Wednesday 5 January 2011

in the hills or up a mountain?

While taking the rubbish down to the 'hairpin'... the nearest place on the lane that the refuse collection lads come....[ they hadnt been for 5 weeks so there was a fair bit... mainly for recycling -plastic, metal, paper] I was reflecting how this is our point of contact with civilisation.. this point a few hundred feet lower and half a mile away. In the summer I have walked down with a wheelbarrow and the one eyed cat for company... he got a lift back up in the barrow.
The hairpin almost makes me feel we live on a mountain as the road is steep and exposed and we get cut off by ice and snow here.... but really we are surrounded by rounded hills not high peaks...we live at about 1300 feet..our house is tucked down below the high ridge which is about 1500 feet.. in a cwm .. a dip... a hollow.. sheltered and hidden. I like the word 'cwm' it seems safe and comfortable.. as does the Welsh word 'cwtch' which I think of as 'to snuggle up' 'hug' or ' get comfy with'. Our house and barns cwtch up together in their cwm in this wild and freezing weather.

And while this winter is going on I seemed to have produced a summery floral abstract as my first attempt at acrylics. I dont know where it came from except it reminds me of a huge bunch of alstromeria I bought for £1.50p.. reduced at a supermarket ...white and a pale pink.. which lasted almost 2 months!! Finally the papery petals falling.. yet the green leaves still vibrant and the stamens stained orange.

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