'I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out 'til sundown, for going out, I found was really going in.' John Muir

I've seen the top of Everest (from a long way off), smelled the breath of a whale (from way too close) and lived on a boat in Greece (for a few years), but I continue to experience some of my most precious moments right outside my backdoor.

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Sunday 17 March 2013

Slow Saturday Night

In my continuing quest to explore locally and do ‘slow’ things, I wonder what I can do on a soggy Saturday night in a Slow town like Mold?  Celebrate Wales' epic win of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament perhaps?  Not slow enough.   I decide to go to Theatre Clwyd and listen to some poetry by Gwyneth Lewis, Wales' first National Poet and the woman who composed those huge words outside the Wales Millenium Centre.
Heavy coats glistening with rain are hung over the backs of blue velvet chairs.  I seem to be the only one with a plastic cup of Rioja and a note book.  Gwyneth appears in a tight red dress, tinted glasses, a snazzy slash of red in her stylish, silvery hair.  She thanks us for making the effort to come after the big game and begins with a poem about swallowing the moon.  Next she reads from Sunbathing in the Rain, her cheerful book about depression and we hear how the noise of snowflakes disturbs fish.  I discover we share a love of sparrows as we are treated to poems from ‘The Sparrow Tree’ and as if I wasn’t won over already, I find Gwyneth also sails. 
The Rioja has gone down well and the hems of my trousers are drying out nicely by the time I get my copy of Sunbathing in the Rain signed.   I feel really uplifted and head out into the rain grinning, my new book tucked under my jacket.  Gwyneth was fab and I’m pleased I had the opportunity to hear her in my home town. 
This event was part of the Flintshire Arts Fest.  I could go and listen to Jazz singer Clare Teal next Tuesday.  According to Michael Parkinson she’s ‘worth listening to.’  Or, if I'm brave enough, go to the painting workshop with Ronnie Drillsma who says; ‘Good things can develop from happy accidents.’  I like doing ‘slow’ things and Flintshire’s a great place to do them in.

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