Still Grey.

The weather has been much the sames as yesterday so I was able to get out and do a bit more gardening. Today it was the turn of the various crocosmia in the scree garden to be cut down. They've all done well so I will dig up some of the corms to put in my propagating garden. So far all I've done is the cutting back and then crawled cautiously under the pampas grass clearing weeds and leaves from the stones. 

Most of the afternoon was taken up by both of us fixing a proper drain to the 2 down pipes at the back of the house. The old arrangement of some bits of guttering nailed to a piece of wood propped up by stones was not exactly a good look. It was a long job made difficult by the fact that; the 25 year old drains were not the same size as the new drains and fittings, the stone wall is incredibly lumpy and hard to drill into, we both struggle with kneeling and bending and also we tend not to hear/listen to each other which makes things a bit fraught at times. On the good side we do at least have all the tools we need and between us we got the job done.  

Last night I reread 'The Path of The Son' Bryan Pearce's biography. It was so moving to read of the family's struggle to bring up 2 children with impaired development at a time when the cause was unknown and society's attitude to such children was very different. At times a very sad story but also uplifting in the way that Bryan was loved and supported by his family and the art community. (It was his first one man exhibition that was held at my mother's gallery rather than part of a mixed show.) I think it will be good for my class to hear about someone who persevered with his art becoming a world renowned artist and able to support himself and his parents despite having difficulties to overcome. It was also interesting for me to read about people and places that were part of my early life of which I have strong memories.