Around the House.

 

Not particularly motivated or inspired to do anything else, I made sketches of random, everyday, mundane objects around the house.

 All artwork copyright ian gordon craig.

Thoresby is now empty.

 

 

I drove over to the place I’ve started referring to as the Homelands. Thoresby Park. Not been there in quite a while. Don’t think I went there at all during last year. Don’t think I went anywhere last year.

My Thoresby blog started 2006, as much of my social life started at the same time. It was my first choice of a place to go after retiring. It provided a lot of fun and adventures between 2007 and 2020. Sadly, today it bears no resemblance to what it was then:

Access to the lakeside, gone.
Ability to stroll through the village, or drive past Woodyard, gone.
Art Gallery, gone,
Souvenir shop, gone.

There is literally nothing to do there now but have a coffee in the courtyard, and maybe walk back and forth to the churchyard. Again.

Above: My Scottish grandparents lived a while at the rear of Thoresby Hall Courtyard. He was head gardener until, homesick, they returned to the highlands. Long ago she would have a “piece” (cake / sandwich), ready for me. Today, a quiet place to sit and sketch.

all artworks copyright ian gordon craig. 

At the crossroads.

 

Above: This crossroad does actually exist. It’s at the top of a hill, in a region I like to refer to as my homeland. If the weather’s good, it’s one of the places I might go to, sit a while on that bench, and think back on past days. Both figures in the drawing are me.

The site is very close to the place I first had a painting displayed on a wall. If there was ever a place I made a lifelong deal with art, then it was there as a boy. It was never a secondary school or college I ever went to.

Another year over, and a new one just begun.

On a personal level, I’m glad 2025 is finally over. On a national level, I fear much worse is to come. But, as John Lennon once wrote, “There’s a place I can go, and it’s my mind”. I went there over the Christmas season. Got quite a lot of writing done.

 This morning I wake to a light sprinkling of snow. Soon schools will all close, trains will stop running (wrong type of snow for them), hosepipes will be banned, supermarket shelves will be empty, there will be no toilet rolls in the shops, and doctors will ask for another 25%.

All text & pictures copyright ian gordon craig.