little blue tit outside my shed

I thought I had not taken many photos over the last five months, but, looking through the camera had me pleasantly surprised....I must have been on auto pilot!

Evening Primrose and Poppies 

in the Gwbert evening sun

 A window display in Cardigan

Marchnad Yd ~ Corn Market

A mistake that I liked

The elder leaf dye in its pan in the greenhouse, where I left it until it

dried out.

The result, below, was greener than this picture shows, but now, months later, is close to the colour it has faded to.

from the garden....

.....memories of summer....

...and Yule...

our willow Yule 'tree'

I have been sewing leaves, collected in Cardigan on the 

September full moon, into my Moleskin.

These two were sewn in on the January full moon

 We still have LIGHT ~

. .

. .

. .

and the shadows have had me dancing this month

Have a good week ~

Cariad Mawr

H x

~ This Month ~

Raspberry jam. Basil in the background

I tried my hand at jam making for the first time.

We had plenty of raspberries....still do :~)

It's similar to jelly making, which I tried in the autumn. 

The set point was just right thankfully, as I used the 'wrinkle skin' method,
which can be hit-or-miss to someone who is inexperienced.

Cardigan Wildlife Park Visitor's Centre

I wanted to make my own Virbascum thapsus (Greater Mullein) tincture this year, as this horrible new law that has passed in Europe about herbs is restricting our buying of certain herbs. Verbascum, is not all that common here, but my good friend who Tilly and I go walking with, told me of a patch of them growing at this place. We were in Cardigan visiting the dentist, so we made a short detour on the way home for me to go and harvest some leaves. I had phoned to ask permission first, and was so grateful that they were quite happy for me to do so. Thank you Nathan.

Verbascum thapsus, Greater Mullein, Aaron's Rod

The Mullein Moth Caterpillar

As I wanted to use them as fresh as possible, I had the equipment in the car ready for immediate tincture~making. 

I didn't notice My Man taking these photos.

When I planted the courgettes in the deep bed....

I had left the Plantago lanceolata (Ribwort Plantain) surrounding them....

they had grown rather profusely....

so I harvested them.... 

and made another tincture....

as the liquid in the fresh leaves escape into the vodka solution, the bulk reduces considerably.

The Plantago is freshly made here and the Verbascum has been shaken and mashed down for four days.

It is what I have needed to do to stay centred.

The Verbascum will help heal any coughs we may have this winter, and the Plantago will provide a welcome blood tonic, and rich supply of the minerals potassium, magnesium and phosphorus, as well as helping to heal those coughs along with the Verbascum.

~Magic Diaries and Flower Essences~

Friday was the beginning of Jude's Magic Diaries class, although you can join any time I think. I have been thinking about what I will try to create with this slow, possibly large cloth. Yesterday, an idea that I was really excited about ka~boomed into my head. Herbs. Herbal plants used in every way, from medicinal tinctures to infusions, to essential oils to flower remedies....these are as magic as it gets for me....my journals are filled with the making of these potions. I have an idea for the centre...the great, and versatile Mother Elder. I have many favourites, but she is at the top of the list. The list is long, so maybe the cloth will turn out to be quite large. Then, I thought of secret little pockets here and there in the cloth...and the idea came to fill those little pockets with dried aromatic herbs...Lavender was predominant. Now, it remains to be seen if my abilities are equal to my ideas....

The Evening Primrose is in bloom and it made me think of two years ago, when I made a flower essence from it...and wrote about it in my journal....

Moon magic Evening Primrose Flower Essence

Rainbow cobwebs, puckering moons and raspberry smoothies

Raspberries galore in our garden :~))))))

with Kefir for breakfast

Blended with Kefir into a smoothy

It has taken a little perseverance for me to get to like Kefir.....but it's been worth it; and, since our raspberries are now abundant, it is sooooo delicious poured over them and even more sooooo delicious when they're blended together....tart, and smooth and sweet and! and! and! oh!

I've come to a stop with my little Blue Moon cloth since quilting the moons. There is a big tension issue. I had stitched the back piece onto the front all around the edge before I started quilting. After I finished the moons, I took out the stitching around the edges, which improved things, but still leaves some fairly serious puckering as you can see.

I love the effect of the quilting on the back....makes me think of Jupiter's bands. I was fairly careful with each stitch...not doing the usual two to three stitches at one time...so it was slow going.....even for me! Once I'd noticed the puckering, as I quilted the first moon, I tried to take note of how tight I was pulling each stitch. I was surprised to find that I gave a little tug at the end of each one. Things improved when I stopped that 'tug', but not enough. Now I need to find out is there a magic way around this....or is it a drastic measure....take all the quilting out and start again? Slowly learning here....enjoying that.

I was so happy to see these two little friends. I hadn't seen them for a while and I missed them.They sit there like little Buddhas  with their cute feet turned inwards and their throats working  in a language I can't understand. Talking of Buddha ~ behind the little dark frog on the right......

The pond is in the shade of the Elder tree and in front of the arbour and needs cleaning...badly...but when I went to do it late last autumn, when I thought it would be empty of frogs, I had to stop, as there were still two out of the four in there and three newts, which I had not known about :~) It never ceases to amaze and delight me that we put this small pond in, waited for rain to fill it, (that is never a long wait here!), then let nature do the rest....and there is so much life in there.....even though the water is green and the bottom is probably filled with a lot of slimy, decomposing leaves. I will try again this year.....

I had a surprise visitor when I was sitting, stitching, in the sunshine in the doorway of my shed last week

She came to say hello to me briefly and I was allowed to stroke her, before she wandered off, over the fence and gave the magpies, who have a nest in the hawthorn tree over there, something of a scare. They rattattattattatt~ed at her like a machine gun. It is not often we get cat visitors here, because of Tilly~dog, so this was a most welcome and special treat.

~ Around the Garden Thursday ~

I'm joining up with Farmama's 'Around the Farm', (or garden), again this week. Some things are growing wildly, others are quite slow....

Our lovely apple tree outside the doors of my shed has 

four apples this year...last year it had only one 

the borage is going mad ~

Courgettes slowed down when May and June turned cold

Raspberries are ripening ~ tra~la~la

Lady's Mantle is going mad too ~

Runner beans blossoming.....

...and climbing

Peas are blossoming....

....and climbing ~ ~ ~

Parsley has just been planted outside

In the greenhouse we have ~

a cherry tomato plant

and a beef tomato plant ~

these and the cucumbers are really slow this year

I couldn't take out that fern...it's so pretty

this lettuce is so delicious

Basil is finally growing....only two plants made it this year 

~ this is the bigger one. We had some in our salad tonight

....oh my it's good.

This Elder is eleven years old now. She seeded herself in a pot of mint I had

before we came to live here. I brought her here with us and planted her by the 

hedge. I did not know then that Ash trees (you can see them behind her) 

 are very hungry and take lots of nutrients from the ground around. I think 

maybe that is why she does not produce so many blossoms. I love having her

in our garden. It does not matter that she can't supply me with the flowers

 and berries I need through the year....

I had tried three times to grow lavender here, but it just did not like the

soil. Our friend who we house~sit for has wonderfully large and healthy

plants, so she gave me some of her - very sandy - soil to try once more.

This plant is thriving in its pot of sand and I love that we have lavender

in our garden ~

Thyme has tiny blossoms

and I'm so happy that Sage is flowering on and on