All Fingers and Thumbs

  It's been the most beautiful day. Our local bread shop reopened on Thursday after their August holiday shut down and I felt the urge to walk over this morning and gather some of their goodies. Such a unique bread, it was so satisfying to bite into it again after a month off! I love that they shut down though, sort of old-fashioned/ new-fashioned. It feels good to me to see small businesses model sustainable ways of living, balancing life and work. It breathes hope in to my wish that we all start to live a bit more like this.  It is a lovely September day, mellow feeling, perfect for a little wander with treats in store and a pop to the post office to send a long overdue package. Simple trips out like this are so precious to me. Solo time to sink in to the present, gently occupied my mind doesn't get up to so much mischief! Under the soft grey sky I meandered, delighting in signs of autumn peeking out at me from the hedges and edges. I saw a garden FILLED with french marigold...

 That blue sky in the top photo is well hidden right now. The candles are on, incense lit and the sound of rain pounding down out side makes me smile. Feet in slippers I'm glad for the cosy space here at my desk. I'm a creature of the twixt and tween. These seasons around the full show of summer and winter make me happiest. I'm glad we roll gently through them in England, and I'm capturing all the magical shifts I can. Autumnal themes are creeping in to my sketchbooks as well as my camera, watercolour mushrooms courtesy of a great tutorial from Shayda Campbell.  I'm excited for what comes forth in these next few months. This gathering up of the year before we settle in to winter feels magical to me always and this year perhaps even more so. Spring was so changed by lockdown I'm hoping for lots more wandering adventures this autumn. With waterproof to hand perhaps!

I think a lot about what it means to listen. To listen to our selves. Do you hear conflicting things? I feel like moment by moment one self speaks and then the next. I assign them names: heart, ego, Nigel. Physical personas: wise woman of the woods, puppy,  unicorn. Sometimes they come together in a wise council. Of course I like them to be sitting around a round table, a la the Knights of Camelot, or gathered in a meadow, held within a fairy ring. More often they seem to wandering around on their own, just saying confusing things.  I say that the heart or soul voice is quiet but is it? Is it actually just overlaid by distractions. Its messages this year have been consistent: be soft, go gently, let delight lead, sit quietly, look around you. Often it feels in conflict with what the world asks of me. Or more accurately what I believe the world is asking of me. What I interpret. What I'm conditioned to believe. I'm making a series of little cards to capture some of what I hear ...

"Our stories and images and sounds create, explicate, or point to a deeper meaning that helps us receive, celebrate and be fed by beauty and bear what is hard. And if the meaning revealed by the process of creating is often more implicit than explicit, still it does not fail to feed us. Because what it feeds is not our minds but our souls and souls do not need explanations; they need only to touch and sit in the centre of the meaning that is enfolded in being..." Oriah Mountain Dreamer  Earlier this year I participated in  Meghan's delightful Horsefeathers course which was an utter revelation. She shared the quote above with us and encouraged us in a practice of showing up creatively that has really unlocked my ability to make things joyfully without worrying about whether they (or I...) am good enough. I'm so grateful for that piece of the puzzle which has really shifted my daily experience and allowed a lot more whimsy to flit through th...

Over a year since my last confession but I'm at the start of three weeks of whimsy! Led by delight I have an urge to write here. Who am I to argue? All this whimsical wandering is facilitated by furlough leave from work, I wonder how many other dusty blogs will see a little more love during this coronavirus pandemic? The images here are some of my creations from the Spirit Wings painting course offered on a pay what you can basis at the moment by Kelly Rae Roberts . What an utter delight it has been. Full of inspiration, an exploration of what creativity is and a whole framework for playing and opening a channel to listen to your intuition/highest self/ the Universe. It's been an unexpected shot of pure magic. Something that I have been craving and trying to find my way back to these past couple of years. "Rediscover your worth, your potential, your creative spirit and then go and fly on its wings to places you w...

 It's a big yawn. A soft exhale. A carefree squawk of laughter. This year has been utterly different from what I hoped and planned for at the start of the year. It's brought many challenges and many unexpected gifts - more often than not out of those challenges. The end of the eternal winter and the start of the spring found me very low and I reached out for help. Antidepressants and counselling. Life rafts that have helped me float on through a year where the physical constraints of my knee injury had taken away two of my greatest balancers: regular yoga classes and long, wonder full rambles. They continue to help me now as I wait for an operation on my knee. Wait and unravel. Slowly slowly. No matter how slowly I think I am going there is a level beneath that my soul craves. Not a standstill but ponderous, languid, incremental. I write this from my room of my own. Feeling a pull back to this virtual space as I seek to kindle sparks of inspiration. The eternal building...

Today is a classic wet winter Sunday, grey grey with just the slight twist of snowflakes in amongst the rain drops. It's the kind of day that reminds me of teenage doldrums, school tomorrow and cooped up inside. Our house used to have downstairs rooms that all flowed one to another and I'd get trapped either in my bedroom, or out of it, with an armchair full of snoozing Papa between me and wherever I wanted to go. He has always had a lot of back problems and was in such constant pain that waking him from a snooze was a little like waking a bear from hibernation. I guess I have much more empathy for him as I get older and creakier! I'm not having the most fun with some of my body at the moment, I injured my knee in November and rehab is slow, and has felt a bit backwards the last couple of weeks, as I just try and take a short walk on top of the essential steps to get through a day. Still, these days grey out and being sofa bound says craft, craft, craft rather loud...

My beautiful tree has had her branches tossed around by storm Doris this week but is soaking up the sunshine out there today. Such a joyful "after the storm, spring is coming, soon, promise" kind of a day. All of my daily ten minutes craft prescription time plus a fair bit more has been dedicated to tree stitching. On Sunday I just parked my tired, achey little body by the door and stitched until I felt a whole lot better. That restful absorption is the craft therapy magic I think. I love that the trunk is emerging, and is feeling really true to life. She's looking a little more silver birch than plum right now, but the choice of the sideways stitch to reflect the striations of the bark makes me happy.

I have embarked on an epic project. I want to caption this photo "can you tell what it is yet?" with Aussie inflection but that phrase from my childhood is out of bounds these days. Anyway it's a trunk. Of a tree. I'm stitching a portrait of my most beloved plum tree . Everyday companion for the last twelve or so years, we haven't got long left together. I don't think I will see her blossom again. Sob. We're most likely having an extension built. It will be amazing to have more space but I wish, I wish, I WISH I could keep my plum tree too. It won't work. If anything it's too close to the house already and should long ago have been dispatched to the great orchard in the sky. I feel like a sentimental ole fool, what a palaver over a tree. Then I think about how many memories are wrapped around that trunk and nestled in the crook of her branches and it makes a little more sense. I love that tree and enjoy it every single day. I am lucky to have s...

Though the silence here might suggest it, I haven't actually been hibernating all winter. It's kind of been like my  summer  but colder, greyer and damper. A bit like Eeyore in a puddle. As soon as I work out which country has only spring and autumn, I'm there, till then I seek coping strategies. So far this year I've found three great ones - No.1: a day long yoga  retreat  with my regular class teacher. It was such a gentle day I felt lovely and mellow that evening, full of the kindness that I had been cultivating in the practice and then I spent the next four days in bed! It had been coming a while in all honesty, I think the work we did just unlocked a wave of exhaustion and made me face where I really was. The only way is through. No.2:  A seasonal virtual retreat with that bodhisattva of self-care  Mara . Happily a shade less dramatic physically but it has really helped me pick my heart up from the lows of that crash. I signed up ...

In the company of three wise and wonderful friends I made a happy little deck of words this weekend. It surprised me by being an almost unbelievably satisfying and joy inducing project. I'd hardly given it a scrap of thought in advance which I'm convinced is where part of the magic lies. I am rarely spontaneous in my creating; hopefully this will encourage me to be a little more so. I knew I'd have some great tools on hand as Kelly shares her toys very nicely indeed and I had a beautiful pack of coloured card that clearly made me buy it knowing what it wanted to be one day. When we settled in to play I'd got the idea refined as much as knowing I wanted to create something like flash cards - flash cards of inspiring, thought provoking words. I have strong memories of sitting happily in our dining room as a child with my deck of cards, learning words, getting tested on spelling. I love to spell. I wish we'd had spelling bees instead of sports days at school. I kn...

Weekend craft activity has focussed around the impractical and pretty: embroidery literally just to play with ideas from the new book. And the decidedly  more functional: a Nexus tablet cover. The embroidery soothed, the cover challenged. At least that made for a healthy balance!  My poor beloved has often bemoaned the lack of knitting of items for him and sewing hasn't proved any more generous. There was a moment a couple of weeks ago when he'd lost the old padded envelope he was using to keep his Nexus safe inside his bag when I thought of cobbler's children and decided I'd better get my act together (and prove the direct benefits to him of the tools and equipment he so generously shares his living space with!). As he's not crying out to have his clothes embellished by sweet lines of daisies or loopy sheep I made myself put down my book and sew him a cover in his choice from the fabric stash. I wanted to work out the pattern mysel...

This time last week Mama and I were preparing for our third crafty workshop of the year. After patchworking and machine embroidery  we thought it was time to make a bag. On our trip down to the depths of Cornwall to visit Poppy Treffry we found a wonderful fabric shop with its own classroom, Coast and Country Crafts  which is taking very good care of south Cornwall's quilters and a few more besides.  Heavier weight quilting cottons and linens make ideal bag materials and we went the day before the workshop to pick out fabrics from the huge range they have. Such fun, I could do that forever, just play around with different combinations and this project is designed beautifully to make the most of contrasting fabrics. No photos from the workshop as I was head down and hands busy! It was quite a lot of sewing to get done in the few hours we were there with lots of different pieces, wadding, lining, darts, magnetic clasps and pockets to deal with. We did...

After my patchwork quilting course in January I haven't felt the pull to do any more patchworking, those small squares and neat lines are not where my hands and heart are right now. The thing that I really loved though was the machine applique we did and so for the last few weeks I've been working away on a little applique quilted hanging. It was meant to just be a practice piece but I find it almost impossible to be patient and spend lots of time practicing. I know I could get better results if I did but my craft time is so limited that I always get sucked in to making it in to something . Luckily this type of piece is very forgiving so it has nicely combined lots of learning with an end piece fit to gift.  After appliquing hearts  to a piece of calico and embroidering some text on I trimmed down the piece and bordered it with some plain deep blue cotton. I then made a sandwich with batting and some more of the calico. To quilt the piece I sewed a button heart and then ju...