This summer I have been able to imagine relaxing under a tree like the magnificent rain-tree that used to stand in Malacca Methodist Girls School, because I have had to rest due to post Covid fatigue. I've done a lot of sleeping and lying out in the garden when i have been blessed by sunshine and the trees at the bottom of our garden swaying. The fatigue has meant though that until recently even painting was out of the question. 

However step by step and learning to pace i have been able to take up activity again as long as i don't too much in anyone space of time. It's been frustrating and still I want to go on long walks but find as yet I can't, but have learnt the importance of listening to my body. It's also been a time of appreciation of what I have in my life and each activity that I have been able to do again has felt like a shining jewel in the day.

My grandmother was headmistress of the Malacca Methodist Girls School after the Japanese occupation of Malaysia, and in my memoir I wrote about encountering the school and staff that knew her, under the rain tree. The Methodist Recorder wanted to print it and asked for an image so I had to put brush to paper and look at a photo taken the very day of the visit. This was just as well as I learnt the magical tree has now been cut down.

Painting and writing give life to living things now passed and preserve them to enjoy again.