Stick with  me! The explanation involves me, Hebe and a few other dogs.

Let's just say, deconstruction entails taking things down to their component parts and, in some cases but not all, requires a bit of reconstruction.

Think about cookery programmes where you might come across Deconstructed Apple Pie. This might consist of a baked tuile, apple cooked 5 ways, including apples cubes, a glaze of apple jus with the meerest whiff of a cinnamon cream foam. Each mouthful reported as 'an explosion of flavours on the taste buds!'

I'd love to experience that, as long as there was a side of proper apple pie, piping-hot with thick custard supporting a river of single cream. I'm dubious about the deconstructed nibbles being that filling?

I'm reminded of the time before my sis had her current gang of dogs, and well before Hebe, we both had rescue Border Collies. The only thing my collie ever pinched from the worktop was a dishful of rhubarb crumble. And my sis's collie once wolfed down a scalding-hot plateful of gooseberry pie and custard, that my sis had left in the fireplace to cool.

My collie's efforts resulted in an immediate reappearance of the now deconstructed rhubarb crumble in a spewed-up mess (tmi...sorry!), whereas my sis's collie had a rock-iron constitution and her efforts stayed firmly put! Her tummy lining must have been an inflamed inferno though.

I digress.

I constructed a natural disguise for my bright blue recycling bin, based on those willow wheelie bin screens I saw online. When I saw them, I thought that I could just as easily make that.

It was surely just a question of hammering in a few wooden stakes to make the basic outline and then weaving some pliable green branches in between?

These things always take longer to make than you initially imagine. And requires dedicated effort.

I needed to make a few trips into the countryside, when I ran out of trimmings from my own garden.

It turned out not so neat and uniform as the pics online, but I liked its more rustic and makeshift appearance.

Turned out, Hebe-the-dog didn't.

She prefers it deconstructed.

She's made it her mission to take it back to basics: a bundle of sticks!

She casually sidles over to it, now and again, and starts chewing on it absentmindedly, like a teenager with a mouthful of gum. Is she pondering something weighty?

Slowly but surely the weft is being stripped out of the construction and the blue of the bin is getting less concealed and getting more annoyingly brighter.

Should I scold her for deconstructing, when I'm doing it myself?

I'm working on a new idea for an artwork called, 'The Juggler'. I'm aware that I need to know the size of the frame before I start the work. So I need to deconstruct my idea from the get-go.

When I worked on paper, it was easy enough to alter the finished size to best suit the image - and only then get a frame to fit. But now I work on hardboard and I need to have the frame from the start. And as there are going to be multiple frames, I will need to mentally deconstruct the images several times.

Then they all have to be reconstructed into something harmonious. Sometimes art is not that spontaneous!

I should maybe call the piece, 'The Deconstructed Juggler'?

Watch this space!

: )