(As my grandmother used to say.) If that really is the case then I must have been dreadfully bad recently. Yesterday I got home after my holiday in northern Italy, feeling more than slightly battered. The heel strain I had noticed earlier in the week had deteriorated steadily, and by the time I had lugged my bags around two airports and several railway stations I was at the staggering stage. This morning I decided that the sensible thing was to get a medical check-up, and my wife drove me to the Bradford Royal Infirmary. It turns out that one possible consequence of descending very high mountains is that the tendons under your heels can get badly inflamed if you are not careful (or perhaps, even if you are). The upshot of all this is that I am now on a course of anti-inflammatory drugs and have a referral to a physiotherapist.
This is where the wickedness bit gets in. Hardly have I unpacked my bags than tomorrow morning we have to set out by car to collect my work from the exhibition in central Wales that I mentioned some time back. I guess I can’t have been too wicked because we are making a mini-holiday out of it and staying overnight at a hotel my wife has discovered. It sounds rather good. What a pity I didn’t sell my picture, which would actually have paid for the experience. Ah well!
In fact, back from Italy I really have to hit the road running (with or without sore feet.) I’ve got two substantial exhibition opportunities coming up very soon, and there is a lot to be done now that I’m back home in order to prepare for them.
While I was unpacking my things after the trip I did have the opportunity to look briefly at the sketch-book I took with me. In the back of my mind has been a sense of dissatisfaction that I had not found more time to draw while I was on the journey. There are, indeed, few pieces to record my experiences. Even so I was pleased by a couple of little drawings I did recording the view from the windows of the place in which we stayed. The jumble of tiled roofs I found both interesting to look at and very hard to draw, because there seemed to be absolutely no parallel lines or right-angles anywhere. The geometrical forms of the houses in the foreground made quite a pleasing contrast with the mist-covered and forested hills rising immediately behind them.
I might try to post a photo of that when I get back from Wales. Meanwhile, today I’ve attached a shot of our party staring the via ferrata section of the Sasso Rosso.