Drawn by a Star

It is nothing short of pure joy to draw the human body.  I so love Wednesdays when a small  group of local artists meet to spend a few precious hours together,drawing .  The poses range from 3 to 15 minutes.    This post is especially for brave Colette in Istanbul. Cancer or no cancer, your body is beautiful, all bodies are.          Support Colette Joan Nolan to heal cancer gracefully : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/colettejoannolan

Matisse Elena and Rebekah (my hens) and I are bonding. I give them left over porridge for breakfast and veggie scraps for supper, and they give me one egg a day. Yesterday morning’s egg was still warm when I picked it up. This new experience is pure joy. Small pleasures make my heart sing. Day 4 in the new Happyhouse. Day 5.  This morning I wasn’t surprised to find two empty nests.  Last night it  rained heavily. Shame I thought.  Do the hens mind getting wet? Then mid-morning - to my great surprise and delight- after making veggie  soup and taking the scarps to the chucks ,my eye caught sight of three white eggs sitting on top of  a pile of  brown curly leaves. Three!  Two eggs were still warm. Warm as a small child’s hand. And soon after this moment of joy, an unexpected email arrived like a slap in the face, and a few hours of horrible ‘lost-ness’ followed. My best medicine for these disruptive feelings is to...

Tomorrow will be the end of another chapter in my life. I’ve spent three winters now at Kay and Bernie’s delightful casita @ www.orgivateagarden.com near Orgiva,  in Andalucia, southern Spain. The little house has been a safe place, a sanctuary, a comfy cosy nest of a place, an experience of living beside many animals and a wonderful family. Added to this has been getting to know dozens of lovely young WOFFERS  from around the globe who have come and  stayed awhile, then seemlessly moved on to their next advenute.  Jess and Eve especially spring to mind . I’ve loved living alongside Kay and Bernie’s incredible creative energy, and I’ve loved watching their garden ‘grow.’ You would not believe the daily hard work they’re committed to, to make the garden a joy for everybody . I came to the casita before the garden was opened to the public, a week before I started chemo, in November 2014. Over the recovery months, I enjoyed the  privileged ...

Maravillosa noticia hoy de la cariñosa oncóloga…estoy limpia, 22 meses en remisión!! Y siempre después de dándome la noticia ,ella me da un beso. Mis hijos y mis nietos en Escocia están muy felices, y yo tambien!!! A wonderful instant reply from son number 2 in Scotland to the great news from the oncologist today. All clear again! 22 months in remission after a no hope prognosis. Never say never friends !! So grateful to all my very dear friends for your love and support. And the icing on the cake, the oncology visits will now be every 3 months, not 2. We've reached a milestone ! 'You'll have the summer free,' said the lovely young lady oncologist as she gave me a parting kiss, as usual ! Yesterday almost 1000 people went on a walk around our local town in aid of cancer , not sure if it was for research or just in support of people dealing with this illness. It was deeply touching and humbling to see them walking beside the eucalyptus forest,hundreds ...

 Wednesday morning now means Life Drawing with six other artists here in Orgiva, Andalucia, Spain. Bliss and double joy!!! I love these precious hours more than I can say. My hope in sharing these drawings is that they might touch your hearts with the same kind of wonder I feel when I'm drawing another human being.  It's a hugely priviledged, intimate, experince of meeting another soul  - beautiful - unmasked - naked - real.   Elizabeth Gilbert says: 'My soul, when I tend to it, is a far more expansive and fascinating source of guidance than my ego will ever be, because my soul desires only one thing: wonder. And since creativity is my most efficient pathway to wonder, I take refuge there, and it feeds my soul, and it quiets the hungry ghost—thereby saving me from the most dangerous aspect of myself,' from her book, Creative Living Beyond Fear.            ...