Sometimes I find that life can take on an entirely unreal feeling. This afternoon my step-daughter and her family called in to see us. They are down from Scotland for a few days. They brought with them a friend of our granddaughter. As we sat in the sunshine on the terrace I was transported into a world of unreality by the sight of my wife (who studied law as part of her post-graduate training course) and the friend (who is currently a law student) trading famous test-cases. “Do you know the one about the snail and a glass of beer?” “I guess you’ll know the significance of the phrase ‘a frolic of his own’?” Another world was opening up before my eyes, the existence of which I had not suspected.
A delightful feature of the visit was the fact that my step-daughter brought me a gift from her garden, in the form of an elephant hawk moth she had found, knowing my interest in wild-life and the natural world. This is an unbelievably beautiful creature with wings of a pink-violet tint, even if very strange, even slightly alien, in appearance. I was very touched.
Today’s theme of weirdness was initiated, I suppose, by this morning’s yoga class. A father and son are among the participants, who have both been studying yoga for far longer and far more diligently than I have. I can scarcely credit their combination of flexibility and strength, and cannot begin to describe the things they get up to. Each arm and each leg appears to have an extra joint not possessed by the rest of us.
I have had concerns that my current project, featuring a series of paintings on the subject of creation and creativity, will be found rather weird by viewers encountering it for the first time. After today’s experiences I am feeling far more relaxed about that.