Walk One Hundred and Eighty Three – Half-way through

Can you believe – the challenge – for me – is now half-way through. For those of you who haven’t been following this blog here is an update of the story so far.
After issuing the challenge (you can read it in the side panel) a few people joined me, but we’re now down to a core of three one-milers.
Alison in Canberra and Penny in rural South Australia are still manfully walking and drawing with me on a daily basis. Hashi, Katherine, Wendy, Tami, Felicity and Jana together with many others are cheering us on.
Rain has been the bane of my sketching, whereas Alison and Penny would, I’m sure, welcome a few rain-soaked sketches. Alison has entertained us with her night time walks, her drawings of quirky sculpture and the surroundings of Canberra and so much more. Penny has battled with technology and sharing her computer to draw us into life on her farm and the nearby coast. She’s delightfully and funnily negative about her drawing skills (which she really must stop doing) and those little asides about keeping on top of tidying her house make me think that she ought to see mine to really appreciate mess.
More than anything our children and our mothers have been a large part of the story. My own mother died in July. The complicated and difficult relationship I had with her spilt out onto these pages. Alison’s mother was frighteningly ill at the same time and Penny helped her mother move into a retirement home. Soon after my mother died, Hashi’s mother in Canberra was rushed into hospital. Alison took flowers to her. Sadly she didn’t get better and Hashi flew back to Australia to share the last days with her. To my joy, Alison and Hashi met and walked one of Alison’s favourite walks.
Xavier, my delightful three year old, (together with his tantrums and toilet training) has been a regular feature of this blog as he has often accompanied me on my walks and ‘helped’ in the creation of art. The other walkers and supporters with their own experiences of motherhood have joined in with their own stories of children and grandchildren.
So it’s been a great ride so far. Just don’t ask me how much weight I’ve lost – put it this way, I’d be a lot fatter if I hadn’t done this.
Now if anyone else wants to join, let us know.
The drawing was done in Langley Wood (the Bluebell Wood) in my large watercolour Moleskine. Colour was added at home as Xavier had had enough of me drawing once the ink lines had been drawn.