night confessional

She talks to the man in the moon for hours. She tells him everything, how she hates the sun, the stars get on her nerves, and the clouds, well, you can imagine. He knows how to listen. Only sometimes will he draw the branches across. He needs his sleep too.

A Virginian Shed for Alex!

No door or any other entryway, and it may get a trifle cold to work there in winter, but there's a bench built into one side and this is the view...



And my writing prompt for today is ... I saw her dancing.

ps Check out Gina's responses to some of the prompts I've put up here. I love her detail of the creaking stairs in particular, and the father's boots.

Red...

I received a lovely poem yesterday by email which featured a little bird and homesickness that cheered me up no end. I'm feeling really settled here now, I've even been off the center - there's a sign at the end of the property which says 'The Real World' which I must get a picture of before I go, but for now, here's the cardinal - the state bird of Virginia, and which I caught perching just outside my studio window.



It feels a happy coincidence that it matches exactly the colour of my new page-a-day Moleskine diary.



I'm doing this year what I did about three years ago - I've written a prompt at the top of each page right up until 31st December and am writing something - anything - to the particular phrase I find for every day. When I did it before, I thought it would just be a way of flexing writing muscles but it ended up being a treasure box of ideas when I wanted something to work from. Today's prompt is Once when no one was looking....

For she's a jolly good fellow...

Now that Autumn is here, I'm getting more and more excited about my forthcoming fellowship at VCCA. In fact, I'll let you in on a secret. Not a day goes by that I don't go and ogle at the website, particularly at the Accepted Fellows page. I know this paragraph practically by heart:

You'll find a working environment far from the distractions of every day life. With three meals prepared for you every day, you'll experience large blocks of time where you can concentrate on your work. Many artists find the solitude and the privacy afforded at the VCCA liberating, and produce some of their best work here. Others are inspired by their colleagues with whom they share breakfast and dinners in a common dining hall.

There's something there worth repeating .... with three meals prepared for you every day...

Oh, and the large blocks of time where you can concentrate on your work bit too, of course.

I'm not really going there to eat, oh no! I have a 'secret project' to work on. I really can't wait to get my teeth into it.

And to make it all even more delicious, I'm going to travel from New York to Virginia by train too. This is an adventure, especially for a Fen girl. I think I might be finally growing up. There are even days I can cope with a hill or two. After all, I am about to be a fellow (or have I mentioned that already!)