I've been studying for soooooooo long now (some of you long-term readers would already know that
I started my coursework Masters at the beginning of 2007 and finished in 2009 only to jump right into a research Masters with just a few weeks off in between... soooooo essentially I've been studying for almost 7 years without coming up for air!). I expect you can all understand that I'm having trouble readjusting to life-after-study --- and when folk ask me what I'm going to be doing next I usually jokingly mention lounging on one of the many wonderful beaches around here and looking off into the distance - thinking of nothing at all (for the longest time possible!)
but I HAVE been starting to think of life after the MFA
and here's a few things that I see happening in my near future...
* reading all the delish new books I've been collecting
and staring at wistfully...
* rediscovering my garden
(it's been mashed by dogs and currently buried under weeds... )
(keep your eyes on the acanthus..... do NOT look at the weeds behind the acanthus!)
* finishing that patchwork quilt top
(commenced over a decade ago - oh myyyy)
* finding my good health
(I lost it somewhere after the first year's study stint and haven't seen it since....)
* digging into my crafty bag
& seeing what delishous projects I can throw myself into
(look at some of the lovely things I've been hoarding...)
* cracking open my old guitar case - reforming a few callouses
so I can accompany the kiddies
and trying to figure out how to play this little beauty...
(yes its a C19th mandolin - can you believe this was a GIFT
that arrived via a stranger just a couple of weeks ago?
I'm still pinching myself!)
* undertaking a monster room-by-room overhaul of the sams creek homestead
(including removing resident dust bunnies and oiling the woodwork)
and most of all
*spending lots and lots and lots of unhurried, unharried time
with EJ and Sass and other family and friends and farm animals
mmmmmmmmmmm now THAT sounds positively delicious!!!!!
ps stay tuned in the next while as I'll tell you some exciting projects
I/we have in the works
including what I'll be sharing here in the new year
(ooooo I'm very excited)
oooops I thought I was supposed to be gazing out to sea
and thinking about nothing!
look - its beeee-ooo-tee-full Horseshoe Bay, Bermagui
I hope I'm going to be seeing a whole lot more of you this summer!
....
Oh Ronnie...we simply must meet one day. Actually, you must go to Boston with Pam and I one day. We went in September and while I took and edited photos to post on the blog, I realize now that they never got posted. Our hotel was on a canal which was one block from the bay which feeds into the...Atlantic? Most of our Saturday was spent sitting on benches by the bay, looking at the water, sighing, chatting sparingly, sighing while looking at the water, breathing, just being, sighing while looking at the water........you get the idea. Just doing nothing more than enjoying the water, the sunshine, each other's company and the day...fairly silently...well, except for the sighing, that is. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! And I can't wait to see what you've got in mind.
ReplyDeleteyou go ronnie !
ReplyDeletephew. i'm exhausted just reading all that!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to life without study Ronnie. It seems like a lovely place to be with such enthusiasm for all those intended projects. Catching up with books and gazing out to sea sound great to me.
ReplyDeleteit's the silly season & time to relax sister!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like a wonderful plan, Ronnie:) Enjoy an extremely full but perhaps less stress and intense year next year. Looking forward to hearing of your new plans.....xox
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that any of it will involve you sitting around, doing nothing for long, Ronnie! Look forward to seeing what secret plans you are concocting... :-) Sara
ReplyDeleteWOW, ronnie. you are something else. so. i would like to invite you to breathe deeply and play a bit before the next BIG thing. continued congratulations for all of your hard work.
ReplyDelete