The postponement of my Antarctic trip until later this year is no bad thing. It gives me time to do some research and reading, improve my wildlife (particularly bird) sketching skills and visit the Scott Polar Research Institute when circumstances allow. They have an impressive museum that I’m itching to visit. https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/ There are already continue reading »
I’m still working on the final edits of ‘Sketchbook Sailor’, but we’re nearly there. Writing a book is like being pregnant – months of gently growing, then an intense and rather messy bit at the end. Anyway, I think I remember saying at the time that my ocean sailing trip was to be my last continue reading »
This time last year I was trying to pack an impossible amount of stuff into a suitcase and getting ready for my two month sailing trip. It’s hard to believe that a year has flown by since then and what a strange year it has been. I can’t believe how lucky I was with my continue reading »
During lockdown I re-read Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’, one of my favourite books about creativity. It debunks the myth of the creative person as aloof and special, striving for perfection, and encourages an altogether more joyful and practical approach to the process of making and doing. Her phrase ‘living a life based on curiosity rather continue reading »
Starting things is much easier than finishing them. At the beginning of lockdown I made a decision to finish some of the projects I’d begun….but then, like a child who tips the whole toy box upside down instead of playing with one toy at a time, I found more and more things I wanted to continue reading »