~ Sun Moon Stars and the Sea ~

I have been feeling rather mute recently. I don't know why, and just have to accept that sometimes this is how it is with me. The moon was full yesterday and today I  feel inspired to write a new post. Maybe her waxing pregnancy influenced my mood to be a time of quiet reflection, and now her slow waning has given birth to a creative flow. I hope so.

I'm house~sitting in one of my favourite places for a few days. This little video...my very first one :~) ....is the view I see as I sit here writing.  

I filmed a little more this morning. I couldn't resist that blue.

Life is good

Soon after we arrived, my Man spotted something other than seagulls flying low over the water ~ frequently diving in with a splash. He excitedly identified them as Gannets. I had never seen them before and was enthralled by their size, the black tipped wings and pale yellow heads, not to mention their grace in the air. We were entertained for an hour as three of them did some serious hunting for their dinner. 

At the beginning of this month I signed up for Jude's next mini whispering class in the series, Whispering Sun Moon and Stars. Her classes are relaxed, extremely informative, inspiring and encouraging and seeing the results of her students' work is testament to her teaching skills. 

I have done some preparation for the class....

....using cyanotype sun~developing on white silk to create moons, or maybe suns. The blue velvet is a piece from a table runner I've had for years and has faded to a gorgeous golden colour in some places. I was sitting in my studio tidying up its frayed edges after washing, when I noticed the similarities in its colour...including the shots of gold....to the piece of labradorite that shares my deskspace.

On Monday, I found lots of lovely cotton tops in a charity shop. It's not that often that the really good quality materials turn up, so I bought quite a few....including a couple of white fine lawn blouses.

My stitching has taken second place to gardening in the last few weeks, as I've been transplanting cucumbers, courgettes and basils into bigger pots, preparing beds and planting lettuce, runner beans and peas. Cleaning and clearing the greenhouse and planting some more lettuce and a tomato plant, and preparing for the cucumbers for when they are big enough. 

When I was weeding one of the beds, I came across a gardener's friend tucked into the corner...

Mr Toad. I was very happy to see him, and asked him to please keep the slugs under control as I hate to use slug pellets. So far, lettuce and salad~mix leaves have not been attacked....but I also left a load of borage plants that had self~seeded in there, as slugs adore their leaves, and there have been a few nibbles taken out of them, so maybe this will turn out to be a successful experiment in slug control. That would be very satisfying.

As this is a post on Sun Moon Stars and Sea.....here's one of the results of Solar Imaging from My Man...

....complete with a couple of sun~spots. This was taken from our garden. It is incredibly exciting to be able to look at the sun. This image has to cover the 'stars' part too! So far, May has been a most astronomical month.....fitting really as Taurus is one of my favourite constellations...along with Cassiopeia....time to do some join~the~dot stitching I think.