Ruby Tuesday

As in not Black Tuesday. A Tuesday of an exciting colour - in a good way. A firework sort of day, maybe.

So, first. Over the last many years, I have been involved in moving first my grandmother and then my parents out of their homes in to sheltered accommodation. It 's a horrible process. I don't think I shall ever forget having to shovel so many of my mother's "treasures" in to black plastic sacks and take them to the tip. Things she loved, but not even the charity shops wanted them. The experiences made me vow that, although it was pretty much inevitable that we should at some point have to downsize, we were going to attempt to have as much control over the process as possible.

As soon as we were in a position to do it, we began looking for preferably an apartment, or maybe a small house, in this area that we could seamlessly move in to when the time was right. Which I devoutly hope will not be for several years as I still have a lot of stash to use up. We had an ideal location in mind, but we were aware that we were unlikely to succeed. The aim was to get close to this ideal, this to include a little space where we could feel the air and the sun on our ageing faces, like a little patio or a balcony. And if the gods were willing to be indulgent, close to water.

Yesterday - Tuesday - we had an offer accepted on the most delightful apartment, with a balcony, right on the canal! If it were not so tiny, I might even move in straight away! But as it is, I will need the next dozen or so years to accomplish the destashing. But meanwhile, it will be rented, but there for us when we need it.

Much more immediate, and so much less prudent........yesterday also saw us being offered - ta da! - wait for it........A STUDIO!! We couldn't be more excited, and also, at least in my case, feeling the scary. We both of us feel that we neither of us do as much fibre craft practice as we could simply working at home. I don't get the writing done that I would like. We both have new craft areas that we want to explore. By indulging ourselves a very little bit, we can have this fabulous space, well large enough for both of us, and give ourselves a real chance to develop.

There are a few places such as this around this area. They are great, supportive communities, often, as in this case, co- operatives, which suits us very well. Our space is large (by our standards), airy, with a lovely big window. I am struggling with myself not to fantasise too much about living the life of the artist in her garret (ha!) and concentrating on coming up with a plan for how to start out and where I might proceed. Oh, and not to forget that I shall be sharing the space with the DSM, although we won't actually intend in the long term to necessarily work there together too often.

So there you go. Two diametrically opposed, if you will, developments. Don't ever think that life has to be dull, or can't hold surprises.