Back Page: Juliette Blightman

Two cyclists go past from left to right, one is wearing a red cagoule the other a dark t-shirt. I imagine how hot she must feel, I think it is a she, I cannot really see from here but she rides a bike like a woman even if she isn’t, another cyclist then comes from right to left, he is in full cycling gear it seems—the afternoon is beautiful. I should probably go on my bike. They cross just as the trees begin to thin for the railway crossing. I don’t think they acknowledged each other.
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Four walkers come in from right to left they walk in pairs. I saw the earlier two cyclists pass them a bit further up the road. They are dressed in dark colours, maybe it is not so hot out but my patio seems so, it must be a suntrap—I hope I’m not burnt. They get to the Windmill and one from the first pair hesitates then makes a photograph, the other three walk on, as a three now. The Windmill’s smaller back sail moves very slowly in the wind clockwise, it is turned to the East and the big sails are facing the West. It does not work and has not since 1985 but I went in it once and the noise was fantastic. The top part moves around according to which way the wind is coming from.
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I can see a cat, he is black—I think it is a he but I’ve no idea I have decided it is. I have seen him before by the railway, down the road that runs to the left of the Windmill. There are many perfect houses down there—it doesn’t really look real. In front of the windmill is an old Pig house that has been converted into two houses, it looks like it is attached to the windmill from here, but it isn’t, there is quite a large gap between them. The one on the left used to have a stone white cat in the window but it has gone now, I think they are decorating but they might of left I haven’t seen anyone for a few weeks now. I hope not I liked that stonecat. I said hello to the lady once when she was having these big plants delivered in blue stone pots. The black cat makes his way across the grass he is hunting, he keeps his body to the ground and moves slowly along, he disappears behind the tree. The tree is beautiful I have watched it come into leaf. It is an acorn tree I could tell this from the old ones on the ground from last year. I looked forward to this happening when I first arrived here three months ago. It feels much longer than that. I have hung a barometer on the right hand side on the nearest branch to my atelier. I brought it with my friend in Bremerhaven about an hour drive from here we went there for the day and ate the most delicious fried fish and potato salad. He also drove me when I first came here. It doesn’t really work, the barometer that is I don’t think it does anyway, it’s hard to tell the weather changes so quickly here, you can see it coming because it is so flat, more like Holland than Germany but it is Germany and the barometer looks good with the tree, a green elastic band holds it to it, it was a piece of yellowish string but it got so windy and wild one weekend when my dad was visiting that I thought it best to secure it.
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Another cyclist dressed in blue and yellow goes past left to right, he is fast maybe in a hurry for lunch, but it is a little late for lunch but maybe that doesn’t matter. Where did the cat go?

Juliette Blightman is an artist living in Berlin