In spite of recent concerns about a possible drought, this little bit of East Anglia has been drenched by some heavy rain these last couple of days – so much so that on Friday afternoon it was cascading over the edge of our lower gutter onto the boiler flue below it which then leaked it into the kitchen. Alone in the house and wondering what best to do I rushed outside to stand on the rickety, rotting wooden bench which threatened to give way under me and scooped some yucky brown stuff out of the guttering with a trowel whilst being thoroughly soaked in the downpour. I had visions of my sodden body being found some hours later, impaled on a broken leg of the bench and covered in this shitty-looking matter, having been knocked out by a piece of fallen gutter (it’s cast iron…), with the garden implement by my side. In my rural setting it would have looked like a crime scene out of ‘Midsomer Murders’. In spite of that though, I still like summer rain! It makes me want to run outside and, well, dance around in it naked (…I’m not alone in having that desire, am I?!)
Anyway I didn’t – dance naked or get knocked out and impaled, that is – but the rain and wind did make me think of an odd little collage I did a few years ago as a contribution to an urban folk tale about witches in modern day Camden on a wet, blustery day. I only had a few hours spare to put it together but I had good fun just trying out something different. The clouds are made of kitchen roll. I got through a few sheets of that on Friday too, mopping up the leak indoors.
Artwork by C / Sun Dried Sparrows
