, tradesmen and artisans and some of the jewellery, gold and silver shown were exquisite and spell-binding despite being over a thousand years old. It's an era of time that we know relatively little about, but again I was able to leave feeling positive and uplifted about that Viking blood that still throbs through me. 

I followed my afternoon out, the next morning, with a meet up for a walk. The intended strategy was to finish in time for a coffee and breakfast roll before a reading group meeting at noon. It doesn't matter how well made the plans are, there is always a risk of them going awry. There were five of us, dressed appropriately for the muddy route we had correctly anticipated. What we hadn't taken account of, however, was the extent to which we talk. It should have been foreseen; a group of women of a certain age, out for a walk with a deadline, miss a left hand turn through chatting! Eventually, realising our error once all familiar landmarks had disappeared from view, we had to clamber through a hedge, skirt a hole on a golf course where friendly golfers provided directions and finally make our destination only as book club members were gathering! Who says retirement isn't full of adventures? Forget mind mapping too, the next walk needs somebody prepped for checking an OS map.