I’m writing this early in the morning on the day we say goodbye to Paul’s mom, Dorothy Gerhardt. She passed away unexpectedly early on Christmas morning. She had to move to a nursing home earlier in the month, and had been declining fairly steadily in the past months, but nobody was prepared for this. She was 85, a truly admirable woman.

Paul has been here with his dad since the first week in December. I was supposed to go back to England last Saturday; I’m now scheduled to go back tomorrow. It’ll be quite an odyssey: a three and a half hour bus ride down to NYC, spend a couple hours with my sister, and then go to JFK airport for the approx. 7 hour flight to Heathrow. With heightened security measures to endure at the airport, I’m sure. At least I get to see the Boyz again when I get over there!! I’ll be able to pick them up from the kennel on the way home from the airport. I am so so grateful for the wonderful kennel they were boarding at; they were able to keep the Boyz for those extra 5 days during their busiest time of the year.

It is hard to say when Paul will feel he’s wrapped up all his mom and dad’s affairs to the point where he can get back to England with me. I’ll probably be on my own there for a few more weeks. Due to not knowing if his dad will be OK on his own/how often he might need to get to the US to check on him, and some other things going on with Paul’s job, we might be ending our stint in the UK early. We’re hoping to remain until September but even that is not certain. It would be good to have another 6 months, but I’m surprised to find myself saying that I’d be happy to get back to the US by summer. Living in the UK has been fascinating, and wonderful for the travel, exploring the country, and gaining new perspectives on the world from living outside the US, but it really hasn’t been that great for Paul. And I miss my studio, my kiln, and my parents, who also live in Boulder.

We’ve had such well-ordered and predictable lives until now, that making the decision to live in the UK last year felt like a welcome excuse to shake things up a bit. But it looks like the new decade will be starting off in quite a state of uncertainty!

May you and yours have a healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year and new decade.

P.S.: Here’s my last photo of 2009: the Boyz, taken just before I left for NY last week, playing in their back yard in their first UK snow:

I made a pact with myself that at least once a week until I leave the UK, I’m getting OUT on any day with at least some sunshine. Last week I got off to a good start!

This area of southeast England has been on my life to-do list, and somehow we just didn’t get down there this summer or fall. Mostly because we want to take a whole week and tour around Kent and Dover. There’s definitely a week’s vacation there, in castles and seascapes.

These photos are not of the famous White Cliffs of Dover. This is actually a place called Beachy Head, near the pretty seaside town Eastbourne, east of Brighton. (Another place on the List, not yet gotten-to.) I can’t tell you how beautiful this piece of coast is. And we had it practically to ourselves because it was a winter weekday. It is just crazy the way the green grass is mowed, right up to the edge of the cliffs, no fence or anything! In fact I kept the Boyz on the leash until we got to the edge because I had this horror of them not realizing it was a cliff and just bounding right over! It is surprising that there aren’t fences and warning signs, because Britain definitely is a nanny-state kind of place with excessive handholding and admonishments for about everything. (And I thought the USA was bad for that sort of thing!) It is also amazing that this area isn’t in private hands after all the centuries.

What a treasure to be able to just drive up and park, walk a couple hundred yards to the edge of the cliffs, and walk a couple miles each direction.

Further down the coast we came upon a place where they had put a staircase right down to the beach below the cliffs. I thought being on the top was great and was not expecting to be able to get down there, AND with dogs allowed off leash in winter. Oh how I want to LIVE here, right HERE!

We also stopped at a ruined castle in this area, called Pevensey. It wasn’t open to go inside but it was pretty ruinous so I don’t think I missed anything. It was impressive to walk around. I think from the top of one of those towers you could see the ocean. The pretty enclosed grounds appeared to be the dog park for the village, as there were many dogs and owners doing walkies there!

Last Saturday I had some Christmas shopping to do, and decided to shop like a Brit, by doing it in a Real Market Town. I chose Salisbury, not least because it was near Stonehenge.

I’ve been to Stonehenge twice before on other trips to the UK, but I’m a sentimental fool and just had to go again. Plus, my other photos taken there were pre-digital and now I’ve got good ones for the archives. PLUS it was a sunny day and the other times I was there it was rainy. All good excuses for another look!

They are about to totally rebuild the area around Stonehenge, burying in a tunnel the highway that runs right by it, and moving the visitor center 2 miles away. In future you’ll have to get to the site by shuttle bus. That will be a drag, considering how many people visit Stonehenge, but I think it will be worth it to see it placed in the middle of the downs without any roads. The second photo shows what it looks like right now when you approach it.

Paul and I spent two nights in a tiny old half-timbered inn in Salisbury during our driving tour of England and Wales about 10 years ago. I think it has just about everything you’d want in an English town. (If you only have time for one day trip out from London, go there!) A fabulous huge cathedral, lots of old half-timbered buildings and historic buildings, interesting narrow streets for exploring, great shopping, pretty countryside. And just a few miles from Stonehenge, Avebury Stone Circle, and Old Sarum. I was glad to go back there for a day.

Last time, we didn’t get into the awesome cathedral—it was closed the one day and we rented bikes all day on the other and never got back there. This time, there was a full orchestra and huge choir rehearsing a Bach concert in there, it was incredible!! I heard the voices from the outside and I was sure that there was a program going on and I wasn’t going to be able to get in the cathedral (again). But they said it was a rehearsal and I just ran in there. I couldn’t believe my luck!!

Today we woke up to our first British SNOW! Just a wet half inch, but still pretty fun to see. I drove the Boyz over to a nearby park to run around. First thing in the morning it was just a very hard frost on the ground. Looked like snow, but wasn’t. (I’d love for it to stay below freezing all winter here, just because it hardens up all the mud! Fantastic!)

Later it began to snow for real, so I drove up to Cliveden. This famous estate is up on a hill overlooking the Thames so it had a little bit more snow. It was a great place to take photos of the snow. I walked all the way around the building and took a bunch of photos. And hit up the gift shop of course. (I’ve got to get out of this country, the gift shops are going to kill our finances!!!) Here are photos of their garden, the Thames, and their ornate gilt clock tower.

Now it has turned to all rain, but it’s still just 0°C so just barely staying rain. They are calling for a “significant” snow on Friday, whatever that means. I heard a newscaster yesterday describe -5°C as “bitter” cold. Bitter? HAH! I have gotten used to thinking in “C” instead of “F” for temperature, but 0°C is only 32°F, so that is not very cold compared to what we regularly endure in Colorado. I confess I am not missing those mornings on the ski lift at Vail, when it is -10°F! (That’s -23°C to you Brit readers!)

Next week I fly over to New York to join Paul for Christmas. The novelty of being over here on my own has totally worn off and I will be very glad to see him again!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Here sadly, is my sole Christmas decoration in the house, given to me by my sister-in-law Stacy, when were were in Tucson.

Last week we flew back to the States for Thanksgiving. We went from this…

to this…

…within 2 days. We were in Tucson for part of the week and then flew back to Boulder to have a peek at the house. That’s when Paul got a chance to start up the snow blower before we left. It was great to see most of my family members, and do a lot of American-style shopping and eating!

Things are a a bit strange at the moment because Paul had to fly back to the USA 2 days after returning here from our Thanksgiving trip. His mom has needed to go into a nursing home and he’s gone to our hometown in upstate NY to help his dad cope with everything. Paul will be there for the next 2 weeks and I should be joining him Christmas week. (We already had a trip there booked for the holidays.)

So, for the second time this year, I find myself across the Atlantic from Paul at a time when he is under pressure and stress. Last winter it was him going to the UK first and having to dive right in to a really tough work situation. It is frustrating not being able to help him one bit!

Since I have the car all to myself (we have been sharing it and most of the time Paul takes it to work) I will take the opportunity to travel back to the border of Wales to visit Donna Chaney next week, if we can work out a good day. We want to do some overglaze paint work together with her china painter. I think I’m going to add a couple extra days and do a Big Castle Tour. Paul just isn’t as enchanted with ruined castles as I am, so I might as well do them now! (Depending on the weather.) I have to bring the Boyz with me, but fortunately I have discovered that the budget motel chain Travelodge over here is pet-friendly. Their rooms are totally no-frills but also pretty low cost.

As I was telling some friends the other day: It is so bizarre being here alone… in a place I’d longed to visit for years and never thought I’d get to have this much time in… yet feeling more than a little timid about driving around to places a couple hours away by myself. I have always been a really fearless solo traveler but for some reason being over here makes me feel less safe. Especially in December when the days are so short. I wish I had met someone over here to do things with at least!

But I discussed my reservations with Paul and he told me to Go For It and Just Do It, etc.. I know how to be careful on my own and I don’t think the UK outside London should be all that scary! I have work to finish up this week and then ROAD TRIP!

For those of you who care about this sort of thing (still not sure that I do) I have now got a page on Facebook. I joined using my full name (Karen Yungkurth Gerhardt) in case anyone was looking for me via my maiden name. I have zero friends, ha ha.

Here’s the view out the art room window this morning:

The country has been paying for that pretty, warm, and fairly dry September and October we had, by giving us rain and gale-force winds for a couple weeks now. There were terrible floods up north in the Peak District, with a few entire towns and many bridges wiped out. We live less than two miles from the Thames and I think we’re protected somewhat by the raised embankments of the rail lines and the M4. But we definitely live in a low river valley so we do wonder about what Maidenhead would look like if we got as much rain as they did up north.

Anyway, I’m trying to learn to live with gloomy days like this. And that lovely damp-dog smell!! I knew that was going to be the biggest challenge, coming from sun-drenched Colorado. It took me nearly 3 weeks to shrug off that cold I had (maybe I did have the minor-symptoms version of the swine flu), and Paul has been working long hours and not getting home as much for lunch. All that added up to me feeling like a real shut-in recently. I’m usually a quite contented loner, but I haven’t had the opportunity to make any friends here and not getting out of the house for so long made me realize how much I am missing even my minimalist social life in Boulder! After these last few weeks I am now determined to get out by myself on weekdays and explore more places within a couple hours drive—even in winter drizzle!

Yesterday we walked the Boyz over at Henley-on-Thames, my favorite local village (a quite posh one actually) and remembered again why I am so blissed to be living here. (Wow, that sentence actually sounded kind of Brit-speak didn’t it??) The town has such a picturesque setting on the river with their church and bridge. They hold the annual Henley Regatta here, which is one of those see-and-be-seen summer social calendar events like Ascot. Even though the grass is still vibrant green and daytime temps are mostly around 50°, Christmas lights (they call them fairy lights over here) are beginning to come out. It was picture-book pretty walking through town as the sun was setting; too bad I forgot to bring my camera!

It will be fun observing the holiday season over here. A lot of celebratory traditions are the same as in the US (including some politically-correct schools banning anything but the most secular decorations and names for the season). Christmas Pudding seems to be a variation on (or more likely the origin of) our fruitcake, and I read in the paper that yesterday was “Stir Up Sunday”. The first day of the holiday season, where the whole family is supposed to take part in making the Christmas pudding.

Over here they have Boxing Day, on Dec 26th. According to the web: An ‘Alms Box’ was placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshippers placed a gift for the poor of the parish. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas, which is why that day became known as Boxing Day.

During the late 18th century, Lords and Ladies of the manor would “box up” their leftover food, or sometimes gifts and distribute them the day after Christmas to tenants who lived and worked on their lands. Traditionally, Boxing Day is the day when families get together. It is a day of watching sports and playing board games with the family. Many families will go on walks in the countryside together on this day. There is also a tradition of fox hunting on Boxing Day. (Though now they can still hunt but can’t actually chase foxes.)

In recent times, some shops have broken from tradition and started opening on Boxing Day to start the New Year sales. Hundreds of people now spend Boxing Day morning in queues outside shops, waiting to be the first to dive for the sales racks as the doors opened. (Sounds just like our “Black Friday” the day after Thanksgiving. Though recently I think our stores have been having their biggest sales after Christmas too.)

We won’t be here for Boxing Day, as we fly to NY to spend Christmas with my sister Kristin and her family in Brooklyn for a few days, and then upstate with Paul’s parents.

I’ve been puttering away in the art room even when I didn’t have much energy with the head cold. I’m almost done with the china “Optime” Arabian onto which I am sculpting a unique mane and tail:

I got my china molds out and cast a “Streetwise” Quarter Horse the other day. I want to see if I can do a drastic customization and get three legs on the ground (instead of the current two) so that it will stand without a base. It’s a good choice sculpture to use as a guinea pig because I was surprised to find that I have two complete sets of his molds. I wasn’t planning on releasing too many more of him (might have to re-think that now!). Here’s what he looks like in all his parts…

I also have four good molds of the little “Breakables Live” show medallions I sculpted as awards for that show I held in 2002. (I cast one of those the other day too. You can see it in the lower left of the photo.) I have no clue what to do with them. I offered them to the person who revived the show last summer, but I was turned down. Guess they wanted something new.

Lastly, here is more progress on “Roundabout”.

It is still horribly rough but that’s the way sculpting goes around here. I work on one part and then another part looks wrong, and back and forth! I’m not sure if I am doing my work-self any favors, revealing my in-progress “dirty laundry” in this way. Is it really a good idea for everyone to see my cringe-inducing mistakes revealed in the process? Or is it better to present the finished product only??

A warm and Happy Thanksgiving to all my USA readers, family, and friends! We’re flying back to Boulder this week (first time Paul’s been home for nearly a year!) and then on to visit my two brothers’ families in Tucson for a few days. Sun, here we come, yeah!!

I’ve been sculpting for a couple hours a day now. I predict a productive winter at this rate! Now that dismal damp winter appears to be here for good, there’s not much incentive to go out and do anything except walk the Boyz around the immediate neighborhood studying sodden leaves and drippy trees. The nice thing is that it isn’t too cold, and the grass is amazingly green. It has only got to freezing a couple nights so far. And there is something interesting about the soft, misty look to everything. Such a difference from Colorado, where the air is always so dry that you see everything in incredible sharp focus.

I’ve put that right hind leg flat on the ground and just started the process of “sketching” in the anatomy details on this side. This guy will be pretty fat and rounded so a lot of the hyper-detail will get smoothed away but I need to sculpt this sort of thing in as a guide to my anatomy. Which I’m trying harder to get right on this piece. I had to remove the whole head and neck today because the wire I had in there was shaped at the wrong angle and kept showing up right down the head. I think maybe now the neck is too short and/or head too big, so ignore that..! And bleah, that extended front leg is bugging me for some reason.

I was in denial about it for several days, but I must also pull the clay from the wire in the left-side hoof and bend it straighter out; the wire isn’t at the right angle in there, either. Aaargh! This always seems to happen with me, always clay vs. armature right when I’m closing in on the details and proportions I want! It’s a pain to rework but I’m NOT complaining. The beauty of clay is that you can push it around forever until you get what you want.

A couple hours a day when the light is best in the art room, is enough. I find if I spend too long in a session then I might lose track of the big picture. I like to walk away and come back the next day with a fresh eye for it. Amazing what jumps out at you!