BlogHoliday

Good morning all!

Apologies, I had a bit of a blog holiday, sorting lots of things out, but am now back to trip planning in earnest. I love this time of year, so much light and so many flowers everywhere...have been spending a lot of time outdoors gardening, watching magpies harass the foxes and persuading my nose that rampant hay fever is a small price to pay for all this beauty. I have finished the blankets I will be raffling off to raise funds for the trip...both hexagon shaped as the final product of my journey will be. I won't do first and second prize but leave it up to the winner (one of them is wool, and there are so many vegans) and here is the cotton one, inspired by the abundant roses. If you win, I do promise you a rose garden...

This week I have also sent off my crochet sculpture to Guimaraes in Portugal for the contextile Bienal. I was thrilled to have been one of the fifty artists to be selected, and I've been having a look at some of the others; every continent is represented, and I'm one of five anglophones, the others being from Western Australia, Georgia (the state), Kilkenny in Ireland and Hull. There is a huge variety of textile art being displayed, and I'm really excited to see it all. It opens on the 1st September, so I will make a rushed visit after finishing work on the 31st, before a few days in Cornwall for my beloved friend Lydia's 21st(ish!) birthday and then flying to Ireland on the 10th to begin this trip. The exhibition runs until the 20th October, so if you happen to be in the North of Portugal around that time, go and have a look. I'm trying and failing not to keep tracking the parcel, as I can't really relax until it has arrived in one piece (inshallah, inshallah, inshallah) and I'm determined never to make a sculpture more than 70cm wide- once you get a box that big it has to be made to order, and can be problematic to send- my first quote was £1,000 but thankfully I found Transglobalexpress, and now I can't get Transglobal Underground songs out of my head. But as earworms go, this is quite a nice one:

https://youtu.be/w2DEr-r86fc

I start teaching on Monday, so preparing lessons today. I have a group of Italian teenagers for 2 weeks- last night my brother-in-law told me that Italy aren't in the World Cup this year, so am relieved that means it probably won't be the main topic of conversation. Then I'll be teaching a University preparation course; basically exactly what I used to teach at Universities, but for quite a 
bit less money...a little bit galling, but we're all victims of privatisation one way or another...and a 10 minute walking commute for a Londoner with crippling anxiety around crowds is kind of gold in its own way. Obviously, working, preparation and fundraising for this trip means much less time for creation for a while, so by the time I start the trip, my hooks will be screaming to get to work again!

Anyway, will sign off now...the next few posts will detail my more meticulous planning of bus routes, campsites, the raffle and the pledges, and the growing embellishment of the embroidered map. Everyone who pledges for a scarf inputs into the final design of the blanket, as the yarns they choose for the scarf will be used in that blanket...so far it's going to be black, white, lemon yellow, slate grey, sand and pink, and linen, cotton, bamboo and wool, and of course, it's going to be a hexagon.

Wishing you love and light, Eid Mubarak and Glad Midsommar, Billy xxxxx



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