And most of February, as it turns out. Yes, this post has been sitting in my draft box for weeks while the days have disappeared in a puff of smoke, and not a blog post in sight. 

We’ve got a lot to catching up to do, better put the kettle on.

New York in the New Year

I visited New York with my lovely family and some fab friends this New Year.  I love a holiday with friends, I always find it’s more relaxed (maybe because everyone’s on their best behaviour).  We spent a week in the big apple and still didn’t manage to see everything, but we did see a lot, areas of New York we’ve never visited before: DUMBO (not the elephant), apparently it stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass; Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Bridge in the snow; Coney Island; a Brooklyn Nets game.  We also had some of the best breakfasts of my life, (corned beef hash with eggs doesn’t sound like a winner, but don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it), and walked for miles and miles (mainly to work off the breakfast).  New York feels like being in the middle of a movie, complete with steam rising from manhole covers (yes I took a photo), accompanied by the rumble of the subway below. 

One thing that was new to our experience of New York (me and the hubby have been twice before) was a certain fragrant smell.  We couldn’t visit anywhere in the city without the sickly-sweet waft of cannabis following us.  Cannabis was legalised in New York in 2022, and it seems its residents have embraced its recreational use with gusto.  We only ever saw a couple of people smoking it, but unless the government have decided to pipe the fumes through the city in a bid to chill people out, everyone and their grandma must’ve been vaping the stuff.  We could even smell it in the theatre, probably from peoples clothes.  I’ve always thought I’d support legalising cannabis in the UK, but I never really thought about the smell (I don’t like it).  Or maybe it’d be like when everyone smoked cigarettes and we’d just get used to it.  Or maybe I’m just getting old.

If anyone lives in New York City what are your thoughts on this?  I’d love an insiders perspective. Have any of you lovely readers visited New York recently and if yes did you notice the same thing?

A Year of Trying Things Out

I have a big birthday coming up this year and it’s made me want to try new things (nothing like the consideration of mortality at the mid-way point in life to light a fire under your arse). 

In January I signed up for an expressive art class, painting flowers on canvas.  I hadn’t painted a picture since I was fourteen, and I was no Van Gogh back then. I don’t even remember liking art that much.  But watching my daughter freely create art using more mediums than I ever knew were available (she made colourful moth stickers using baking parchment and Sellotape recently), made me think I’d like to have a go at throwing some paint on a canvas, see what I come up with. 

The first session didn’t go as well as I’d hoped (another life lesson in the benefits of approaching new things with no expectations).  I’d imagined I was going to be open and free, flicking my paint brush around with a devil-may-care attitude. Instead, I found myself getting caught up in trying (and failing) to make beautiful colours on a colour wheel and trying (and failing) to copy the elegantly simple brush strokes of the teacher, as she dabbed a few licks of paint on a canvas to make a rose in seconds. 

Towards the end of the class we marked the outlines of the flowers on our canvas, and I just couldn’t see how this dodgy outline could be transformed into a pretty painting.  I left the class feeling like I should stick to writing, like maybe I’d wasted my time trying something I knew from childhood I wasn’t very good at.  I even considered skipping the next class, where we’d be finishing off our canvas.  Luckily, the teacher was lovely, and so were the people I’d met in class, so I dragged my bum back there the following week to finish what I’d started.

I began the class with some trepidation, staring doubtfully at the outline of my flowers on the canvas.  How was I going to do this?  Then something magical happened:  I realised it couldn’t get any worse than it already was, so I picked up the brush and started mixing.  I threw blobs of paint together without really thinking about it and came up with some gorgeously vibrant colours which I slapped onto the canvas.  I used the black, a colour I hadn’t touched the week previously, to emphasise some of the foliage and whilst I started off thinking it was a terrible mistake, it ended up complementing a deep green I’d mixed up.  I painted without too much thought, focusing more on making pretty colours and shapes than making flowers.  Before I knew it, the teacher was telling us we only had fifteen minutes left and I’d actually been having fun!

I left the class with a painting I was proud of, not because of its artistic skill, but because I banished that inner critic (see ya Brian) and had fun doing something I’m not that good at, and it was fun!  Now the canvas is propped up in my kitchen as a reminder of what happens when I get over myself.

To write, or not to write?

I needed that reminder to write this blog post.  I enjoy writing, but sometimes I make the fatal error of adding it to my ‘to-do list.’ Once it’s on there, it becomes something I have to do, not something I want to do, and my brain starts throwing up resistance.  I start thinking I’ve got to post something really poignant, or informative, and none of my ideas look good enough.  It’s a weird yet common part of the human condition, but I’m learning to work with it.

The thing with creation is, we often attach too much importance to it.  Creative works can have big impacts, it’s true.  But most of them don’t, yet that shouldn’t stop us from making them.  The benefit of creation comes from the doing; putting pen to paper, brush to canvas, fingers to keys.  When we engage in the act of creation, be it cooking a new meal, finding a new way to deal with a recurring argument, trying out a new style, we learn something new: we grow, and that’s the point of creativity.  There are lots of other plus points too, like a sense of satisfaction, connecting with other people, improving self-confidence, but these are just the icing on the cake.  Creativity is growth, and what are we here for if not to grow?   

The universe buries strange jewels within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Just keep in mind that jewels are as much about who we are as what we can do.  Ever heard the saying, ‘you’re a diamond?’  You are, you know.

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Phew, that was a long one.  Mental note to never miss an entire month of blogging again! 

Have you been trying out any new things lately? What went well, and what didn’t? Does the negative nelly in your brain pipe up when you’re trying new things? How do you express your creativity?

Next time I’m writing about a rather meditative experience of duck watching, subscribe so you don’t miss it, it’ll be ducking good.