Bizarre Friendships, Papercuts and Long Views

When looking for comedy entertainment I watch funny cat videos, but when I am looking for more general entertainment, my current favourite is Bizarre Animal Friends.  What could be nicer than seeing the friendship between a dog ad a dolphin, or a dog teaching a donkey how to throw sticks for him?  A dog and a deer can just be good friends.  Friendships between wild cats and deer, or in one case, an owl, are slightly more fraught.  Will the cat "forget" the other animal is its friend and accidentally eat it?  It's always a possibility.

But that aside, Bizarre Animal Friends illustrates my pagan view of the world, it's all about friendliness.  Why have gods when you can have friends?  Why have artificial divisions between animals and people; plants and people; the land and people, when you can be friends?  That's the way I like to see the planet, and what I try to express in my art.

We did visit Kirkharle Courtyard on Saturday, and walk around the "picturesque" lake.  What it is, in fact, is a landscape which was planned by Capability Brown, but never carried out until now.  The trouble is, with landscape art, there isn't much to see in the first ten years or so.  Old Capability was in it for the long view.  At the moment you can see a rill, a lake, plantings of trees and wildflower meadows; but it will be a long time before these are a landscape.  It's very pleasing to see people carry out work for the long view in this way.  To see people who can get gratification, not only not instant, but so long term that it is future generations who will see the results of the "capabilities".

In the courtyard shops we saw the work of John Speight, who works in papercuts:

Bizarre Animal Friends at a Funeral

His papercuts are miniatures, and quite amazing.  He is a man who takes a minute, close-up view of the world, but that works too, as well as the long view.  I love this animal funeral.  There is, I think, a human friend at the back?