If there was ever any doubt that a person dreams in colour then I am disproving it.
I dream in indigo.
I see shibori everywhere.
The sun was shining through the blind onto the sofa...
I was about to put something in this bowl and had to stop...why spoil it with stuff...
And then I see things that will make wonderful shibori designs all over the place, and now have to be dragged out of Poundland before I buy any more dolly pegs, or clamps, or clips, or hairbands, or marbles, or trays or buckets. And then I shoot off to the charity shops looking for shapes that will do for clamp resist, or bits of fabric that I can mess about with.
And suddenly, because this thing was bound to seep its way across from my creative hemisphere to my other one that reads, all the books I am reading, or want to read seem to match my recent shibori experience. I'm starting to see gorgeous blue book covers everywhere.
And yes, The Mighty Dead - Why Homer Matters is still on the tbr pile but The Silk Roads has edged its way in first.
But a blue cover wasn't my real reason for wanting to read The Outrun by Amy Liptrot so much that we actually drove all the way into Waterstones in Plymouth on a wet Maundy Thursday afternoon to buy a copy before Easter. Amongst other things it is about our beloved Orkney and suddenly it had to be my reading for the holiday weekend, nothing else would do.
I wonder if a book need grabs you in this same urgent way.
Even ordering online isn't fast enough, it has to be acquired yesterday.
Anyway, just look at the cover...
I was immediately reminded of the wonderful tapestries by Leila Thomson at her gallery at Hoxa on Orkney.
On one of his early solo visits to Orkney the Tinker drove all the way out to the gallery, three miles beyond St Margarets Hope, to buy me Leila Thomson's book, so it was wonderful to visit for ourselves when we went together a few years ago. I think the Tinker and I both knew this would be his last visit so we made the most of it and I created memories to draw on in the future.
And now I am supposed to be writing about The Outrun and all I can think of is that Orkney blue...
Hoy and Scapa Flow..
and Waulkmill Bay..
and the curlew...
and the lovely picture that Bookhound scratched onto slate while we sat on the beach...
and the beach...
and the beachcombing...
and Skara Brea...
and the scraps of rainbows...
and the ferry into Stromness passing the Old Man of Hoy...
And now I'm dreaming about Orkney as well as indigo, and I all I want to do is go back, and it's our Ruby Wedding anniversary this year so we might. I've been wanting to use the words sui generis for ages, and now I can, about Orkney and about The Outrun.
This is all Amy Liptrot's fault and I haven't even told you a thing about her astonishingly good book yet.
I'll try again tomorrow.
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