I haven’t posted in a while. I have been working on my residence in France, setting up my new shop and wrapping up the garden for winter ensuring the poultry are warm and cosy with extra hay, minerals for their feather molt (what bad timing in winter!) and clearing the autumn leaves into composters. The huge woodpiles that the ducks and guineas love so much to forage about for bugs have had to be opened up. The beautiful but parasitical creeping thistles had taken over. They are a menace to farmers and after a grueling two day hack with shears to behead them all before seeding, enough was enough. Like aggressive brambles, I need to get them out by the roots and with the winter days short it’s a good project.

But this post….a difficult one but short. I upset someone whom I had begun to chat with first on WordPress a few years back but lately, this year on email. We are a mismatch in so many ways. Basically I am not famous, not particularly exciting as a human specimen. Often we disagreed, but with difficulty our heated debates resolved until this week.

A photo posted that they wished they hadn’t triggered a comment by me. It was short but I hoped impartial. I created a tornado! I then tried to unwide it by explaining why I didnt see that photo was a problem. I will always try to show I understand but equally I won’t be pushed around and certainly if someone is rude to me, I walk away.

So I have walked away. Its sad but I am evidently worth an insult and even been told I will be ‘Called Out’ on social media. I am a big girl, I can take it, but a sad ending over one photo that is interpreted differently by two people. That’s the issue with social…we all have our own opinions, but do we air them in comments or not. Yesterday before the Fall-Out I couldn’t comment on their new posts. I was stuck between the monotony of ‘Like’ and ‘ Great photo’ or really expressing what I felt. Therefore I didn’t comment. Once bitten as they say.

So today I am sad. I hate upsetting anyone. The picture here…sometimes what you wish to say clearly gets muddled, muddy, obscured in tactful and intricate sentence structures, when all you want to say is, well it’s a great photo even if a controversial subject.

On a good note, Instagram has created a surge in creativity for me. I have had enthusiastic support from other artists and new followers and requests for designs and products has pushed me to working on new ideas far sooner. Its been cathartic after years of frustration about my art and where to take it. So I start 2022 with a positive vibe and wish you all a Happy Christmas and creative New Year. Stay safe.