A brighter, warmer, drier day. I walked and talked in the cemetery. It was good to share stuff about family, relationships, politics, writing, community. Life is so difficult for everyone. We should not judge too quickly. As Nick Carraway's father says in the Great Gatsby, 'Reserving judgement is a matter of infinite hope.' I'm reading 'Tender is the Night' at the moment : Fitzgerald is so perceptive about the undercurrents of human psychology and need.
Before walking, I sketched in pencil; after walking, I added paint. I carried my notebook and equipment in my pockets. (I think the paintbox may have come in a cracker or the £1 basket of a charity shop. Its portability has proven remarkably useful.)
I sat on a wall by the cemetery gatehouse. It was cold, but it was possible to look at the 19th century red-brick building with its steep roof and shuttered windows and think of how many bodies had passed beneath its arch - the infants, the young men from the world wars, the older folks from the 20th and 21st centuries. From where I sat, I could see the pine trees in the park and the ash tree in front of them.
They've planted memorial apple trees in the cemetery. Many people walk there - to remember, and to be away from the crowds in the park. From the top of the hill, you can see Cardington hangars and the Greensand ridge beyond. It's a place from which you can take a longer view when times are hard.
I sat on a wall by the cemetery gatehouse. It was cold, but it was possible to look at the 19th century red-brick building with its steep roof and shuttered windows and think of how many bodies had passed beneath its arch - the infants, the young men from the world wars, the older folks from the 20th and 21st centuries. From where I sat, I could see the pine trees in the park and the ash tree in front of them.
They've planted memorial apple trees in the cemetery. Many people walk there - to remember, and to be away from the crowds in the park. From the top of the hill, you can see Cardington hangars and the Greensand ridge beyond. It's a place from which you can take a longer view when times are hard.