~ Out of the Clouds at Last ~

~ and back to earth ~

hands that have worked hard from the age of nine look
like this 41 years later!
The gold wedding ring was my mother's. She never took
it off and I was really upset that she could not keep
it with her when she died 25 years ago.  I keep it on my heart
finger to feel that much closer to her.


For nearly two weeks, we have been swimming in mist, and as much as I love clouds and could quite happily sit on one and float away for a while, in fact the clouds have been sitting on us, closing us in, keeping us blind and in the last days of it making us claustrophobic and antsy.

Yesterday, it lifted. We saw the sun....ohhhhh.....all day. I worked in the garden, weeding baby nettles from the greenhouse which have left the sensation of tiny hot~poker pinpricks under the skin of my hands; I love nettles so much and in the summer, those same stings help me control my hay~fever; I enjoyed the satisfaction of plunging my hands into compost made by us and our insect friends :~);  danced with two very large earth~worms (and My Man), sang along with Johnny and Ella and Louis  and wind~dried two wash loads.

The towels danced too ~ a most energetic twist ~

Today I'm singing this

What songs are you singing today?

~ Frothy Chai ~ and ~ Kombucha Tea ~

Oh! Oh! Oh! Frothy Chai. It's even more of a close~your~eyes moment with each sip ~ mmmmm

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it's all thanks to this little frothing jug. What a thrift find....and it's greeeen!

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we had a baby yesterday!! :~) I don't get to say that at all anymore!

A most kind man we see in the boot sales discovered that I was looking for a Kombucha scoby.  He is a master kombucha maker and was as excited to give us this little darling as I was to receive it ~ tra~la~la



Life is good*

Cariad mawr
H x

~ Happy ~

Cyanotype ~ a blue that makes me want to dive in, inhale deeply and swim through its healing hue

Things that have made me happy these last couple of days ~

* Mr Blackbird singing his Spring song so sweetly
* Making bead and driftwood hangings in my studio
* Continuing to experiment with cyanotype....oh! I'm in love!...clever, clever Sir Mr Herschel
* Hand stitching on blue in front of the open fire while listening to an Art Show on the radio
* Being gifted a baby Kombucha ~ oh! oh! oh! Tooo long since I last made Kombucha tea....the whole   process so fundamentally satisfying
* Burning the rosemary and sage smudge stick I made
* Seeing the moon mere hours before she was full
* Snowdrops, primroses and crocuses in bloom in our garden
* The longer hours of daylight ~ eleven hours now ~ ~ ~
* Saving worms from drowning
* Finding a large one of these in the boot sale for 50 pence this morning
* Our Boy coming to give me a hug just now!
* Making delicious Chai Tea from scratch
* A synergy of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and clove smells wisping through our house, tantalizing noses, and teasing taste buds
* Preparing for a mini exhibition in the library showcase on March 1st
* Preparing items for Etsy
* Slowly, and with full attention, journeying through this lady's amazing blog
* Smelling the sweet smell of dusky pink primroses
* Wearing purple today
* Laughing with My Man
* Playing tug-o-war with Tilly~dog

~ willow and weaving ~

Willows are, of all trees, the most mysterious.

It is said that they were the first of trees; 

that before a bird sang or a bee quested for honey

the world was full of willow forests.

Mary Webb

Some of the baskets that I have thrifted, been gifted, or made myself

They all get used for something and I get such simple enjoyment when I grab a basket which may be filled with fibres, needle felting materials, or willow weaving tools.

For many years I wanted to try to weave a willow basket. I find that I have little confidence to try things out by myself, although I am working on that, so I finally found a course and made my very first waste basket....the one in the top photo, right hand side, top. I loved the whole process, finding a primal need satisfied. The teacher gave me this piece of writing she had found, which describes perfectly the feeling many have when they weave:

I sat on the stump of an oak. In my jeans pocket I had only a small wire cutter. I was weaving a basket of bittersweet vines that had climbed up and around a nearby tree and then spilled over onto an adjacent stone wall.
I was alone (not a house or human in sight), yet I could hear the insistent voice of a wood pewee all the while I sat there.
The vines were rough on my hands - and strong - but the basket was beginning to take shape. The air was balmy and cool. A box turtle walked past my stump. The wood pewee continued its calling.


I wove.

I was serene and happy. I was ancient in that I felt more kinship than ever before with my ancestral sisters who somewhere, sometime, probably labored at the same craft (though for different reasons) and perhaps heard the same wood pewee.
My senses were alert to sounds and smells as my hands worked along the vines. I looked ahead to fall, when the plant would yield the beautiful red-orange berries I would arrange in a tall crock that sat by the wood stove.
Hours later, I contemplated the finished basket. It was large, heavy, and crudely woven, but it remains one of my favourite baskets to this day. The finished piece represents a day of pleasantly wandering thoughts when I walked into the woods empty-handed and returned home with a basket.

Isn't that beautiful? I just wish I knew who wrote it.

A few years after that first waste basket, I found myself working on a willow farm, planting, taking care of, weeding around, cutting and weaving willows into tunnels, tipis and balls for rabbits to play with and nibble on. 

Making a tunnel for a rabbit to play in and chew on

at West Wales Willows

I still go back there for soul~feeding visits and stay there when I house~sit

~ Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down ~

The Spring flowers in our garden have blossomed ~ oh! so happy ~

Our local library had one of its booksales starting today. How we love to go browsing through the rows and rows of volumes laid out, spine up, on tables in the library's circular gallery. All the people there have an air of reverence about them, and a subterranean ripple of excitement vibrates around the room in anticipation of finding treasure.....for just 50pence a book. Sigh.

I found this one and couldn't resist. Just the title and the first line of the introduction 'Put a cup of tea in your hand and what else can you do but sit down?' made me smile, and once we arrived home, we did just that!
Another delightful find was a book on grasses....trees, wild flowers, fungi, I have in abundance, but not O.N.E. on grasses....and there are so many to identify. I'm thinking there will be fun this summer....

Another was an Acupressure book. I already have a few of these, but believe so totally in this therapy that I cannot resist picking up each book I see. This one sold itself to me by opening on a page whose contents are most relevant to me.....menopausal problems ~ hot flushes...Ha! An interesting sensation.

I'm off to look through, stroke softly and inhale deeply the aroma of my new additions.....aaahhh ~ books ~

Happy Tuesday~
Cariad mawr
H x

~ My Love is Green ~

My love is scarlet

and ruby.

Cocky and merry;

rich in stars;

 ancient with shadows;

never sober.

Brightness sweet as air

Singing away.....

20th October 2009

~ A recent Artist Date at the beach ~

Words are locked up tight behind feelings that want to burst from a heart too full ~ so ~ mostly images....

A walk (well, more of a climb!) through cave. One year, Our Boy and I were really grateful for this as we got caught on the wrong side by the tide, and just managed to race through this before it got seriously dangerous. It has moods, and sometimes gives a powerful feeling that it doesn't want you in there....I always listen....except maybe when the tide dictates otherwise!

In total awe that the movement and rhythm of the sea makes for a master carver

Dogs are so happy on this beach and run and run and run, with smiles that start on their faces and ripple down their bodies to their tails.

Nature gifts a heart nearly everywhere I go

I leave with my spirit having come from shadow to light

and

with the realisation that I looked mostly downwards!

~ Imbolc and dragons ~

A little hearth altar to honour Brigid and the return of the light.

The goddess in the back which was a woodland~walk gift, the crystal and stone friends have a permanent residence there.

I made the cross in the little woven basket ~ which was a beautiful thrift find ~ many years ago, the mini brass anvil was also a thrift find, and St Brigid's Cross I made last week while house~sitting the Willow Farm for a few days again. The sage and rosemary are from our garden ~ brave survivors of the snow and frost ~ they will be wrapped up into a small smudge stick tomorrow.

I always like to honour the return of the light on February 1st and 2nd. It is obviously lighter now ~ yay ~ and I could, if I wished to (always!) or had the time, read from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm without flicking a switch or lighting a candle....yes! yes! yes!

Brigid is one of my favourite goddesses and I love that she is the patroness of poetry, healing, smithcraft, midwifery and the care of animals. She also presides over the hearth and is traditionally honoured on this day. I often ask for her assistance if the fire is being difficult to light....she always answers.

I had such fun making the Brigid's Cross...my first attempt, and I was glad that I thought of it while I was on the Willow Farm and that Willow is the tree for February...LOVE it so much when things fit so neatly. I found this excellent video tutorial, and armed with a bunch of very fine purpurea willow, successfully followed Stella's instructions. The man with her, cracks me up with his 'mmmm's' and 'aaahhh's'!

 Yesterday, My Man and I were in my favourite town ~ Newcastle Emlyn ~ only three miles from the village where I grew up. It's ancient castle ruin ~

taken in September 2010

~ which has quite a history, was the site of the death of the last dragon in Wales....although, since the hatching of that egg I am so very happy to see it has returned ~

~ and was standing guard over the gateway into the castle. I'm glad to say it was very friendly to us :~)

Happy Imbolc ~ from a wet Wales with fire and candles lit ~

Cariad mawr
H x