All Fingers and Thumbs

What better day than Halloween, Nos Kalan Gwav, Samhein or whatever flavour suits, to talk about witches. I've always had a soft spot for the witch archetype: be she represented as the mad cat lady, beautiful Bewitchy type creature or hag throwing eyes of newts in a cauldron. We spent a fair bit of time discussing this archetype at the Redfox Retreat and I came away with renewed faith in the power of women and the magic we are all capable of making. Meghan shared a piece with us by Pamela Grossman that she had found in the Huffington Post which so eloquently explores these ideas and so in honour of my inner witch: "The archetype of the witch is long overdue for celebration. Daughters, mothers, queens, virgins, wives, et al. derive meaning from their relation to another person. Witches, on the other hand, have power on their own terms. They have agency. They create. They praise. They commune with nature/ Spirit/God/dess/Choose-your-own-semantics, freely, and free of any

  The weather forecasters are telling us to batten down the hatches and the winds are certainly swirling out there but for a while longer the storm is holding off and clouds scud at speed across blue skies. We made the most of our extra hour today to get chores done early and get out for a blow about the park. These photos look very serene but imagine a swirling rushing sound track that is just begging you to join in and scamper about with it and you'd be closer to the mark.

Hello postie, no boring insurance renewal notices today. New crafty supplies yay! From the lovely U-Handbag site . I saw some sweet handmade purses on sale in Cambridge and thought I should act on the thought 'I could make something like that.' So much potential in these little pieces. Am now hoping that the ancient proverb: 'Give a girl purse and she has a purse for a day, teach a girl how to make purses and she has purses for her lifetime' will come to pass.

Feeling very slow today. I had aspirations of scything through many things, gardening, baking, cleaning, creating but I woke with a headache and sore feet. So instead of doing I focused on being and I am sure that all that I most needed to get done today has been done. My head and feet are certainly feeling happier which is most delightful as I have a weekend away in Cambridge to look forward to. I think that these lessons I need to learn will come up again and again as many times as I need . It makes my impatient soul itch to think I can't just grasp the nettle the first time around but often times I think we are unwinding many years of habits, social norms, lessons learned that don't serve us well now and so perhaps the only way to learn the new ways is to repeat lessons, to practice. Just like learning any new skill. I wish now for the patience I had when I learnt to knit and for understanding of the time needed for this amazing projec

A special perk of my new phase of work is that the office is shut on Fridays. Blessed be, a day to myself. Today it has been literally that, since I peered blearily at himself off out to the coalface early early I haven't seen another person and that has felt just perfect. Outwardly I am quietly puttering in the most delicious of ways: crafting, tidying, chatting on the phone, pinning and eating. Fluffing my nest! Inwardly I am busy as a bee incorporating the most wonderful hit of love, light and revelation from last week. Redfox Retreats = one of the most precious, significant, AWESOME events of my life. Dreamt up by three of the most amazing women you could ever have the privilege to meet, attended in the fullest sense of being present by sixteen of the most amazing women you could ever have the privilege to meet. True kindred spirits and very foxy ladies too! At the start of the year I remember a drive down to see to my family. I was in the passeng