JO. B. CREATIVE!: DOMESTICATION & BEING IN THE WRONG MOOD

DOMESTICATION & BEING IN THE WRONG MOOD 😝

Domestication. I can't think of anything worse when I'm in the wrong mood for it, which is often. 😝I wasn't born domesticated, I was born a creative artist/writer and a renaissance soul (for the uninitiated, a renaissance soul - think Leonardo Da Vinci - is someone who has a zillion interests and hobbies. As in Leo's case, he also had loads of unfinished canvases).

MY MATE LEO

One of my zillions of interests is genealogy. I've looked at the 1911 census for my granny and found her as a young woman living with her sister and mother with her invalid father. The three women did 'domestic duties'. 😝I know, it was 1911 and that's the way it was, but I'm so disappointed that there weren't any suffragettes in my family. No rebellious women. For shame. I always say that I would have rebelled in some way, including suffrage-tting, and I'm told by my daughter that I wouldn't have done that. 'You would have accepted it as it was.' She says. No, I wouldn't, I respond very heatedly. At least, I jolly well hope I wouldn't. Having said that there were no rebellious women in my family, I hasten to add that my mother was rebellious. As a young lady of fourteen, she refused to be confirmed because she didn't believe in God. Folks were shocked, but she stood by that. Good for her, I say, if that's your belief, and why should you believe? During the war she refused to stay home and look after my blind granny, bless her. My mother responded that her mum had plenty of help - she did - so she was going to war, like her two older brothers. She promptly joined the WRENS and that was that. She actually had a jolly good time of it in Scarborough during her free time.

I have her stubborn streak and rebellious nature. Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I'm Jo Ballantyne, artist and writer aka Kitty Le Roy, a cheroot chompin', gun slingin' wild west woman, and, as Kit Mackenzie, a Western Author with an epic western trilogy to my name (Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!). Where does domesticity fit in, if at all? Hubby is more domesticated that I am, having left home at eighteen for university, so learned the art of looking after oneself pretty quickly. He empties bins and changes beds when I forget. When I'm washing up (he cooks, so I don't mind) I ponder how I'd survive as a frontier woman in a cabin. I'm pretty sure I'd be off there as well. I've read enough stories of women who turned their backs on domesticity and went prospecting for gold, or adventuring, or driving wagons. The very idea of domestication on the frontier makes me run for them thar hills! So long as pard/hubby did his bit in the cabin, I'd do what had to be done then I'd be off. Wherever 'off' is.

I've had many 'off I goes'. I'm a pretty good archer, I row and paddle boats and canoes, and I learned to fly straight and level in a single engine small plane aged seventeen - very proud of that.

MY FIRST FLIGHT - AGED FIFTEEN-ISH
ZELL-AM-SEE IN AUSTRIA

Years later a friend invited me to take the joystick of his small plane around the Isle of Wight. I'll never forget it! On top of all that, I often visualise myself as a tanned, barefooted artist on a Cornish beach with salty, tousled hair and halfway through painting a huge acrylic abstract. Finally, I'm more than proud of being fascinated by the wild west. A very unusual hobby, particularly for a granny in the UK.

ME IN WESTERN KIT

Most important of all is the fact that I've written my epic western trilogy. It's taken years, but I had to do it to make up for the lack of heroic women in literature until recent times. I'm pleased as punch to announce that, beyond being a tad bemused by the whole thing of being self-published (I've got past the surreal thing), I've accumulated over six hundred readers, many five star ratings and reviews in America, and on Kindle Unlimited, readers steam through Book 1 like a railroad train and immediately order Book 2. 😀

What really does my head in though, besides domestication, is my mental health issues, particularly since my desperation to get my protagonist Jeannie 'out there'. It puts the kibosh on so much, including socialising and some of my interests, but, with the help of my fabulous soulmate hubby, I get through it. I want to share these experiences in order to hopefully inspire and encourage other sufferers in their own endeavours. And I hope I do inspire, because mental health issues, when they hit, are crappy. I could be so much more than this, but it's one of those things I have to work at and it can suck. I don't want to end on a low note. I'm jolly grateful for everything I've ever had, including my fab hubby, kids and granddaughters. Hooray for them, and I really mean that!