In Sickness and In Health

[rhythmaning]

Oh dear. Today was meant to be a day to celebrate – the start of something new: the first day that my wife wasn’t going to work, because she is now working parttime so she can spend two days a week painting rather than teaching.

She was very excited about today. Sure, she spent much of yesterday painting, and the day before as well; but yesterday was a holiday, and before that, the weekend. Today she would have been at work, but since she has now gone parttime, in a job-share with a colleague returning from maternity leave, this was her first day painting – not a holiday, not a weekend, but a day painting.

And paint she did, she said; until in the afternoon, she went down with a migraine. When I came home, she was lying in bed in a darkened room; really, really unwell. And there was nothing I could do to help her – except be as quiet as possible.

It isn’t much to ask – just be quiet. But I don’t do silence well: when I am home, the radio is on, or I have CDs playing, or… I can be quite loud – noise is something I am good at. So I was wearing my walkman-radio whilst I cooked for myself, trying not to bang pans or plates; and now I am sitting wearing headphones, listening to the hifi. (It is lucky that when I got the headphones – which I rarely wear; the last time was a long while ago, when I wanted to listen to some music whilst my wife wanted to watch some programme on tv – that I deliberately got cans with a long flex, so I can move around the whole of our spacious sitting room unhindered.)

I took up cat-duties, cleaning their trays, feeding them, playing with them – and shushing them when they whined to be fed, played with, and let out onto the stair (they don’t go outside, though they could; we spent a long time last year trying to get them into the garden; but they like to leave the flat, wander around the common stair for a bit, hiss at the neighbour’s cat; and then after half an hour or so, they wander back in, and demand a treat).

It is hard, though, not being able to positively help her feel better. It is a long time since she last had a migraine – a few years ago whilst we were on holiday in Lewis, as a huge storm blew in off the Atlantic; and there was nothing I could do then, either. (Indeed, I think I resorted to listening to music on my walkman, reading so as not to disturb her.)

So instead, to celebrate my wife’s new start, I have found a couple of images of her paintings, which I have put on Flickr. These are old paintings – they each hung in our sitting room for a long while, and I am very attached to them. (Ages ago – when I started writing this journal – I promised my wife that it would be anonymous: hence the reason I haven’t named the artist!)


This picture was painted near the Famine Village in Inishowen, Donegal.





This was painted at Borve, on Lewis, looking west over the Atlantic.

Comments

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

Wow - she's talented, they're lovely. I hope she feels better soon for both of your sakes, it must be difficult to feel so impotent. Has she any idea what caused it?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I'll tell her you liked the pictures! There are others on the web, but then it wouldn't be anonymous!!!

She thinks it was her stuffy studio in a surprisingly hot Edinburgh, coupled with the smell of oil paint - she hadn't opened the windows. Oh well.

[white_hart]

Wow, her paintings are amazing!

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor her. Horrid.

I need to talk with you about the pics. When is your summer holiday? Can you be in your native city for one of the last two weekends of July, and if so which one?

[deililly.livejournal.com]

I really love the colours of the top one. Hope she feels better and gets back to it soon!

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

Wow - they are excellent! Love the one from Lewis! Really love it!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Very enjoyable paintings - the style of the second strongly reminds me of one of my faourite Argyle artists, but I'm having a brain fart about his name (despite having one of his sea scapes on my wall at home).

A bit late now, but I can recommend Migraleave - they actually do work, mostly because they restart your digestive system allowing the pain killer to hit the bloodstream.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

they restart your digestive system

You've been playing with your computer too much.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Not as much as you would think. One of the horrible things about a migrane is that it locks up your stomach - the digestive system does stop working, and there's usually only one way to restart it (which I won't go into here). This usually makes medicines useless. It is a very on/off thing - much more so than most biological processes.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Pics are fab. Your poor wife :( I hope she feels better soon.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Wow, July? I hate to say this, but probably not - we are away from Sat 22 to Sat 29 July - though we should be around Sunday 30 (if we aren't flying straight out to Washington - a long story!).

Let's talk - when we next talk! (With our blanc cassis!)