Pepys engages in many matters of business in this entertaining entry. Click the link above for the full entry.

….This day, by the blessing of God, my wife and I have been married nine years: but my head being full of business, I did not think of it to keep it in any extraordinary manner. But bless God for our long lives and loves and health together, which the same God long continue, I wish, from my very heart!

In spite of his weaknesses and temperamental difficulties it is good to see that Pepys still values his wife though he did forget to make special arrangements for their anniversary.

*****

Off to a course in Bath under the overall title ‘How I make it’. This session was ‘Story Making and Walking – making it up as you go along’. There were five of us. Philippa, Sarah with an h, Elizabeth, Olly who focalised the course and myself. It took place in the room of the gallery 44a. Today’s diary entry was not intended as a photographic session but it has partly turned into one.

Olly is part of ‘Kilter, Beyond Theatre‘, a Bath based venture that creates events out of interesting, beautiful and unique people and places. They facilitate site specific plays, and create workshops for all ages. We started the two hour session by imagining we were carrying a tray of champagne glasses (full) and we had to move the trays around our head in a circle without spilling the imaginary bubbly.
We then had to recite some tongue twisters, then point to objects and describe them by their textures and colours, then we had to talk for a minute on a given subject, then with interruptions.

SaraH, Liz, Olly, Philippa

This developed into a two by two three minute walk in any direction in the midst of Bath. On the return journey we had to describe any feature that was interesting, unique or original. My own journey is described below. We then were taken on another journey and each of us had to show the other the features that we they had spotted the first time. We found that focusing on the detail rather than what was pushed into our face by the commercial world propelled us into a new dimension. I observed that the so called ‘normal’ activity may be the surreal, and what we did in our journeys was the real. Reference Carlos Castaneda or his website.

this is called ‘communication’

So off we go, me as the guest, my partner as the guide. She draws my attention to all the anomalies and details. I purposefully de-focus from everything except the unusual, the remarkable.

a mysterious shop front and a very niche shop

Nose hair extensions are the next hot beauty trend everyone needs to try. Ed. _ I can’t wait

This small bath fed via a spring can be hired privately. Nice birthday present.

assisted by solar power, this gobbles up waste. Solar vs belly? Ugh

slow seller toys waiting to be sold – somehow

lovely symmetry

Bricks on the walkway surrounded by gravel stuck on a porous surface. An aluminum ring surrounding slate chips again stuck on a porous surface. In the middle, a larch tree, a living thing.

artificial windblown stone. clever

Seagull droppings blown by the wind

lovely plane tree hundreds of years old Ctrl and + repeated to view larger

let’s look up into this wonderful old tree

that’s all folks save one below

our first piece of publicity in the local paper