What do you wish you could do more every day?

Mooch around the shore line like a spoonbill, or amble about a gallery full of modern art, without intent.

Drink strong, milky coffee and wander the streets of a city in search of nothing much.

Converse aimlessly with fellow artists.

Make stuff.

I’m almost insane with the lack of making at the moment. My embroidery stuff sits in a basket by my feet, untouched for weeks; my screenplay remains uninterrupted by words; I can’t remember the last time I even touched my camera. I feel like I’m lacking some crucial element but I don’t know what.

I miss the light of the coast, Moffat is in the bottom of a valley. Great for those, like my husband, who love hills, but grim for people like me who need light and a sense of space. And I miss the stimulation that comes with being in the presence of really good art. I know I can see pretty much every work of art that’s ever been made online, but it’s not the same somehow, I don’t know why, but it’s not effecting.

And now, just to add to the joys, I can’t even have lattes anymore because of lactose. I’ve tried plant based ‘milks’, grim as fuck. Some nut milks have the right texture, but, delicious as they are, they don’t work with coffee, for me. I find oat milk too particulate, and it tastes of porridge. I like porridge, but not in coffee. Lactose free dairy milk is great, but I can’t get it in Moffat. Actually, I can get skimmed or semi skimmed, but the flavour isn’t right, and every sip is a disappointment.

But, to get back to the question, the thing I really wish I could do every day is wake up feeling energetic and confident and lively, and be unbothered by all those negatives. I wish I could be Frida Kahlo who suffered all her life from the effects of a horrendous accident, not to mention the precarity of a clinically adulterous husband, yet managed to make some of the best art ever.

Yeah, what I wish I could do every day is be more like Frida Kahlo 🌞