~ Clear skies ~ St Dwynwen's ~ and a bit of a sociable day ~

My Man had told me of this astro event more than a week ago,

 and we were so hoping for clear skies.

This is what we saw at dusk.

It helped to 'fill the well'

 Crescent moon and venus

at one and seven o' clock

Yesterday was St Dwynwen's Day...our Welsh equivalent of St Valentines day, but without any of the commercialism. Because of that, I love to celebrate this day of cariad, and made my love a card ~

 The linen base and next layer of silk were dyed

in a pot of old, dried bay leaves. The heart ~ green

(for the heart chakra) ~ from a velvet thrifted skirt

We had tea, (blackberry and blueberry), in one of our favourite cafes and talked about art and writing, and the great special offer I purchased at Jude's Small Journeys that morning. I have been wanting to do this for a long time, and was so happy to finally manage it :~))) ~ They are fantastic..as are all her classes....even her pdf's are beautiful ~

On Monday we had a most sociable day...very unusual for us....and we enjoyed it. We had gone to Cardigan to visit the dentist, and afterwards happened to meet My Man's boss from years ago, when he used to be a printer. We went in to the printshop and there, after 18 years, still attached to the wall with yellowing, aged tape, were My Man's line~drawings!

Later I asked him if he had come face to face with his younger self in there....

We also had a chance meeting with a friend we had not seen for a long time, who's book we promoted in the bookshop we used to have in Cardigan over 13 years ago. 

We went to this art cafe to catch~up with lots of his news....

I had mocha coffee...oh yummm

that's him on the left. The gentleman on the right joined us and we had a 

most interesting conversation about building with lime , WWll bomber 

planes(!), and what our friend had planned for tonight (Thursday).

A visit with a friend who shared her delicious lunch of home made tomato soup and humus rounded off this rather companiable day. 

Cardigan was abloom with happy~making pansies :~)

We were lucky to see this, as later the clouds came in and the wet 

stuff came back.

~ 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...

a

a

a

n

d

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.....

~ 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