Down, Down, Down...

sixty feet, to be exact. Grimes Graves is the site of a Neolithic flint mine, a huge expanse of flat land with sudden craters, as if a space ship had been using it for target practice. One of the craters has a hut structure above it, and has been excavated out, so you can go down a steep metal ladder to see what is there. I don't like confined spaces, usually, and have been known to exit, stage right, when visiting mining museums that have shafts that can be visited. This, however, was fine, a vertical shaft which was well lit, and which proved fascinating. This photo doesn't do it justice (must fiddle around with PSP...or go back and take some more ). The textures on the rocks are incredible, even withstanding the modern penchant for adding initials to anything historic.

You will remember the newspaper article about a possible artist's community in Norfolk for artists with mental health issues. The response has been slow, but steady, and included an invitation to show some work in an exhibit at the end of the month, which I'm delighted about. Somehow, though, we got talking about depression and art on alternativequiltlist, the list I run on yahoogroups for textile artists. To cut a long story short, there was enough interest for me to decide to start a new yahoo group, artfelt , intended to support artists who deal with mental illness issues as well as creating art. As someone said to me recently, neither is easy to deal with, sometimes. I can't tell you more about the group; we will decide soon how we want to operate, and what our purpose is. If you're interested in joining, click on the link above, or email me direct.