Yes, so all these sketch/doodles end up in a great heap of paper (kept in boxes, to look less heap-like). The heap is everything - letters I really ought to keep, pics torn from magazine, articles I mean to read one of these days, spare bits of paper that surely are still useful for something, paper bags as sad mementos of shops long gone (Quarto bookshop in St Andrews, anyone? Papyrus in Bath?). And sketches. Occasionally I trawl through a fraction of the heap (it goes back years), more or less applying my 10% rule, which is that if you chuck out 10% of the stuff, then that surely counts as progress. I extract these scrawled lines, often think hey, that's got something (we're not talking skill or versimilitude here), and have taken to sticking them in a notebook as possible future inspiration for something. Anything. And however sketchy the doodle, it always takes me right back to when and where, so at least it functions as a sort of diary.
And then there was Elizabeth Willow's and Jonathon Raisin's Lincolnshire blog, something wonderful is coming. Elizabeth mentioned it last week, so I had a look (mostly rain - but why should I be surprised? England this year is mostly rain) and felt all inspired by the photo-collections, reminiscent of their own museum list. I'm always fascinated (sometimes incredulously, I confess) by collections of like things - I would have liked to visit Hans-Peter Feldmann's exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, earlier this year, but of course I didn't.
So do I want to make my own grouped photos (hell, I've probably already got enough chimneypots and lampposts), or do I want to visit Lincolnshire (flat places really are excitingly different countries)? Both?