A meeting in the Botanical Gardens

Fortunately I had to climb out of my slump today, as there was a lunchtime celebration and launch meeting for the local public art project that I've been contributing to. It was in a light, airy building that houses classrooms in the Botanical Gardens. I got there a few minutes early, and had time to explore some of the wildflower planting nearby. This reminded me that I should plant evening primroses again - I haven't done that yet, in our garden.
Since retirement I've become more and more averse to meetings; anything that resembles that kind of work-like activity just makes my heart sink.  So I wasn't really looking forward to this one, especially as I'd been asked to speak briefly about the 'volunteer experience'.
Happily, today was a lovely event, carefully organised and interesting.  Spoken contributions were short and entertaining; there were also plenty of lovely images to look at and talk about, informally, before and after the organised part. The absolute highlight was a short presentation by a local sculptor, Jason Thomson. Here's his website:

http://www.jasonthomsonart.co.uk/www.jason.thomson.sculptor/Welcome.html

Among other interesting features, Jason designs many of his works to be really robust, so that they can be touched, played on and climbed on.  He described how in one case, someone had burned a tyre around the neck of one of his figures, and the piece was undamaged. Often they're cast in a kind of iron that has an alloy added to give it the strength and resilience of steel.  So some of his commissions are sited in areas where vandalism is common, and where art works are few and far between. I love that he cares about this, and that his work brings shafts of light and mystery and pleasure to unexpected places.  When he married his wife - a fellow sculptor - he added her surname to his (as you'll see on his web page, where he's Jason Turpin Thomson). A good man, all together.