Solstice blessings

A crown for Mrs Noah, also to celebrate the Solstice dawn.

We went to the graveyard for a walk to say hello to the creatures that live there and to reflect on those who have gone before us.

The sun was glorious and there was hardly a breath of wind. So much better than the past few days. Although there was no sunset to be seen last night and Solstice morn was greeted with rain showers.

It’s all done the plants so much good though.

My garden is looking so lush. It’s small but full of life.

Days

It’s a strange unsettling time, so much happening in the world , so much change.
I’m trying to keep afloat on a sea of uncertainty and fear.
While I ponder and listen, some things help me through.

The colours of a shawl in the garden.

My lovely Nano and the amount of yarn it holds.

Freshly baked bread , even if it is cut on a slant.

My flour parcel from Dove.

My latest Goddess figures waiting to go out into the world

Uncertain times

It is an uncertain time we are living through and no end in sight. Some days it’s hard to see anything but lockdown. Then there are signs and seeds of hope. As I write this New Zealand are lifting restrictions. They approached this virus differently than the shambolic UK attempts.
But going back to The Book of Qualities by J Ruth Gendler. Today my first page that opened was Terror.  She writes of the Qualities as people. Quite a lot of them are illustrated in black and white lines.
The bit I want to quote is this :-
‘When Terror wants power she has many ways to silence those who oppose her. She is willing to use violence to achieve her ends; often she prefers less obvious means. Terror knows that she can control the body by controlling the mind. When people are in states of confusion, Terror’s propaganda passes for truth.’
It seems apt for how we are being manipulated somehow.

But looking for the beauty and something positive helps me. Just look at the yarn I am plying. It’s called Samarkand from Fellview Fibres. I’ve loved spinning it, it reminds me of the sea and sand.
The cards are from my friend Sue Creative spirit affirmation cards

And I guess no surprise that I’m still knitting shawls. Here is the latest one off the needles.

Finally some friends of mine were involved in a ritual on YouTube . I think it was called pass the light  and keep the candle burning. So for hope during these worrying times I leave you with this.

Please keep the light burning.

Lockdown is a strange bedfellow and companion. Unseen but the effects are felt throughout each day and night. To me it’s very like the J Ruth Gendler book of Qualities . Each emotion is described so thoroughly and they sometimes meet or bump into each other. Despair, loss, fear, but then hope. Hope when things are relaxed a little but fear as we realise it’s all too soon and await the next spike in this dreadful virus.
So lockdown. We don’t see the thing but it’s all around us . We woke up in a strange new world that isn’t going back to how it was. It’s like the fairy tale RIP Van  Winkle, he slept for what he thought was one night and woke up 20 years later in a strange time. That’s what has happened to us, although we saw signs of it coming when the virus first started. None of us could forecast how it would become.
We have had to learn to live so very differently. Touch is not allowed, 2 metres does not allow it. It’s hard if you are a small child at school perhaps needing comforting should you fall. They even have to supposedly put their own plasters on?
It’s bad if you have your first grandchild due and you can’t be there for the birth, or visit and hold the baby for the first time. What’s app and face time, zoom etc can’t replicate the emotion you feel when first looking at the small being who has just entered this world.
It’s awful for those dying alone in a hospital bed with no familiar faces around or loved ones holding your hand as you take the next step on your journey.
Or a funeral with limited mourners, how can you say goodbye or celebrate a life cut short by this?
How do we make a new life but a positive one for ourselves out of it all?
What seeds are planted for hope and joy? There has to be some good from it all.
More kindness? More care for our fellow man and woman. But at the moment the world is in chaos and still reeling.
Planting seeds for us all.

Return? Never really went away.

It’s been a long while since I wrote a blog post and to be honest I never thought it would happen again. After Mr Mog died my life changed drastically. Not just the grief and the loss of someone I loved, but my soulmate.
Then you start to live again, slow steps but you start to see the sunshine and the turn of the wheel. To follow the moon’s progress through her cycle. It wasn’t the same and it couldn’t be could it? We none of us know where the path will take us, we see just a little bit of it each time. A good thing sometimes as I am sure we would hate to know the future.
So what’s been happening? Lots and some  bad but much more that was good.  But there’s good come out of it. I met a man and we fell in love. Very unexpected to find I could share my life with someone but I have and I am.
I’m still creating, that also changed around but I am still knitting shawls. Still spinning and still playing with mixed media. I’ve got a new urge to make things and it’s great to be in touch with the muse once more.
There will be more but for now let me leave you with a photo of my latest toy, a gift from a very generous friend.