This has been a wonderful month for me. I had the first holiday away since 2016 and that was only for one night. My son and family drove me down to Devon to stay with friends in Devon for a whole week. I had not realised how burned out I was, a cartoon character running so fast I had run of a cliff and had no ground below my feet! It gave me time to evaluate and accept at my age I don’t want a business but to create and show my work. The odd sale would be welcome, art materials, especially my favourite Unison pastels, are expensive and wear down fast. They took me to a shop in Sidmouth, selling them in a cabinet of shallow drawers and for me it was like being let loose in a sweet shop. I drooled! Decisions had never been more difficult.

I also met one of their next-door neighbours, an artist in his 90s painter, sculptor, and world acclaimed calligrapher who had trained at the age of 13 as a sign writer. Such an interesting and generous man. The time flew by. Always a pleasure meeting another artist and hearing their story

In the early part of this new century, my second husband became very ill. Unable to make visual artwork I took courses in creative writing at Hull University and amassed files of writing, mainly poetry. Now with all the opportunities online, I decided to resurrect them and see if some can be placed. Imagine my delight to have a poem and illustration accepted by a magazine called haus-a-rest.com. The subject matter was Metamorphosis. I polished the poem, but they also required an illustration to go with it. It is many years since my illustration days when I worked for a card firm called Gallery 5.  It took a dozen attempts to produce something I was happy with, but well worth the effort when it was accepted. To appear on their Instagram site.