Crikey, I've been a bit quiet!

There has been so much happening over the last few weeks that it's hard to know where to begin.


A couple of sheep and lamb photos will have to suffice for the knitting content as knitting has been a no-go activity.

Seemingly, anything that makes me hold my head even slightly lower than upright hurts after about 20 minutes so I've been very restricted. Housework has been very difficult too as something as simple as pushing the hoover round hurts like mad after a few minutes.

I'm sure it will get better in time and I've been doing all my exercises every day but it's very frustrating and I'll be very glad when it's healed.

On 23rd March, Mike and I visited london to watch A seat by the window, a musical collaboration between Turtle Key Arts and the Royal College of Music.



I'd met Ali at the talk I took part in at the Wellcome Trust and she'd told me about the work they were doing with dementia sufferers and their carers.

The date was especially poignant as it would have been my mum's birthday.





This is Ali with her friend Mark who came along to help.










It was held at the Cadogan Hall which is in the heart of Chelsea and although we'd seen it plenty of times we'd never actually been inside before.





It is hard to put into words just what the performance was like - moving, funny, heart-breakingly sad, joyful all rolled into one. The group was lead by Tim Yealland from the English National Opera and the story for the event was based on ideas gleaned from the participants and then developed over the course of many weeks.

I found the whole event deeply moving.

Some of those suffering from dementia were able to join in by clapping, stamping their feet, waving their arms and repeating the words and they clearly enjoyed themselves. However, there were some who just sat there motionless, staring with unseeing eyes and I found myself fixing my gaze upon them and my eyes filling with tears.

Clearly, those in the earlier stages of dementia gained great benefit from the experience and I wholly applaud Turtle Key Arts for their work in this field and hope they can secure the funding necessary to develop their project further.






As we live a fair way from London we always like to cram a lot in when we're there so after the performance we visited the Saatchi Gallery as it's one of those places we've been meaning to visit but haven't got around to. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it as some of the things I've seen before have left me cold but there were some exhibits that were thought-provoking and well executed.


I enjoyed this project done by schoolchildren for a competition in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

There were hundreds of tiny chairs all decorated in a unique way.








This enormous heart caught my eye. Not because of the subject but because of how it was decorated.








In this close-up you can see that it is covered in lots of different sizes and colours of felt pads. The colours accentuated the contours.


3 weeks ago, I ran the A20 Path'n'Downs Race which was my last long run, 21 miles, before my first marathon which is this weekend. I managed to avoid the photographers with the exception of TraceyG's hubby Bernard who managed as usual to make me look like an overweight middle-aged woman rather than the svelte young thing I really am. No photos to follow of that thank you very much!

I ran a good time of 3:47 but my neck really did hurt the next few days. I've had some extra Physiotherapy sessions and another session with Mary Massage Lady and I'm hoping that I'll get through the marathons OK. We'll soon see anyway!

Just before Easter we went to see the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy and we were totally blown away by it. We originally had tickets to go the day after the car crash but of course we couldn't get there as we had no car! To see those paintings up close was absolutely amazing and the colours were stunning. That same day we went to Tate Britain to see the Henry Moore exhibition. He has always been one of my heroes but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about seeing his works in a gallery setting rather than in the great outdoors. Well I certainly wasn't disappointed and Mike came away inspired and set about painting almost as soon as we arrived home!