A rainy afternoon spent compressing time through the Egg window, whilst watching the rain fall.
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Cause & Effect
Rain water has been ingressing the Egg for some time and has been the active agent in creating the work on canvas ‘Stained Sun Shield’ (above), representing seven showers passing through the western red cedar shell during August. The source of the drips (Main Leak) was today the first focus for a week of remedial attention designed to weather proof the Egg for the challenges of WInter to come.
Egg Builder Paul Baker inspecting the exterior shell prior to treatment.
Wasp Nest
Striped arial raiders have dug out a former mouse hole as a home and I am keeping my distance as they come and go. The wasp’s sting evolved from an ovipositor and so only the females will send you off in need of vinegar, but then one is not likely ever to meet the male.
Table
Most of yesterday was spent making a new work table that folds down to form a door to the underbed storage. It is made or birch ply and supported on two hinged legs of 2×1 softwood that are located on the floor with velcro strips. It is really uplifting to have a space to spread out paper, photographs and thoughts… a proper station for serious work. The next practical task will involve book shelves.
Two Dead Mice
Found close to the egg where I store spares for the dinghy, were two dead wood mice. I was surprised to find two so close together and wonder how they came to die. There were no obvious signs of injury and nothing poisonous amongst my supplies. I have placed them into separate containers drilled with small holes so they can decompose and hope to inherit two complete skeletons which I will try to assemble one cold Winter’s evening, like those Airfix kits of childhood.
Moth Theatre
A fluorescing tube in the ultra violet spectrum was employed to turn the egg into a huge moth attracting device last night. White cotton gauze stretched across the doorway was intended as the stage for a flickering theatre of moths in flight and a platform on which they could land for solo performances in both silhouette and spotlight.
The grey or dark dagger below (it is only possible to tell them apart by an examination of genitalia) was a memorable participant. In the caterpillar state they love blackthorn, so the nearby thicket is perhaps its own home and the axis of it’s nocturnal world.
Transmission Transition
My daily blog is suspended for a very short time while I focus on other aspects of the project. Normal service will however, soon be resumed.
Everyday Actions (Shaving)
After a few days growth a hairy face literally becomes an irritation and action is needed. Yesterday morning I used the reverse camera on my phone as a shaving mirror to explore elements of this everyday ritual. The bristles were long, the blade less than sharp, the water cold and the sink tiny. More elegance might be possible on future mornings but yesterday this is how it was. To day I noted how the same cycle has begun to turn again…
Home (360˚circuit)
Inside, the space is filling up with various pieces of kit and equipment as well as collections of different ‘finds’ gathered from around the parish. The interior has to function as a work, living and sleeping area simultaneously and it is evident that better and more efficient storage needs devising. These 29 seconds remember an hour of my life yesterday morning.
Bleached and Stained
The hot sun of late July and the first part of August bleached the egg exterior considerably, as I noted when the first of the protective foil panels was removed this week to reveal the original orange tinted condition of the wood beneath. Further panes exposed in coming months will create a calendar charting seasonal change.
Intense sunlight through the smaller shower window has had an opposite effect on the marine ply walls inside the Egg, where the timber darkened to pick out the paler ghostly afterimage of a large plastic shower bag recently removed.
The reused shower door has older and more distinguished patination from its former life as part of a garage, that contributes gravity to the Egg’s newer narratives.
The Exbury Egg 