My life is a weird mix of the worrysome, the sedate and the exiting these days. Worrysome the illness and death in the circle of family and friends, sedate the sewing I did for three days to finish the second tree for the Heaven and Earth exhibition (deadline in sight), and exiting because I got to fly in a small plane yesterday. My brother has recently acquired his flying driver licence (for lack of a better word) and I got to see the Netherlands from above. Awesome! The little red arrow shows where I live. The family gathered in our back yard to wave, and I actually managed to locate them from the air! Husband donned a red T-shirt for this purpose, worked like a treat.

Birds-eye view stayed with me all day, as did a slight feeling of nausea – we had a lot of turbulence. Wish I was a bird, though. To be able to take to the air at will …..   Flying a small plane is much more of a technical exercise than I had realised. Lots of meters and gauges to be checked. They actually store the fuel in the wings of the plane- I never knew. One has to switch from left to right wing fuel storage in order to remain balanced. Such a lot of things to mind and think about while flying – I was happy my brother competently took care of this. I navigated and that was an experience in and by itself. I think all land surveyors should be taken up in small planes – a living map spread out below, and no signposts, lines or landmarks to speak of.  Rivers aren’t blue and highways aren’t orange, cities haven’t boundaries and nature reserves no labels. Would have been very helpful if they had … almost lost our way over the Hoge Veluwe area … saved by a great app on my brothers telephone, showing our little plane’s position.