It is a hazy and hot sunny afternoon, early July just after my birthday, I have spent most of the morning reading in the conservatory gazing out into the garden watching the hollyhocks dance about while bees fly between them. I can't face doing my tax returns just yet so this is a perfect distraction. I sit down and get comfortable; I found a book I acquired for holiday last year but have decided to read again. Lara,'s adventures fold out among the pages and words of Phillip Pullmans book, I dream of an adventures right now in a far off land, but have succumbed to a mild headache from lack of fluids in this hot weather, and still refuse to get up to get for a drink, I drift in to dream land for a while and wake up an hour or so later to find the quiet and still of every thing still around me and Lara perfectly preserved right where I left her on the pages of the open book. I guess like 'Alice' this little girls story was planned out for her over the pages and words of this book, a world of adventures far away from this world, far away from tax returns.
Sometimes I can pass whole days daydreaming and wondering, its probably a little counter productive, but it keeps me going, it keeps me thinking and it keeps me inspired. Some of the best advice I was given by a delightful author friend of mine was "don't live safe, live true" and the more I think and analyze this statement the more I find myself finding something everyday to live true to, they may only be small steps to living a true life and living true to your self, but slowly I am finding more and more things to inspire me.
More and more things to photograph and more things to draw and paint, I guess inspiration can be hard to find sometimes, I have had total artistic block when I really need to be creative but when it comes, when you least expect it, enjoy it and develop on it - you never know what adventure you might end up on next...
