Ani's Spider

I'm off to Asia next week so once more I'm starting to pack up my life.  I've been at the family home in London for two months which has been just enough time to procrastinate and then throw out and tidy up all of the rubbish I've held onto from my childhood.

I've rediscovered a pile of sketchbooks from my time in the USA back in 2010.  Back then I stayed with Ani and Bill, friends of a friend, who live north of New York by the Hudson River.  They were by far one of the kindest couples I've come across and were kind enough to let us sleep on  their sofa for as long as we needed.  Ani is Ukranian but had been living in the USA for about forty years with her American husband - although she still had her accent and plenty of stories of childhood and famine in the Ukraine.  Living in the leafy part of New York, on a large plot of land with deer, wild flowers, her dogs and cats, she had a love for nature and life that I found truly inspirational.  We spent our evenings eating large home dinners and drinking copious amounts of wine and spirits which often led to long arguments about politics, the kids these days and American life.  I doodled down some of her nuggets of wisdom which I am now trying to do justice to and create into something worthy.  This is, as ever, a work in progress.

Cambodian Dogs

In Cambodia it is customary to leave your shoes outside, unfortunately the stray dogs like to take advantage of this.  I was woken up one night by the sound of dogs fighting outside my room and in the morning I found one of my shoes in the garden and the other one missing! Backpackers with only one pair of shoes - beware!