Itchy feet, Chagall and Schumacher

Itchy feet are well and truly setting in. I've not been in the UK for this long in years, and I'm finding the temptation of escaping abroad more and more appealing each day. Temptation is a ridiculous thing. The more you know you can't do something, the more tantalising it becomes. I'm beginning to wonder if I can stick out a year of uni and the city living that entails without spending the entire time yearning for a simpler life somewhere calm and green. Decisions never have been my strong point...

Newly added to my growing list of places to visit is this: http://www.musee-chagall.fr/ I'd forgotten how much I love Chagall's paintings until yesterday when I woke up with one of his pictures in my mind. Colours, goats, trees, music, wings...they've just got everything in them. Gorgeous.

Also came across a nice passage in a book of E.F.Schumacher's essays. He's got a succinct way of putting things on paper, which makes him interesting to read even if I don't agree with everything he's saying. This list was his response to the question, what is freedom?


I don't want to join the rat race.
Not be enslaved by machines, bureaucracies, boredom, ugliness.
I don't want to become a moron, robot, commuter.
I don't want to become a fragment of a person.


I want to do my own thing.
I want to live (relatively) simply.
I want to deal with people, not masks.
People matter. Nature matters. Beauty matters. Wholeness matters. I want to be able to care.

Miracle Theatre - The Death of Sherlock Holmes

Spent wednesday evening perched on an old tyre that makes up part of Mount Pleasant Eco Park's mini amphitheatre, watching Miracle Theatre (5 actors, 1 set and about 10 props) perform The Death of Sherlock Holmes. Fantastic simply can't describe it well enough. It's amazing what they are able to produce from so few people, props and space. Grassroots theatre really is the best. They're around and about in the south west all summer, so go and see them if you get the chance: http://www.miracletheatre.co.uk/ You really won't be disappointed!

Continuing the theatre theme, one of my friends went to see Songs of the Wanderers last night:  http://www.cloudgate.org.tw/waterstains/english-2.html How much do I wish I lived in Dresden right now? Looks amazing...

Went up to St Anthony's Head yesterday evening and watched the world go by from the top of the cliff while the others scrambled down to the sea at Porthbeor. It is such a beautiful place to be. I could have stayed for hours.

Back on the yoga track

A good yoga day at last! What a relief. After struggling through my attempts at some kind of daily yoga practice for the last couple of weeks, this morning everything seemed to click into place and I suddenly felt more relaxed than I have in quite a while. The only thing I don't know is why the sudden change, but at the moment I'm inclined to not ponder on that too much and just enjoy it.

I'm wading through a book called Anatomy of Hatha Yoga (H. David Coulter) that I found whilst scrabbling around the local library a while ago. It is dense. Not to mention so heavy that I feel like I need to build some arm strength before even trying to pick it up. But looking past the terminology - to be fair, the author did put a warning in the introduction - it's actually really interesting, and, I think, useful. I'm figuring that if I can understand how my hip actually functions, I may be able to get more of an idea of what yoga postures might help and what might make it worse. Not to mention a hope for more productive conversations with various doctors in the future.

Aside from that, I feel a bit like I'm floating through the days at the moment. Not being able to work is beginning to take its toll on my sanity, so I'm taking refuge in books. Any books pretty much. I've never read so widely before; it's quite an interesting experiment in how much my mind can actually absorb. I really should get back into studying Spanish, but the motivation I had at the beginning of the year has dissolved and I know that until it returns I won't make any discernable progress. So, reading it is. And hopefully, more good yoga days to come...

Pain and HMS

Pain and hypermobility syndrome. Very interesting! Especially the bit about dental anaesthetic not working properly...been there!

http://www.hypermobility.org/painandhms.php

Sunset

Sunset - Rainer Maria Rilke

Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth.

leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so hopelessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing
that turns to a star each night and climbs-

leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads)
your own life, timid and standing high and growing,
so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching out,
one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next, a star.

Scilly Isles

Wow. The Scilly Isles are incredibly beautiful. Can't believe I've lived so close to them for so long and yet never visited. Absolutely amazing. I'll definitely be going back...

Minack Theatre, set in the cliffs of Cornwall - Many a happy hour spent here...

Porthcressa Beach, St Mary's, Scilly

St Mary's Harbour, Scilly

St Michael's Mount, Cornwall

What's living in Cornwall like?

Well, in 20 words, just like this really...

"You shout and wave to someone in the cove, they wave back, and then you realise you don't know them"

 ~ Kurt Jackson

http://fag.looksystems.net/Exhibitions/2011/216~Kurt_Jackson_at_50