~ Leap for joy ~

Tilly says it for all of us.

~ Our Boy passed his driving test today ~

tra~la~laaaa

~ Happy Makers this week ~

picking mints from the garden to make three~mint~tea for breakfast

drinking kombucha ~ feeeeling its goodness

bare feet and hot~fuchsia painted toe nails

dancing with My Man around the kitchen

feeling the grass beneath my feet

delicate flowery fragrance of primroses filling our garden

Our Boy loving life

Big Mama Bumblebees

sun~dried washing

singing to seeds planted in the greenhouse

sunshine on my face

cuddles with Tilly

ash trees and red currant bushes in bloom

daisies (Bellis perennis ~ my most favouritest Latin name)

new shoots on my little lavender plant

posting parcels

daffodil and tete a tete sunniness 

Papa blackbird serenading from a tree

the night before the super perigee full moon

~ Spring Equinox Walk ~

A happy, bounding Tilly from two weeks ago

Tilly and I went on our monthly walk with Jude and Dilwyn today. It is our first meeting this year and it was so good to be back...I think our last one was October last year.

This mistbow spread its magic over Newport (Pembs) for over an hour. It's arch was low and long, and at times its colours were really subtle and faded. Jude and I thought it a most appropriate symbol to welcome the Vernal Equinox.

We had intended to go here:



Carn Ingli ~ Angel Mountain, but it did not want our company today, so we went from Newport to Nevern on the Plgrim's Walk, feeling it's ancient past as we walked in ghostly footsteps.

I found the cottage and its surroundings that I had described from my imagination, in my notebook when I was eighteen, as my perfect place to live.



Tilly did one of her favourite things ~ swimming after sticks thrown into the river...oh and her MOST favourite thing....rolling in badger shit...hmmmm.

When we reached Nevern, we sat in the peaceful churchyard, with the music of the brook and birdsong for company, and drank my Chai tea and Jude's soooo delicious profiteroles.



Hope you have a wonderful Equinox too.

Cariad mawr

H x

~ Why I won't have a new cooker ~

One day, not long after we moved here over nine years ago, I came home from working on the Willow farm and found that My Man had been busy.

We moved here from a static caravan where, for cooking, we had this, and the little cooker we had when we lived in this, (we lived in several rather unusual spaces until we came here).

I loved what he had built around our little cooker, and still do, so I do not want to lose it to a new  super~duper oven. It gets interesting at times, when more than two burners would be useful, but I manage with a bit of juggling.

The old cutlery tray was my grandmother's

We use driftwood for many things:

door pulls. 

My Man made this cupboard for me out of bits of things he

had about the place.

It hangs in our bathroom.

knife and spoon racks.

He made the knife one, I copied him

and made the spoon one.

We enjoy making from things around us. It is much more satisfying than buying and usually it's more original too.

What do you like to make from things you find lying around?

~ International Women's Day ~

Celebrating International Women's Day with

Ishtar ~ goddes of all that comprises woman ~

Diana and Venus

and

Alchemilla vulgaris ~ Lady's mantle ~ 'women's best friend'

Being a woman...how I love being a woman. I love that we nurture and care; are intuitive and aware of our loved one's needs; are homemakers and multi~taskers, makers and creatresses(!), feeders and lovers, healers.

I am so glad that I have knowledge of healing. I am so glad that when Our Boy was coughing in his sleep last night, I knew to grab the nearest bottle of Lavender essential oil (I have a few) and massage just one drop into the hollow of his throat and that in less than five minutes he was cough free and sleeping restfully for the rest of the night. I am so glad that when he woke up today and was complaining of a painful shoulder, I knew how to first, massage the muscles as deeply as he could tolerate with my choice of essential oils, in this instance Black Pepper, Rosemary and Lavender (it gets used for so much), and secondly, apply a hot compress with essential oils of Chamomile Roman and Lavender, finishing off with a light and soothing massage. I am so glad that when we have flu or colds, I know to treat us with these.

I was fascinated by my thought process a couple of months ago when Our Boy had a very bad flu and his tongue became dry, cracked and bleeding. It was like watching a film in fast forward as ideas flashed from the memory banks...to be rejected as not quite right until the aha moment of  ~ honey as a carrier....healing and soothing in its own right....with a drop of calendula absolute....so beneficial for healing inflamed and cracked skin. I was thrilled to bits when it had worked its magic by that night. 

It was the same when a friend recently badly damaged his hand and the corrective surgery had left deep scarring, which needed to be kept soft and supple. It was a joy to me to be able to delve deeply into intuition and knowledge and produce a cream that has been a great success.

This is not at all what I had in mind to write to honour International Woman's Day. I was going to write about goddesses, and trees ruled by Venus, and specific women's herbs, but all the above just flowed out and, really, it is a huge part of who I am as a woman. It is my life. It is what I do. And I am glad.

~ Treasures from a Bootsale ~



Yesterday was such a good day. Vinyl power is back in our house. Our last turntable broke down months ago, and I have been waiting patiently for the right one to come along. I was dancing up and down when My Man found this and grabbed me to 'come look'. It has a little pull-out turntable and can even be run on batteries...perfect...sigh. Last night was spent with a smile on my face as friends, long locked away behind cupboard doors, burst into tuneful freedom and tickled my auricular fancy.

The Polaroid is the sixth one I have found for less than £2 over the last few years. I can't resist them.....even though I think this one is the first that will take the film from the Impossible Project....I've yet to check on that, but it is 600 ~ so now all I have to do is justify the cost of the film and hope that I get somewhere close to the results of this lady, and this lady, aaaaaand this lady. I would like to have fun trying anyway.

The little sweetie is a V.P. Twin...how could I resist....and I'm hoping to have fun with this too!

Love this.

Six Polaroids and a Kodak

~ And I'm so happy with my new turquoise and lapis lazuli blog colours ~
Tra~la~la

Cariad Mawr
x

~*~

Wolf feather hair accessory

Made this today. It will be flying off as a thank you gift.