~ Stitching ~ Sunshine ~ and a Motorbike Ride ~

Some things finished, some things on the go, some, just barely started. It is possible that most of these will become part of the Magic Diaries Cloth. The piece at top left, is my first ever star.....which developed from this 'playground'.....

I've had great enjoyment with natural dyeing.....the pinks are from avocado skins. I'm not keen on pink, but I love the dyeing and that was one of the things I had plenty of! There are greys in there that came from a large bundle of old, dried bay leaves I was about to throw out, but thankfully the thought popped into my head to try them as a dye.


The browns are from acorns, which my Man and I enjoyed collecting. The pale yellow and that green silk on the top are from carrot tops from my father-in-law's garden....the silk was an over~dye of a very pale grey and it makes me really happy :~)

The blue....well, I do not have indigo or woad plants here yet, but blue is a must in just about anything I do, so I use what I've got, which is cyanotype. I use it both for making prints, and also just paint it on the cloth and leave it in the sun to create its alchemical magic.


Some more dyeing ~

Soya milk soaked

red cabbage and black bean dyes

black bean dyed linen: can~wrapped

before washing in machine

dried before washing

after washing in machine

Talking of sun ~ sol ~ haul.....for many years I have kept a daily journal and I include a daily weather report. For December, we had grey, dull, heavy and dark for 28 days, with just 3 (THREE) days of hazy brightness...no wonder we Brits are mad :~)

s-o-o-o-o


January is already whipping December's butt.....last night's sky, after a SUNNY day...

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happy me, happy bird in tree, and happy Man.....he got to take this last night.....

Jupiter ~ photo by Mark Lee

Today was glorious and we went out on the motorbike, stopping for tea on the way.....

~ Blwyddyn Newydd Dda ~ Happy New Year ~ and some Magic ~

Moon Rings

photo by Mark Lee

I have been wanting to ~ and tried to ~ start writing here again for some time. I even have a few draft posts but they just do not feel right.


There is the courteous, well~mannered part of me that wants to explain my absence and lack of communication with people who have asked about me....and then there is the part that feels private and protective about what has gone on with me for the last nearly six months.


I will just say that I had a scare, I became even more reclusive than usual, I am taking Essiac herbs daily, and leave it at that.


Thank you so much to you lovely people who did ask...and I am sorry I did not get back to you. For a while there I became depressed and did not act as I would usually.


Tilly, our gorgeous little dog, has had a rough ride too, but, she is now on four tablets a day, and the seizures are much less frequent thankfully.


And now on to brighter and happier things ~ ~ ~


I have a new word for this year....magic....I want it back in my life; that wonder, excitement and joy for the little things....like going out to the garden yesterday and seeing the daffodil leaves well above the ground, the snowdrops just peeping out their silvery greenness, the hazy, very nearly full moon out there tonight...the things that put a smile in my heart, so big that I don't feel I'll be able to contain it...THAT kind of magic.


My Man and I have a motorbike again :~))))))))))))) Now Our Boy is driving himself in his own car, we have gratefully gone back to two wheels. It is such FUN, and I have the widest grin on my face from the time I get on the back and hold on tight to my love, until we stop and I get off. 


I have gone back to rebounding.....bouncing and dancing to music wildly first thing in the morning gets good energy moving a treat.


It is time my camera became my constant companion again....since August I have taken only a handful of photos...unheard of!!!

My Man has just come to tell me that he has looked up ferry crossings to France in March....and we are going to go...on the bike....wheeeeeee.....ROAD~TRIP and BOAT~TRIP


Hope you are having a good and magic first week of 2012


Cariad Mawr


H

~ Hmmmm ~

This is pretty much how my head~space has been for days...filled with cotton...bog cotton at that. I decided to not fight it for a change...just go with it. Letting the frustration go has been a relief, and so, I've been floating quite pleasantly through the week.....the tragedies of the week~end....well that's a different matter, and I have no way of conveying the intense feelings involved.


Reading.....


I enjoyed reading Lyndall Gordon's biography on Emily Dickinson. I only knew she was reclusive ~ Ms Gordon puts forward a convincing case for why she may have been so. Her brother's mistress made me want to rant and rave ~ she was so conniving and manipulative, ambitious and greedy....horrid little woman. Her one redeeming factor, for me, was that she was talented and tireless as an editor of Emily Dickinson's work.


Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge let me escape to the Channel Islands and New Zealand in the nineteenth century.


Completely loved The Hours by Michael Cunningham...how seamlessly he weaved his story of three women in three different decades....and, as I am fascinated by Virginia Woolf, I now look forward to watching the film too.


Yesterday I started Dared & Done The Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett & Robert Browning by Julia Markus which so far, is promising to be another enjoyable read.


Being.....


One night, after five whole days of low cloud, the sky cleared and I joined my love in his observatory. He took me on a star~studded journey, where I saw an Eagle (Aquila), even observing the carbon star shining red in this constellation, a Swan (Cygnus), double~stars, double~double stars and bright, bright Vega....so blue and beautiful. Finally we lay on the wooden floor and just gazed upwards......


My Man, Tilly~Dog and I went for a walk in our favourite woods....Ffynnone.


In our Welsh mythology ~ The Mabinogi ~ it's waterfall is the entrance to the Celtic Otherworld ~ Annwn, where Pwyll, who married my favourite Welsh Goddess Rhiannon, went through some rigorous trials for twelve months.

I like to think the face in the rock on the right is the Gate~keeper of Annwn.

It is one of those places that feels otherworldly.....hushed, even with the sound of the waterfall, with a charge to the air and a knowing that you are very close to the land of faerie.

~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

~ Skomer Island ~

The old farm on Skomer Island

Yesterday, I finally made it to Skomer Island. It is only about ten miles from where we live to Martin's Haven, where the boat the "Dale Princess" launches to take visitors across to the Island. Over the years we have tried a few times to get there...usually it is weather that has been the problem; last year it was a school which bought all the tickets for their trip that day. You cannot book in advance, and you cannot phone to find out if they are sailing, or if they are sold out. It is first come, first served, and pot luck!


The day was perfect, with the air having a crystal clear, sharp~focus quality that does not happen here very often. I loved everything about it....the boat journey....

...this gull kept perfect pace with us, until finally, ever so gently and skilfully alighting on the bow.

...what we had mainly come to see......

PUFFINS

I fell head over heels for these comical, busy, totally fearless little sea~birds.

It was preening.....

.....and sleeping time when we were there.

This little one was so close to the path that I only had to reach out and I would have touched it.

Visitors are not allowed to step off the pathways, as the damage to nests and burrows would be disastrous.

This burrow was on the path edge, and I was so happy when I saw that it was occupied. I asked forgiveness from the Puffin for such rude intrusion. It was only when I looked at the photos later that I noticed the entrance was somewhat heart shaped

The rabbits sunbathe!! I did not take my zoom lens with me so this is a poor shot, but I wanted to share it anyway....
In the Middle Ages, in the 13^th Century, rabbits were introduced to the Island. Rabbits were brought to the British Isles by the Normans and were a valuable source of food and fur, their skins being as important as their meat. Many islands were used as Warrens (places where Rabbits were kept) at that time, as the Rabbits could not escape and equally they could easily be protected from poachers. (Copied)

The cliffs across the water here is so like an abstract painting....in a way I suppose it is, painted by bird poo, and green algae (I think).

We had not been able to see Razorbills or Guillemots clearly on our walk around the Island, but as we were waiting on the steps to catch the return boat, there they were below us on the rocks. We thought that was a perfect finish to a most beautiful day, but, there was one more gift for us when, after we had all boarded, two seals appeared just feet away and frolicked playfully. I didn't even try to take a photo of them, I just wanted to be, and to watch them, with a full heart and smiling face.


I have just found The Skomer Island Blog

~ Happy Summer Solstice ~

My Man was busy taking solar images and a video this morning after the clouds finally cleared away, and kindly let me use them here.

Those filmy clouds racing over the sun make it look to me as though it is spinning.

Happy Summer Solstice 

~ A Little More Sewing ~

Inspired so much by Jude

I think it's finished, but then maybe not..... It's the back pocket off some jeans and a ragged piece from a cushion cover.

Like many people I love the moon. She inspires so much ~ poetry, paintings, stitchings, love, howling; and tonight I went in to our bedroom and found our bed bathed in her light. What better way to drift off to slumberland than on wisps of moonbeams. 



~ 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