Today has certainly been the hottest of the year so far. I have not seen a thermometer, but I am sure that the temperature has been in the vicinity of 30 degrees. Of course, it would turn out that I have had to spend the day in energetic activity. This morning I helped to move the exhibition work of a fellow artist who has no car of his own, and then returned to the South Square Centre to do a little maintenance work. This rather tame-sounding description doesn’t convey the fact that, while assessing the work that needed doing to repair a rotten window frame, the thing very nearly fell out. Because I was up a ladder at the time it could have been a disaster along several dimensions. I managed to hold on to it by the lock. Whew! That was clearly going to be a bigger job that I had time for.
The other reason for my being there was that I was expected to advise a group of photographers about the display of their work. It’s an interesting group, community-based, and focussing upon portrait studies of local residents. Two problems attend this otherwise pleasant and interesting task. They turned up with rather more material than can be fitted comfortably into the gallery. It emerged very soon, however, that it was very important indeed that everybody should be represented in the show. (Phrases about fitting quarts into pint pots came to mind.) By dint of strategic analysis and very precise measurement I think that I managed to satisfy everybody, although the most challenging bit of the task remains to be confronted tomorrow. Aside from the difficulty of the practical challenge, the group was led by two strong-minded and vocal members who (of course) had clearly inconsistent ideas about how aspects of the problem should be approached. I think that when I’ve finished writing this I’ll get onto LinkedIn to register “diplomacy” as one of my skills. That’s not one normally associated with being an artist.
They reached a natural break in the project at about 3.30, and I arrived home to find the roofers packing up. They have not quite finished the job, but I think that they had had about as much as they could take for one day. Heaven only knows what the temperature must have been up there, with no shade and the sun’s rays reflected back from the stone. Believe me, those folk are tough! They have left us the old timber stripped out from the roof, so that we can saw it up and use it in our wood-burning stove. Imagine! On the hottest day of the year I spent two hours cutting up and storing winter firewood! It might seem crazy, but with firewood at £5 a bag from commercial sources, I can’t image what expense we will be saving ourselves in the coming winter.
I think that the high-point of the day, however, was the arrival in the post of an endorsement for my planned exhibition of work about Italy and the Great War, from a well-known and respected artist. What an odd mixture of activities and impressions. As they say, “It’s all part of life’s rich tapestry.”
Thank the Lord for angels bearing you up John. BTW, I’d like to pick yr roofers’ brains for purposes here. I didn’t know that thi ng about wasps eating wood. Hope ypu read this, as emails to you recently have bounced. TTFN, J
Thanks, Julie. The angels are doing OK so far. Yes: I was surprised, but wasps nests are actually made from chewed wood. I believe that they are the origin of the discovery of paper. It’s amazing what useless stuff is stored in the recesses of my brain.