~ Happy Beltane ~

A daisy ritual for the heart sampler on Beltane Eve.

The bottom left wanted to become a balloon ~

I'm still avoiding working the heart edges and am waiting

to understand why that is.

Preparing a 'playground'. The darker shade is linen from a pair

of thrifted trousers and the paler one is heavy, open weave cotton

from a thrifted shirt. They both feel so soft and good. The base

material is very lightweight cotton from curtain lining material

that I keep finding in bootsales, and enjoy working with.

It's going to be a cosy winter in my studio after all :~)

There was a lot of jumping up and down in the bootsale this morning when 

My Man spotted this little wood~stove made from a gas bottle.

We had one very similar in our camper van when we lived in her years ago.

We called that one Alice and I've decided to keep the same name for this one.

That hotplate is going to allow me to have tea or coffee right

there in my workplace....and that bain~marie will be keeping wax

 melted for all sorts of artwork....oh! and I might get to make creams again....

I'm thinking of painting her Jotul Green.

Later, I used Alice to honour Beltane Eve. I carried her out to the garden and lit a fire in her from a pile of prunings that have been drying out since the autumn. We had willow, rosemary, Elder, hibi, blackthorn, and bramble billowing their inimitable aromas over us and our garden  in a giant smudging ceremony.

We boiled water on the hotplate and had ginger and lemon tea...I had meant to get wine, but we drink so infrequently I forgot!

Throughout our little ceremony, until darkness fell, we had the company of one of our sweet friends
who live in our pond. Later we heard the 'plop' as he jumped back in :~)
It was rather apt that he be there  on this night due to frogs' association with fertility.
 Mr Blackbird also serenaded us until dark, then the stars and the bats
 (miniature dragons to the medieval people) came out to play.
My Man softly strummed his guitar and we said 'hello' to Taurus, Gemini, Leo,
The Plough, and Saturn...who looked magnificent through the telescope tonight.

 Earlier I had watched, enthralled, as Mr Frog had climbed out of the pond and sat under the sorrel and red campion leaves with such patience, and in complete stillness, until his dinner had flown or crawled  near him,
then moved his head and flicked out his tongue so quickly, it was almost too fast for my eyes to keep up.


We have had a lovely Beltane Eve with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water represented, and the powerful medicine of frog, blackbird and bat surrounding us.
  Have you done anything to celebrate Beltane Eve?

~ Gardening, Stitching, Car Boot Sale Goodies, A Saved Basket, and A Misty Walk ~

The garden is bursting into life with:

the first Welsh Poppy to bloom this year,

Lady's Smock which most welcomely

self~seeded here a couple of years ago

and has now spread to the whole length

of the garden,

the five cauliflowers I planted in the greenhouse back in the

autumn are growing little hearts...so so cute :~)

The sage has big fat promises just waiting to open into blooms

for the first time since I planted her.

I found Lesser Celendine, only two days after saying I didn't

 have any, in two pots that had 'just earth' in

them in the greenhouse. I planted them out in the garden

and they are doing well...next year there will be green hearts

and little yellow stars reaching up happy faces to

the big star in the sky.

Also in the greenhouse so far, lettuce, courgettes, 

 peas, basil, and runner beans have sprouted 

and I'm still waiting hopefully for the cucumber.

Mama Blackbird has been coming to feed a mere four

steps from where I sit with my studio doors open.

Her partner sings to her and us all day.

Stitching is coming along, but it's time to start other heart whisperings too....

I found a face. I'm trying to embelish the eyes, eyebrows, nose

and mouth with stitch and finding it a little tricky. Eyesight

changing from 'I-can-do-really-close-work' myopic, to, well

I'm not sure what exactly, but I can't see close up like I used to :~(

Car boot sale finds have been varied and interesting. I gasped when I saw this

gorgeous reel filled with copper wire.

Also found that day were this oh-so-lovely wooden box and

Cat ~ in CD and vinyl ~ I've been singing along and dancing

ever since!

The willow basket,  bag from Equador and vintage pan and brush

set were just too beautiful to resist, and the top, I bought for the

material and its mother of pearl buttons, which I like to

collect....

This great, strong willow basket, perfect for logs, was saved from a pile

of rubbish waiting for the refuse lorry to collect it on Wednesday!!

How I love recycling what other people throw out.

On Sunday, Tilly and I went for our monthly walk with our friends

Jude and Dilwyn again. This time it was coastal and we were warmly

enclosed in mist for most of it. It created a deep quiet and stillness,

making us speak in hushed, reverend tones.

The gorse scented the air with its coconut smell, redolent of summer

and hot sunny beaches, and patches of bluebells and wood anemones

told us that this was once woodland. Sea campions and violets were at their best.

An otherwordly sound; a haunting base~note floated to us, carried on the foggy 

dew~drops, making the tiny hairs of neck and arms stand on end.

It came again, and then again, calling to us, drawing us closer.

We recognised the eerie cry of a mating seal.....no female

could resist such longing, such a compelling summoning.

We certainly couldn't and we were rewarded with the hazy

forms of a few of them as they languished on a small rock

in the sea far below us. It made for a magic day, that settled

deep into our bones and will stay, a reminder of how beautiful

an island we are so very fortunate to live on.

A day of sewing and sowing

Sampler in green with a few spots of purple for courage

I took a deep breath, gathered my courage, (that is my word for this year after all), and signed on for the wonderful Whispering Hearts class....my very first e-course....with Jude of Spirit Cloth. I have been breathing deep ever since, as I listen, watch and read. I work slowly, so it took a week of mulling before I started.  Today, I was rummaging in our bedroom and a scrap of deep green velvet silk was on the floor....you can't really tell from this picture, but that's it, bottom left. It made me decide to look for other scraps of green fabrics I have and see if they worked together. 

The centre heart is one I had prepared a long time ago. I've been carrying these little squares and cut-out hearts with me wherever I go for a few years. It's great if I have to wait anywhere for any reason to just pick them up and....well, sew! The material is from a shirt I found in a charity shop. It has panels of that green with purple spots you see here, purple with green spots, light blue with dark blue spots and vice versa. It is probably the most garish shirt I have ever seen, but I loved it for use in my sewing.

 I was really pleased with the way the green and white stitching, (Jude's magic stitch), turned out, and as I slowly stitched I was wondering why I chose green today. I rather liked what came to mind...

Green

because it's Spring

because it's the colour associated with the heart chakra

for the Irish in me

and because I am so thrilled that I can wear it at last :~)

Stitching the hearts in place comes next ~

Today I also spent a couple of hours potting compost and sowing seeds in the greenhouse, singing happily as I worked. We now have more lettuce and cucumber, as well as courgettes, peas, runner beans, basil, and a lovely, (I hope), salad and herb mix. Can't wait to be grazing our own salad greens again.

The weather has been glorious. Sunny, blue-skied and warm. I have had such a lovely Sunday with Big Mama Bumblebees coming in to the studio to say hello, Blackbirds singing the sweetest songs all day, and Mrs Wren busying about just outside the doors ~ mere steps from where I was sitting....oh! I love Mrs Wren.

Oh!! and I nearly forgot....I found one of these at the bootsale yesterday ~ for £1!!! Tra~la~la :~) Ours is bright sunshine yellow though, with the faintest blush of orange at the bottom....can't find an image of that colour online anywhere.

Hope you are all having a happy Sunday too.

Cariad Mawr

H x

My Box of Feathers and Wabi-Sabi

The wooden box, table, wooden bowl and mini woven mat were all thrift shop treasures :~)
The book I had to order from Amazon as I could not wait for it to 'turn up'!

One of my boxes of feathers, feathers I have taken years to lovingly and delightedly collect, has had a moth attack. At first there was that awful feeling, with a sharp-breath intake and a slow-release sigh of "ohhh nooo" because, of course, each one is unique and cannot be replaced. There can be an 'instead of' but not 'the same as'.

As I sorted through them though, a whisper of a thought gently overtook my initial alarm....."Wabi-Sabi".

I've only recently discovered the term Wabi-Sabi ~ thanks to this lady, but it is how I have always lived, finding beauty in the signs of aging, and from childhood onwards, filling my home with worn, smooth pebbles, driftwood silvered by the sea, broken shells that used to be homes now treasured and rejoiced in by me and my family; well used and previously owned chairs, tables, cushions and clothes all with their secret stories teasingly shown on their scarred and scuffed surfaces leaving us to wonder at the tales they could tell.

As often happens if I allow myself to be open to magic ~ as Wabi-Sabi came to my mind, I found this ~

a heart~full reminder ~ and of course, it was all alright. The damage isn't that bad and birds are incredibly generous with their feather~gifts, so I will always have a plentiful supply. 

As I wrote this I was happily interrupted by a vast storytelling of crows flying with great purpose and dramatic cawing over our house towards the West. MM and I ran out to watch them and would have loved to know what they know and what their arcanum business was.