Here he is looking like a woolly sheep after his bath. All his test results came back surprisingly good – his liver and kidneys etc. are all working fine. The only possible glitch internally is a bit of a low thyroid, but it’s hard to tell if that is causing the current problems or being caused by them. He goes back to the vet for a check-up next week. In the meantime, the antibiotics seem to be clearing up his ear infection but it’s hard to tell if his eyes are improving at all. Still, he’s in pretty good spirits.
This is my little black genoa fig tree, one of my all time favourite varieties of fresh fig. I’ve been nursing it along ever since I bought it as a tiny cutting. This year it had one lovely fig on it.
So this morning, with great ceremony, I ate it.
I took all of Saturday off, it was a hard week this one and I really needed some time off. By Thursday evening I was pretty run out and spent most of the evening crying and writing poetry. It’s nice to live alone and be able to do that without disturbing anyone. Sunday has loads of work to do in it, but Saturday was camp fire day! I washed dishes, mopped floors, set out chairs and table and plates, set the fire, washed Charlie’s eyes and face, and then spent most of the rest of the day lying by the fire, chatting with friends and eating chips and hot potatoes. I so needed that. I even snuck in 20 minutes or so of ink painting before people arrived, which I’ll show you another time, and wrapped it all up with some computer gaming. I think I might need to deliberately schedule one day a week off or I’m not going to be able to keep up with the pace of study and work. Saturday was good. My skin smells of wood smoke and I feel a little calmer inside.
Sarah K Reece 
Hi Sandra, you're right! I think I've been underestimating just how draining all the mental exercise is even though I don't leave my chair! Booking in more down time now and feeling better for it. I am fortunately a reasonably organised person else my current schedule would be impossible! But even so, there's got to be room to be unproductive, relax, have fun, let my head unwind a bit. Good to getting into a rhythm with everything before it gets any busier. 🙂 xx
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You sound incredibly disciplined with your time, Sarah. But constant mental, intellectual output does have a cost: I love writing but I feel exhausted afterwards and usually need sleep! And I get angry and ratty after a while if I don't do anything creative …then there's exercise as well..full on!xx
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Hi Stephen, no, compared to the rest of my week hosting the campfire is relaxation central. And I'm only baking up a bag of spuds, not serving a three course meal, so that helps. Plus my mates packed up before leaving which makes a big difference!
I thought about the neighbours, but no one was home so no harm done it seems.
I think at the moment the issues is I'm not getting enough art time, and I'm feeling a bit stretched in other areas. Scheduling in some time in my studio regularly should help I think. Thanks for your concern. 🙂
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It's good that organising your campfire wasn't an anxiety-producing experience (from the sounds of it). This where making sure lines of communication are established with your neighbours (something that me and my neighbours have never done) is important, I used to have a (solo) campfire in my backyard now and then in the mid-to-late 00's and two of them seemed to be wondering WTF was going on.
Making sure that your stress levels don't get too high is important, I wonder if it would help schedule some relaxation/downtime on a daily basis?
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