~ A Month of Rainbows ~

 

Our computer died :~( 

We now have a very expensive light shade, as the body of the Mac Sunflower is perfect for that! We loved our Mac ~ it was so pretty. I was trying to upload a photo of her in her new guise, but, I have just discovered that we had our camera set to RAW and the computer here will not open them :~( Never mind....

here is a friends' (Dave and Billa's) place where we used to work with willows until five years ago. We have never really left though as we often house-sit, or, as at the moment, I am staying here to help Billa, as Dave is visiting his mother in Australia.

It has been a month of rainbows and the above image is the view out of the window where I sit using their computer. As I type, I hear their cockerel crowing ~ it is almost time to go out to feed the chickens and ducks their evening fare. This morning I moved the ten Welsh Black Mountain sheep ~ an easy task ~ with ewe pellets in a bucket as enticement they would follow me anywhere! The matriarch is now very old for a sheep and I feed her twice a day from a small scoop held in my hands. I squat down in front of her and my heart expands when she lifts her head and gently sniffs my face, never once stopping her chewing!

Four dogs keep me constant company and we have such fun walking around the fields or going down to the very large pond. It has a little island for water~birds to nest on and a coracle to paddle around in.

The willows come into their own right now as their summer dresses fall around them to reveal a field full of colour. From the bright orange of the 'Yelverton'* to the palest most delicate green of one of the purpureas*, and the deep plum purple of several of the daphnoides*. Like plums, they also get a 'bloom' which adds even more to their beauty. To see a field full of these intense autumn shades, not on leaves but on slim, tall, rods makes me sing ~ and I do ~ loudly and unabashedly.

* All different types of willow ~ there are hundreds!

I am missing my husband and my son and our little dog, who could not come and stay this time. My Man and I, except for a week when Jac was a baby, have not been apart at all for over 18 years and it is hard. I will be seeing them tomorrow night though....sigh ~

We are not sure when we will get a replacement computer. We are hoping it will be Saturday, or next week.

We had snow today!! That's very early for us here.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you lovely people in America *

~ Simple Living ~

Inspired by this lovely post, I thought I'd share some of the things we do to live simply.

The image above has been how our evenings have looked for the past week as we cosy~in now the colder and darker nights are with us. 

Our home is filled with gifts from nature ~ feathers, stones, shells, bones, driftwood, fir cones, empty nests ~ each one a reminder of happy days spent outdoors in woods and fields, on beaches and hillsides with not a penny spent on these riches. Home made gifts of art made by friends adorn our walls, hold our candles, keep us warm, tell us the time, making us think with gladness of people who are dear to us each time our eyes alight on these precious items. Our own art reminds us of the flow of creativity so important to us. The (sooo many!) books we love snuggle closely to one another in wooden cheese boxes that line the walls of our rooms.

Living simply means we take time to appreciate the things that are important to us, enjoy each moment ~ as Brooke said ~ "slow down"

We chose many years ago not to have a television, and recently, we have chosen to be without a car too. We are not sure if we will be able to keep to that one though! A motorbike might find its way to us ~ before Jac was born that was what we enjoyed. We were rather a funny sight towards the end of my pregnancy, (I was huge in the front), when My Man was pushed up onto the petrol tank and I was as far back as I could go without falling off and Our Boy taking up all the rest of the seat. Or then, another camper van could enter our lives and we will go off on Bohemian adventures once more :~) Whatever life brings though, we will take it slow and simple.