Hagar's steps

Bohemian hours must come to an end! T'owd man is due back today, and that means I'll have to keep to some conventional hours. What a shame; R3 has such good stuff on 'Through the night' or whatever it's called; selects out things you'd never know about otherwise, opens the eyes to new things, and they are often the ideal pieces to accompany trying to create. So I was working on this yesterday, and then on something else not illustrated 'cos it is so terrible and if not done something with will make Hagar's dress look like Egyptian fancy dress. Oh well, it is a beginning. The steps are based on a pattern I observed in the Lake District, where paths form in a pattern following the natural placement of footsteps. (I know, I know, that's bl**dy obvious, isn't it!)

Hagar's steps 1

Hagar's steps 2

But what's really making me jump for joy today is the discovery of this website and its writer:

http://juliamobrien.net/

Hagar's steps 3

On biblical stuff. See her Bible Book Club idea. David once went to a pub quiz, where the question was asked 'What are the first words of the Bible?' and quick as a flash and in all seriousness a bloke piped up 'Once upon a time'. I wish! Just what would be unlocked in the human mind, in the minds of a community if we could read the Bible in this spirit; remember half dreaming,  sitting at the feet of a storytelling adult when you were little? OK, I'm romanticising. But my piano teacher had a walk-in cupboard of storybooks that I used to get lost in while my sister had her piano lesson. I can't remember the stories well, I wish I had that kind of mind but I don't, though I know they were Hans Christian Anderson etc, lots of fairies and elves and wicked trolls and forests and stuff that appealed to a little girl who was more interested in the jacket potato Grandma would have for me on return than in the piano lesson. (Was I good at it? I don't know; I just hated exams so gave it up because of that; if only I'd been able to do it just for enjoyment. Music for kids seems always to have been about grades, and I hated that, hated it).  But if the Bible were read as though it came out of a magical cupboard of dreams, and not in the 'Is it true/not true' mentality that has become standard, well, what would it do for us, for society?

So, back to Hagar...... I love the idea of her trekking between two mountains looking for water as the (or a) basis of the Islamic hajj. So I wanted to do something on her steps.

 For some reason, making a very small piece of embroidery results in my lair looking like this..... it's even worse than the picture really shows.