Rain is pattering down on the kitchen window and three rooks are rooting around in the newly spread compost in the garden. After tonight there will only be two life drawing classes until the end of term. I am winding down now to this little baby being born, finishing commissions and completing speculative work. In the last week my body has definitely decided it’s time to slow up and I find myself staring aimlessly out of the window, my mind completely empty. I think the blood flow to my brain must be near non-existent, re-directed to a growing bundle. Little Owl clambers on my lap, puts her face right in mine and yells, “Wake up Mummy!” On the phone my mum patiently waits for me to remember what on earth I was in the middle of talking about.
Yesterday Little Owl and I made a map on green sugar paper. We have made the wrenching decision to move off the farm. We hope it’s a precursor to a bigger move but we’ll keep you posted on that. The map is an attempt to help Little Owl get her head round all the change that’s going on in her life at the moment: starting school, a new sibling, and a new house. We stuck on Little Owl’s drawing of the new house then drew on the play park, the swimming pool and the library. We used coloured lines for walks and cycle paths we want to investigate. We have drawn in coloured green patches for woodland that we hope will soon become as familiar to us as the woods on the farm. Little Owl added the finishing touches by drawing on flowers, trees and three particularly special portraits of me (complete with big tummy), Big Dreamer, and herself (she’d just been to the library apparently!).
