The Great Fast: Day 4

Wow, I’ve been so busy today! I didn’t realise that I’d feel so energetic. It says in the book that you can expect a boost in energy after not eating for a while. I have not touched a morsel for days and expected to be wilting but instead I felt great.

I was even able to cook a dinner for The Teenager. I resisted the urge to lick the spoons, and the temptation to pop a lone escapee pea into my mouth.

I am so surprised that the fast is going so well.

But whatever possessed me to paint three chairs a pale lilac today? I guess that must be a side effect of the fast: all common sense has just disappeared too. The lilac chairs blend in really well with the blue settee, the pink curtains and the green carpet. The teenager observed that the living room looks gay now before he retreated to the sanctuary of his blue room. I must admit the living room does look rather colourful and festive.

I painted the chairs out in the garden. It was fairly sunny when I started, then the most ominous grey clouds built up. Grey clouds had a magical effect on me instead of the steady rate I was going to adopt I swung into fast mode until all three chairs were quickly painted. It was a pleasant time to speedily paint and talk to my Grandmother whose ashes rest in a bronze pot on the patio nearby.

Grandmother’s pot gave me a nasty turn years ago after I’d first gently placed soil and flowers over her ashes and placed her on the patio. It was a desperately sad moment for me. I was alone and totally unaware that I was in for a terrible shock that would leave me trembling for hours afterwards; for when I watered her pot… the patio ran red with blood! A friend witnessed the event on a subsequent occasion and was similarly shocked. We reasoned that it could have been the compost, or maybe the inside of the new pot, or perhaps even more disturbing rust from the nails of her incinerated coffin. I didn’t water her often after that. I'm nervous about planting a new plant in the pot. Luckily, forget me nots have self seeded themselves there.

Being next to Grandma’s pot with the threat of a heavy rain shower was an added inspiration to paint the chairs quickly. I could be heard chanting feverishly,
‘Rain, rain go away.
Come again another day.’

Luckily, the childhood charm worked and the rain clouds passed over. Now the chairs are dry and placed back in the living room.

They are going to take a bit of getting used to but I guess lilac is better than blood red any day!