This is a video of cardboard houses placed in different aspects of a garden – from darkness, rubbish and black and white to full blooming colour. The idea that we could all make cardboard houses to depict travelling the rough road came from our creative retired art teacher, Anita H. She taught us how to fold paper or cardboard to form houses, and we all decorated and created alternate designs following the basic form. Anitas’ houses were actually art, she folded many paintings in oil and water-colour to make her houses. Wheatley O made a belfry for his house and got our creative juices going by playing on an ancient pump-action organ. Phil P argued the shade of red - or was it pink? And Michelle U made tiny mini houses with birds and polka dots. Susan dB’s creations whilst colourful, were of an artistic level of a left-brained scientist… Once our houses were done, and muffins, lemonade fruits and mulberries eaten, we headed out to the garden to place our houses on ‘the rough road’. We depicted hard times by placing the houses in the chicken scratch at the bottom of the garden, dry and barren, These photos were presented in black and white to depict the bleakness we feel when the road is particularly rough. We chose ‘True Colours’ by Cyndy Lauper for the audio because ‘whatever our physical, mental, social or spiritual condition, we are always valuable’ we all have true colours ‘to play our unique part in Gods’ work’. The chickens joined in. From the barren ground, to the field, to the lush flower garden, the houses became brighter and happier as the rough road was travelled together - ‘the best in life and love and happiness is ahead of us’.

Hornsby Group