Tuesday

.....it was a lovely day and the sheep by the Castle gate were shedding their coats.......it was shearing time and the sheep  were letting us know .......

I was picking Sharmila up from the Castle as she had a meeting with Meadow Arts and Oriel Davies at Newtown ready for her exhibition in September .........so much to discuss but they all seemed to be buzzing ! ......please don’t miss this! 

..................later that evening I took Sharmila to meet the artists Stephen West and Shani Rhys James which was near where I live ............we had such a welcome, a great evening, eating with a glass in our hands! We chatted about everything until 12.00 pm! We could have gone on a lot longer! Shani is a good chatter and I am right behind her, but we needed an early start on Wednesday!

Shani was keen to hear Sharmila talk about her work and intended to come to her talk on Thursday at Powis Castle.  

It is Wednesday and the plan was to go to the National Wool Museum ....I love museums!.....history inspires me for my own contemporary practice and I love to refer to  this  relevance in an exciting contemporary manner...yes it is all exciting: how we see things differently and put a new light on to historic contexts.

We eventually got going and headed towards Aberystwyth.......... down the coastline towards Aberaeron ...... wonderful landscape -  stopped on route at the political graffiti sculpture  ‘Cofiwch  Dryweryn’ (remember Tryweryn)

....... an important piece of work relating to the drowning of the valley near Bala in the early 60’s for water for the people of Liverpool and it was this drowning of the valley that woke Wales up! It sparked the rise of the Welsh language society and in fact there were no Welsh-language road signs etc to be seen before this time: how the use of Water became a big political milestone.(This was interesting for Sharmila as she wants to do another film relating to water.)

............In a way the people of Liverpool helped us wake up!  .....you see the Welsh language which is so old and so dear to me .......it is like the blood stream that carries so much Welsh culture and all cultures need respect and to make the world interesting. Fragile ones in the modern world need protection.........so thank you Liverpudlians ! 

We were heading to see Jane Beck who collects, sells and exhibits Welsh tapestry blankets, it took us time to find her along a few waindy roads ............but eventually arrived a zinc shed with a welcome, and that big welcome was a  huge absorbent wall of richly colored woollen blankets.

..... a cup of coffee , and Jane with so much passion, and so generous in all her giving of information, we had a great morning: both Sharmila and I loved every minute and both of us were inspired!  We eventually left for the museum but on the way Sharmila felt we had all the information needed at Jane’s for what Sharmila needed.........so detour back to Aber.

Christine