Scone anyone? Day 21

Twenty years ago when I was developing my magic act, I did The Artist's Way which is a programme by creativity teacher Julia Cameron, based on the structure of a twelve step recovery programme. This time, you're a recovering artist rather than an alcoholic. The exercises are designed to free you from pesky limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, and addictions, replacing them with confidence and productivity. It's fun and effective.

One of my favourite exercises was to take myself on an 'Artist's Date'.

The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore

something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly

“artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the

imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the

play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well

of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask

yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.

Julia Cameron from The Artist's Way

This morning, the sun was shining. As you might understand by now, when the sun shines in the Lake District, it's important to make the most of it so I decided to take a drive to Grange-over-Sands. Grange is a cute old-fashioned town 30 minutes away and I thought I remembered that it had an art supply shop. I'd take a walk along the prom in the sun, find myself a cafe for an oat milk latte and then indulge in an artistic shopping spree for all the new paints and paper and pens that I need as a yet undiscovered world class artist.

The more I explore the Lake District, the more I love it. The gardens along the prom at Grange between the shore and the railway line were still full of flowers. Fuschias, daisies, roses. Everyone was out with their dogs. I didn't get very far along the prom because I had to stroke each dog and tell every owner that I am waiting for my new rescue puppy to arrive. (In my imagination!)

Then I found a cafe with seats in the sun. I felt guilty taking up a four seater table outside but what can you do? In pre-covid times, I would have invited people to join me but now we're not allowed. I'm allergic to wheat and dairy and was planning to eat some nuts I'd brought with me for breakfast with the latte. But the cafe's menu boasted that it had its own artisan bakery and specialised in scones. Mmmmm.

Would it be very bad to have a date and walnut wholemeal scone with butter and damson preserve?

I did (see evidence). And it was.

Within a minute of scoffing, I had a stomach ache. I'm an idiot!

Note to self, DO NOT EAT WHEAT OR DAIRY! Even on a date! Doh!

Despite being a prime twat, after breakfast, I carried on with my Artist's Date.

Grange didn't have an art supply shop after all but it did have a few charity shops. And look what I found! Treasure!

Two beautiful magical boxes! They're actually empty cutlery boxes but are perfect to be conscripted for showbiz and storytelling props.

So what's going on with the Manifest a Million plus readers, I hear you ask!

Don't worry, it's full steam ahead. Nicky has managed to put my book as a downloadable e-book on my site https://www.romanymagic.com/shop and we're working on a whole new look for the website. She's also put together a showreel of all the lovely reviews for the book and is tinkering with that. I imagine it will all be ready and looking fabulous by the start of November.

How super-deliciously exciting!

Love love love