Savouring and Leaving

Last year, Mal and I started chatting about where we were living. This was about four years overdue given our recent track record. Since leaving Albury in 2007, we’ve moved every 4 years, so this conversation could have happened four years ago! After returning from Nepal, my response to a move has been to complain about where we’re moving to, fall in love with the place and then complain about leaving. Now I know the pattern. I initially resist change, then adapt enthusiastically!  The chat happened in September and now it’s April and we’re moving in 4 weeks. My family says we are decisive. We seem to move fast. It’s how we roll.  This move is a bit different in that it is, in a sense, a homecoming. We lived in Albury for 20 years before becoming semi-nomadic. It will be different to move to a place where I have history. Form even! I’ve changed and people there will have changed too. I’m not making any assumptions.   The downsides of moving are obvious, and when we tell people we're abut to move we’re usually greeted with sympathy about the logistics of moving. But moving isn’t all bad. I’m claiming it as a chance to be fallow. Mellow. (ROTFL). A move is a chance to recalibrate. To cull and simplify. Again!! I am interspersing packing (and culling) with savouring and enjoying here. And writing this blog post where I am telling my inner critic to just BACK OFF AND GIVE ME SOME ROPE! Not a lot is happening in the studio. Partly because it is semi-packed! And there’ll be a bit of work required until my new studio is functional. But I am making lino cuts and printing, which I love; sketching and making pink leaves; up cycling/ redeeming old components (inspired by Genevieve Williamson's commitment to redeeming all her old bits!) and listening to Sage Bray Varon’s podcast. Let’s face it...I’m only writing this post because I listened to this! If you only listen to one podcast, try hers!!  I’m reading borrowed books about Nepali textiles, rogue elephants and an eccentric American woman who lived in Kathmandu, never set foot on a mountain but knew Himalayan mountain statistics back to front and struck fear into the hearts of many a mountaineer. Next on my list is Winter. I was reading Nick Cave’s latest book but seem to have packed it! Something to look forward to reading in a new corner! So... a few photos of here. Some of my efforts at savouring.