Silent Sunday
Saturday …
After a month of pain, so far the prognosis is not so good. My back is still very sensitive to sitting and standing; in the short term this has been difficult enough at home even while able to take rests and be watchful. When I return to work where I am pretty much desk bound I will have to be inventive and ensure that I don’t sit or stand for prolonged periods, breaking the day and tasks into comfortable chunks and not thinking so much about the urgency of getting something done. Unfortunately, lying supine in the library will not be an option.
Sadly, it is not just my work which I enjoy, but my art might prove to be problematic. Sometimes, I can sit or stand on a project not noticing how long I have been working without a break. At first I didn’t relish the idea of curtailing my art, blogging, tweeting, research and my beloved job.
Until, I thought about how this can be approached playfully or at least cheerfully. I felt like I had been set free; it is not going to be an easy transition … working out ways in which to not sit or stand for long periods is serious stuff. I am hoping the playful element will in turn help to alleviate the pain and the acceptance of thereof.
In the view of above, I began this lino cut … I thought about not doing the complicated drawings on paper and subsequent tracings, merely drawing straight on the lino …. let’s see how it develops
Alphabe Thursday … Z is for Zelando
Zelando o solo ele da
No mais longínquo sertão
A terra se torna fértil
Para quaiquer plantação
Com abundância da água
conclima do nosso chão
Ensuring the soil of it
In the far hinterland
The land becomes fertile
Any extra for planting
With plenty of water
on the surface of the land.
I understand little of this last verse in my Dicionario Brasileiro de literatura de cordel … happy days
Wednesday’s Wood Engraving …
I have been confined to bed with a little exercise;without sitting and standing … this little exercise is beckoning but might have to wait a bit longer sadly 😦
I made myself a promise this weekend. I have been busy and neglected to practice wood engraving. When I began a couple of years back I was keen and had some lessons but overtaken by recent events I haven’t practiced as I should. So I have begun again, trying to do some every day; at least during the summer when the light is better and kinder to the eyes.
Here is my latest attempt , some sunflowers that have featured in some other images over the last few months …
Weekly photo challenge … a treat
I can remember as a young mum the vital combo; a clean frock, painted nails, a babysitter and somewhere to go was a rare treat. Now even without the need to find child care … to get my boots polished is a rare treat.
Monday …
As the days turn to weeks, and now a month it seems my life is going down a different road. A way of painkillers, obtaining a sick note. doctors, osteopath, acupuncturist, and physiotherapists. I am away from my place of work, where, of course, there too are constraints that curtail my dreams and hopes. But work is ok! there are distractions and a sharing of the load; I know where I would rather be. The day ahead walking the boards will be tedious to get blood to the contracted muscles is therapeutic, while lying, sitting and standing are a no-no and painful.
I wallow in self pity and without shame. and I did win an award at the weekend, getting to and from the exhibition was not without much help and on one occasion I was in my PJ ‘s when the job was done I got back into bed. It was well organised I was not required to stay. I went on to sell a painting. and get accepted as an associate of a local gallery
So the week ahead looks bleak but with a happy memory I have hope.
Silent Sunday …
Saturday …
This week I found myself looking for a mother, not my mum she is dead. Any mum would have done; to talk too. tell me they cared, smooth my brow and give me hug. This is not something I would have expected from my mother she didn’t do smoothing of brows like other mums.
So there I was [full of prescribed drugs for so called sciatica/lumbago] on my way my way and early for an acupuncture session in the centre of Reading, sidling up to to any likely person as they huddled with a fag and mobile phone in the drizzle as the light failed, oblivious to their bench buddy, blubbing like a baby, mascara streaming down her face …
… I had an appointment to keep and my new found friends were not playing. I underwent treatment but was advised that while taking such a deadly (addictive) cocktail of painkillers I would not get better.
So within 24 hours I had an appointment with an osteopath and more important a telephone conversation with my Doctor telling her I wanted a more manageable dose of painkillers. She was difficult to persuade and even tried to me to take something for the depression saying ‘we don’t want that little chestnut to creep in … and find you sidling up to strangers again to we?’
I don’t know what happened that afternoon … sufficed to say I didn’t find my mum but got some good advice .. maybe I just hug myself and that will do!
Friday Snapshot …
Earlier this week I was able to go into work for a few hours and prepare for next week when I hope to begin the organisation of the Cole Collection; by this I mean to give each item a place on the electronic catalogue. Until now some of the items have been on Enterprise the rest have been only accessible by the card catalogue. While the collection was held at the Main Library it was at least browsable but now it is in conditions fit for fine books it needs to be totally accessible and readable in the Reading Room at Special Collections.
So I will begin to add items to the database, while I am not a cataloguer I will not be able to do the full requirements but I will be able ensure that each item is find-able.
I will be working beside a cataloguer who is working on the folio sized books and in a position to note the illustrations, illustrators and any fine binding. So I will have an expert on hand at all times to ensure the collection and all information is shared as much as possible.
The Cole Collection holds approximately 8,000 volumes of printed books and scientific papers, covering the history of early medicine and zoology in general, and more particularly, comparative anatomy and reproductive physiology, from earliest times to the present day. Among these there are 1,700 or more pre-1851 works, including many continental books.
Many significant works in the history of the biological sciences are present, by authors such as Galen, Fabricius, Belon, Wotton, Gesner, Bartholin, Swammerdam, Harvey, Ray, Haller, Leeuwenhoek, Linnaeus, the Hunters and Darwin.
There are also some individual works like Pliny’s Natural history, Venice : Jenson, 1472, with illuminations, Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica 1st ed., Basle, 1543, and 2nd ed. 1555, in a contemporary Swiss binding and a substantial run of the Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, from 1665 that attract a lot of interest from visitors.
The collection was originally the private library of Professor F J Cole (1872-1959), F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Reading from 1907 to 1939. He was a book collector and bibliophile from his schooldays until his death. His major historical work A history of comparative anatomy(1944) was based substantially on his own collection.
So they’re is a lot to do and week by week I hope to post images from the collection by way of a progress report.
Alphabe Thursday X is for Xingu
Xingu e todos locals
Todos que se planta da
Batata inhame e cenoura
batata doce e cará
Frutas, feijão e café
Do Nordeste ao Paraná
Xingu and all locals
All of that plant
Potato yam and carrot
sweet potatoes and face
Fruits, beans and coffee
Northeast of the Paraná
I have trouble with the translation of the word ‘cará’ ; but have no problem with the fruit and vegetables of Brazil … those alone are worth a visit.
Coat Hanger Doll's House 