The Artist's House Is Buzzing And Lo! Life Is Looking Up!

http://www.antoniarolls.co.uk/ for my website

http://www.jesusonthetube.co.uk/ for my other website

http://www.agracefuldeath.blogspot.com/ for the A Graceful Death exhibition, paintings from the end of a life

antonia.rolls1@btinternet.com to email me

So. The House Is Buzzing And Life Is Looking Up (Hooray)

This is Me and my Handsome Muppet outside Lambeth Palace.  At this point Rowan had asked if we had a home to go to, and though I tried to say No.  Can we stay here?  Costya, my Handsome Muppet and Teenage Overlord, had already admitted to the Archbishop that we did indeed, have a place to live.  Drat.  Better luck next time.

Well.  I am amazed at what life brings.  Yes, I have been Sad, Lonely and Single.  Everyone knows about this because I have let it all hang out, so to speak.  Today, I am a New Woman.  Today, I Know What To Do.  I am still Single, and I still miss Alan, and Steve, but I am not Sad and Lonely any more.  I am in a Good Place and I think we should all heave a sigh of relief and sit on a comfy chair with a plump cushion and have few moments to recover.

My Sexy Polish Grandmother has left.  She has packed her best spandex in her bags, and gone to a Mushroom Field far away where she can work on a contract.  We hugged and said goodbye, and she left in her friend's red car.  As I went into her room to make it ready for Eileen who was arriving in a few hours time for the weekend, I thought of the oddness of someone living in my spare room with no means of communication at all.  I am still not sure that my mother, the childrens' grandmother, would go to Poland with her best spandex and blue mascara and seek a contract above all else, on a Mushroom Field.

So Eileen and I have a jolly time.  We go with my Dear Private Friend from Chichester to West Dean Gardens where Dear Friend and I spend a couple of hours walking dreamily about the Kitchen Gardens, Greenhouses and Large Foliage Bits while Eileen goes undercover with her camera and equipment and photographs flowers.  This is her passion.  As Private Friend and I strolled about, I was sure Eileen was in the undergrowth not 3 yards from us at any given time.

So.  As the Sexy Polish Grandmother leaves, I get a call from a friend of a friend of a friend.  I hear, says the voice, that you have a spare room.  (How?  What has the Sexy Polish Grandmother being saying?)  Yes, I say.  Can I have it?  Says the voice and Yes say I.  Then I say Who Are You?  and we go into more detail.  I now have a new Occupant of the Spare Room.  He came to look at it before making his mind up, and into our Bognor House came our next Member of the Household.  His marriage and life is exploding around him and he needs somewhere till he can make the next step.  Fine, I say, we can handle that here.  His son, he says, is not happy.  Ha!  I say, my sons have been Unhappy too!  I know that one too.  And my daughter, I add, she has been Dreadfully Unhappy.  My new Occupant of the Spare Room has the following which make him popular before he has even upacked.  1.  A motobike.  2.  A guitar.  3.  Is best friends with my lovely friend's lovely daughter  (both of whom are popular here)  4.  Sings in a band.  He is, in a word, Arty.  Excellent.  We will have, for as long as he stays, A Commune.  He is, it is important to add, very sad and needs time and space. But from what I have seen, he will leap forward into his future when the time is right

And life, quite apart from this, is looking up.  I have more work, and more venues for the A Graceful Death.  I am so happy in the studio, and there are opportunities everywhere.  The sun is out, the flowers are nodding, and everything seems Possible.  

13 Year Old Son has gone away for a week.  Oh the peace.  Oh the silence.  I have only the French Student who goes home this week, and the New Arty Man, and Costya the Teenage Overlord to see to and feed.  And I think, I think, I am due a wee holiday abroad to see friends and live it up a bit.  The world is Big, I am only here once, and Boy, There Is Much To Do.  Onwards, I say with a Yodle in my Voice, And Upwards!