"How soon not now becomes never." -Martin Luther

quote from Sparkletopia

Right I'm back from my 3 1/2 day trip to the country. BAFTA awards going on the background - cat sleeping on a shelf beside me. Feel I've been away for about 3 weeks.

Just before I left I heard that the Planning Application I'd written 22 letters and emails to politicians about had passed. So I left the city pretty downheartened. Its very easy to see life as a slide towards things getting worse.

But it was wonderful to connect with family friends who live in Dumfries & Galloway. I realised that I'd last seen some of them last May ! too long ago... The trip down through the Borders was beautiful, snow drops out, the Devils Beef Tub as dramatic as ever. Our friends had a new addition to the family a black labrador puppy called Jock (after Jock of the Bushvelt) but I renamed The Hound of Pipercoft. SIMPLY ENORMOUS PAWS and the 5 cats of the house cowering in their porch after being bounced upon. I walked the 'policies' seeing the hens (who are a drain on the rural economy producing no eggs for months and necessitating their masters to 'buy' eggs!) and the new 'bothy' which as its being designed by a South African architect has its own stoep.

On Sat we went into Castle Douglas for shopping and I went to Hazel's a secondhand sort of shed. A great favourite of my hosts. I wasn't planning to buy anything but got seduced by a Millers Cine Camera which might be useful for a rather distant project for a documentary. I thought it was a 16mm film cine but I'm not so sure after doing a bit of googling I think it might be 9.5 mm - not sure if I can get film for it but a beautiful leather case and clockwork mechanism.

I'm delighted to be returning with a recipe for babobtie and yellow rice which I will try out on friends soon.

The two most beautiful things about this weekend were spending time with people and having those conversations which are missed by phone calls but arise out of time. The second was our last walk into the village this morning a soft mist across the landscape - ghost trees on the horizon - cows in the mid horizon - 3 pairs of geese flying over and then grazing in the field.

I didn't have a camera with me but I didn't need it.