travelling at lunchtimes

Although I sometimes visit other buildings to drink coffee with friends elsewhere on campus and occasionally, go outside to sit in the sun when we have good weather, most luchtimes I rely upon my computer to transport me out of the office.
The web allows me to catch up with news from both sides of the Atlantic and to virtually visit festivals and reunions I have been unable to attend. However, official websites and newspapers do not compare to the e-mailed holiday snaps or the wedding photos of old friends whom I no longer get to see as often as I would like.
Last weekend, I had the happy experience of attending a wedding in a place I once called home and catching up with many friends some connected to the wedding and others not.
These are just a couple of the places to which I often find myself imaging I would like to travel at lunchtime. It is a bittersweet thought that they are now so far from home.

Finally, some sun in the garden

The weather has perked up which makes it even more pleasant to spend the weekend at home after a trip away. It was great to return to find my zucchini plants had at last produced appropriately sized vegetables. (I'd been kidding myself that the tiny ones I had harvested thus far would classify as "baby" in the supermarket and were therefore desirable). The picture above shows a courgette worthy of the name.
Even Sakura spends time outside chasing butterflys and climbing the smaller trees once there is weather worthy of the season. She is very taken with the vegetable pots on the patio. (Perhaps jealous of the attention they get). Anyhow, here's a picture of her in front of the prize worthy cabbage.

learning creativity

Recently, I have been going to a few weekend courses run by our local art gallery. When I booked I was of the opinion that these days in a studio would provide welcome relief from the frustrations of the working week. This has turned out to be an unimportant part of the experience, somewhat surprisingly. Even though I am not sure I will continue with some of the new techniques or continue to explore the work of some artists I have been introduced to, some element of the experience has been apparent in completely unconnected projects I will discuss later.