Umbrellas!

The rain today is the sort of rain that, looking out of the window, doesn’t make an impression on puddles, so when you get outside and discover it is raining it’s a surprise. It is so fine that it feels like it won’t get you wet, but very soon you are soaked through. I did have my umbrella so felt protected from the elements as I walked down to the towpath. Passing a duck on the path in the same spot as the swans last week I went to give it a wide berth, only to be confronted by two joggers coming the other way and I had to sidestep duckwards! Loud angry quacking and the duck lunged at me, but as it stood up hiding underneath the mother umbrella was a duckling which plopped into the water and they both swam hurriedly away. 

Continuing on my way I felt a little ridiculous as I was holding a long box with a new screen for the doorway between the gallery and the kitchen at East Lodge. Rather reminiscent of an Hawaiian leis it was with trepidation that I was offering it as a gift to the Lodge! Colourful, cheerful and bright it may be too much in-your-face, but it was halfprice and worth trying! Negotiating the narrow path from the canal to the river was interesting with the three foot parcel and an umbrella, so I decided to fold up the umbrella, especially as the hedges and tree boughs covered the path and worked as a fairly effective umbrella itself.

Reaching the river I saw an angler, tucked under and camouflaged by a large green umbrella. Great weather for fishing although rather miserable sat there in the mizzling rain. Further on some people playing bowls were being watched by a couple sheltering under a large colourful umbrella absorbed in the game and laughing out loud.

Thinking of the umbrella as a metaphor for Leamington Studio Artists I thought of how the organisation strives to cover a wide variety of art practitioners, all very different, but all sharing similar problems and solutions. The LSA strives to protect, cover and hold together a group of artists for mutual shelter and eventually exposure when the coast is clear! Stretching the metaphor to holding tightly to the handle to stop it turning inside out, and maintaining the strength in the spokes I urge you all to attend the AGM on Thursday 13th July 2017 7pm at East Lodge. 

Arriving at East Lodge I tentatively suggested the curtain, and at first scepticism, but eventually its charm and bright demeanor won over the artists and visitors in the Lodge. It may be raining outside…but in East Lodge we are bright and cheerful with our Hawaiian doorway and sunny disposition.

Curtains!

Keep the rain out and join the Leamington Studio Artists!