Spinning through the seasons

The Peace of Wild Things

2010-07-08T12:44:00.000+01:00

Hi, it is ages since I did my last post - I'm not sure that Blogging is for me as I keep leaving huge gaps. I had great intentions of using this as a regular diary/journal, but it just isn't happening. I so enjoy reading other peoples blogs and am very inspired by some of them that I wish I could do the same for others. I found this poem on Philip Carr-Gomm's blog (philipcarrgomm.wordpress.com/) and love it

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

This heron is standing by some water on the Somerset Levels, I was lucky to be close enough to take this photo without a big zoom lens.

Swallows

2010-04-08T18:41:00.003+01:00

I have been for a walk and the swallows are coming back - here is one I managed the photograph. They were wizzing about over my head at college reservoir, catching insects. So lovely to see them again.

It's been a while

2010-03-31T11:22:00.007+01:00

It's been a while since my last post. I have had a rather introverted winter and feel like I am emerging now. At the moment I am trying to get some sort of order in my life which at the moment is taking the form of photographing my yarn stash and cataloging it on Ravelry so that when I want to knit something I know exactly what I have got - also I hope it will encourage me to use what's in the stash rather than buy more. I am also trying to sort out my attic room (yet again) to make space to make things, paint things, spin things etc. Stuff is going to the charity shop or on ebay - it's going to take a while but it feels good to be doing it.

Solstice moon

2009-12-20T20:02:00.005Z

Here is the moon this evening. A beautiful crescent for solstice. Below is a picture of the mistletoe in the centre of the room where we had the OBOD Midwinter Gathering the other day. We had a wonderful time, with poetry, music, stories and food.

I have been rather low lately, hence the lack of blogging, I am going through a time of questioning and feel a need for a change somehow to allow me to be more creative whilst also simplifying my life. My job is very insecure at the moment and perhaps this will give me the incentive to change things, but my lack of energy does not help my motivation. Tonight I will reflect.

A midwinter scene here in Cornwall and below are starlings coming in to roost at a nature reserve near Glasonbury on 11th December. I hope to go back there in January or February to see them again. As they go overhead there is an amazing rushing sound.

Fleece, Madron Well and socks

2009-11-11T21:53:00.007Z

Well it is now November 11th, Samhain has happened and the month is nearly half way through. The other day I unrolled the Shetland fleece that I bought from a friend and it is a really lovely one. It is now sorted out ready to wash, it is pretty clean but quite a lot of lanolin. the other day I bought some Unicorn Power Sour to use for this as I have read various good reports about it. This is a photo of the fleece unrolled on the floor, it's a big one!

At the end of October I went to visit a friend near Land's End and on the way back went to Madron Well. I haven't been there for ages. It is a very special place, a holy well, where people leave bits of rag or whatever, tied to a tree to ask for healing. The well itself is further into the boggy area but just standing by the water by the tree feels very special. Folk have been coming here for centuries.

I am making another pair of socks for my neice with Regia Yarn. She loves the other ones I made and wears them all the time so I thought I'd better make some more before the others wear out and I love knitting socks. Next time I will try some toe-up ones.

Equinox Greetings

2009-09-22T22:23:00.003+01:00

What a beautiful September we are having. We got back from a week in the Somerset Levels on Saturday and then I celebrated the Equinox with some friends. We spent time in their garden listening to the bird song and feeling the moment of balance as the wheel turns toward the darker months of the year, and then shared food and cider. Wonderful.

Lammas and swifts

2009-08-03T20:21:00.005+01:00

On Lammas eve there were at least twenty swifts squeeling and wheeling in the sky around our house getting ready to leave for the winter. They arrive around Beltane and leave around Lammas. I love to watch them, there is a wildness about them that always makes me feel excited, apparently they even sleep on the wing.

Here are some beautiful Hydrangeas from my daughter's garden, they are flowering all over Cornwall at the moment.

and some beetroot we grew in our allotment, well mostly my husband as he does most of the hard work, I do the harvesting and eating!

I will take some photos there next time I go there

Solstice Sunrise

2009-07-05T23:02:00.006+01:00

At last the computer is up and running again so I am posting some Solstice photos from my part of the world although it was a couple of weeks ago.

I managed to get up and see the sun rise, I sat with the dog on Pendennis headland, there were a few other people there too. It was wonderful as the glow got brighter and brighter, I had to wrap myself in the blanket from the car as it was a bit chilly at that time in the morning and the dog had a wonderful time running around, we were rewarded with a beautiful dawn.

Later on, walking around the moat, again with Meg the dog, the banks were humming with bees busy in the foxgloves and there were lots of butterflys, especially painted ladies.

This blackbird was hoping for a crumb or two (which he got!) when I had a scone at Trebah gardens. He was actually standing on the corner of the table I was using.

Broken computer

2009-06-16T17:41:00.002+01:00

I haven't done my blog for a while as the computer's broken and we are waiting for it to be fixed. It's been a very busy couple of weeks though, with my daughters wedding on June 6th, it was a lovely day and the sun shone for the wedding and reception although it was drizzly in the morning so we were very lucky, this was followed by my son's degree show in Cardiff last weekend then my mum's 80th birthday yesterday and other daughter's birthday today, so no time for blogging anyway!

I always get a slightly out of control feeling around the Summer Solstice and find myself caught up in a whirl of energy, we will be at friends on the day sharing food and wine and good company, will try to be up to see the sun rise in the morning.

Hope computer is back in action soon and will post some photos.

Our stay in the Somerset Levels

2009-06-03T07:07:00.006+01:00

During May we stayed for a week on the levels near Glastonbury. On this visit I actually climbed Glastonbury Tor. It is many years since I last did that. It was exhilarating at the top as there was quite a wind blowing. The view from there is amazing and I lay down on the ancient ground and remembered the goddess, it is easy to feel close in this sacred place. On the way up there was a kestrel hovering and at the top was a crow and inside the tower was a white dove. I had the feeling that these were souls who had a long connection with the place, I especially felt that with the crow, I know I may have been getting carried away with the romance of the place but these are the thoughts that came to me.

Below is the view of the Tor that greeted us as we arrived, the rainbow was right in front of it. This picture shows beauty and hope but also the destruction - there is a digger to the left and in front is some of the peat that has been excavated. Some of the levels are now preserved, it is such a unique landscape and important for the wildlife that lives there and I give thanks for the people who are working to protect this area, including the RSPB and Somerset Wildlife Trust.

This next picture shows another view of the tor looking across a buttercup meadow

Here is another rainbow with the Tor right in the distance. This was taken from a bird hide at Catcot. We saw many rainbows during the few days we were there.

In this next picture is a roe deer, hardly visible in the long grass and reeds and as I haven't got a long zoom this is the best I could do. There are many roe deer living wild in this area, usually seen on their own like this one. They are very shy and as soon as they notice you they bound off to cover.

The picture below is taken from another bird hide of a large area of water we named Silver Lake as it shone with a silver light. It made me think of the Lady of the Lake in the King Arthur stories, perhaps Excalibur is down there somewhere. Such a beautiful and special place, so peaceful.

Another view across a nature reserve towards Glastonbury. In this reserve we saw and heard bitterns which are breeding there.

Willows are a big feature of this landscape, many of them very old and quite often they have been pollarded. There is a Willow & Wetlands Centre at Stoke St Gregory, showing the history of growing and using willow to make baskets and charcoal. It is an interesting place for a visit and has a cafe which is always a good thing!

Here is an old man willow, he looks very old from the size of the trunk and has probably been pollarded and had his branches used to make baskets many times over the years.

Towards the end of the week it got sunnier and lots of dragonflies made an appearance. This is one I managed to get quite close to.

I love our stays in this area. We have quite a good arrangement, Andy goes off for hours with his binoculars into the wilds and I go off to Glastobury and spend time in places such as the Chalice Well Gardens, or cafes of course. We go for many walks together but I'm not quite up to the long walks that Andy sometimes does.

Wonderwool, red kites and lambs

2009-05-10T09:10:00.008+01:00

I know it's a bit late but wanted to write about my visit to Wonderwool and that lovely part of Wales. I stayed in a B&B in Llandindrod Wells and on Saturday evening went for a drive to Rhayader, to see if there were any red kites, I stopped to look at a field of sheep and beyond the field was small wood of I think mainly fir trees. I saw a red kite and then loads of them started circling around above the woods - an amazing sight. There is a feeding station at Gigrin Farm in Rhayader and that must be why so many are centered around there. Not so long ago these beautiful birds had been persecuted to the edge of extinction but with the dedicated efforts of the RSPB and other conservation groups/people their numbers have now increased greatly. It is heartening to hear of success stories such as this

They were too far away to be anything but dots in my photos but this one circled overhead.

The next morning I went back into the hills very early, the landscape there is very beautiful and I saw more red kites and a couple of skylarks and some sheep which I think were Torddu or Badger-faced sheep

Here are a couple of the lambs peeping at me. They have strange faces with white eyebrows, some of the the lambs are very black coated but become more varied, with some brown when adult.

I loved Wonderwool and bought far too much. It was great to meet Ambermoggie, Andy(Alpacabuyer) from bluefaced.com, Amanda from Natural Dye Studio, Jenni from Fyberspates, Freyalan and the lovely people who have a shop called Ippikin, and lots of other folk I chatted to. Below are some felted bags from the Ippikin stall, I bought some Colinette yarn and the pattern to make one.

Below is the place I stayed in in Llandindrod Wells, I was in a little room right at the top, there were other people from Wonderwool there.

This was the sunrise from my bedroom window on the Sunday morning.

Beltane

2009-05-03T09:23:00.008+01:00

I started off the day waking up to go to the loo and realising the sun was about to rise I felt suddenly (and uncharacteristically at that time in the morning!) full of energy - so got the dog, who was amazed, and headed off to see it rise at Pendennis point. We were blessed with a beautiful dawn.

The picture below is looking back into the woods.

Later on that morning we went for a walk around Mawnan and I had tea and date slice at Glendurgan, which I shared with a chaffinch. On the walk I passed by a hedge and a blackbird flew out and then I heard some cheeping so I had a peep and saw a nest with three (at least) babies. Below is a photo but I didn't get too close for fear of disturbing them too much, I think you can make out a beak if you enlarge the picture. I always feel so lucky to be shown wild things living their lives, it felt very special as it was Beltane.

Below is a Cornish hedgerow so full of wild flowers

Bob Dylan

2009-04-29T21:50:00.002+01:00

I saw him last night at Cardiff International Arena! He was brilliant and I got quite close to the front. I was so excited when he came on, it's the first time I've actually seen him although I've loved his songs since I was in my teens and that was a long time ago. He started off with Rainy Day Women and played for about 2 hours with hardly a break. Back in Cornwall now and will post pictures of the trip to Wales and Wonderwool later.

Spring colours, ladybird and butterfly

2009-04-23T18:00:00.005+01:00

Spring is in her full glory now here in Cornwall

There are so many flowers out at the moment it gets quite overwhelming. Here are a few photos from the last couple of days.

The bluebells are out

and valerian

and the sunshine has brought out this ladybird, the first one I've seen this year

I saw this comma butterfly at Penrose near Helston, and there was a Peacock butterfly in the front garden yesterday

I'm off to Wales ready for Wonderwool tomorrow morning and am spending a few days away culminating in a Bob Dylan concert on Tuesday night in Cardiff!! I've loved him since I was a teenager and now at 55 will be seeing him live for the first time!

Lovely to see the swallows back

2009-04-14T19:21:00.008+01:00

They are a bit difficult to photograph with a small digital camera while flying around ! They wizz by very quickly. I saw my first one on 30th March and on Easter day there were several flying around at Trelissick Gardens near Truro. You can just see this one is above the tower and they were flying in through the window and perching on the weather vane.

This one kept flying into the barn and seemed to be nest building already as it sometimes had a bit of straw in its beak. You can just make it out on the beam. It flew up into the roof and disappeared into it and you can see the droppings where they probably roost. I love the chattery noise they make while flying, it makes me feel excited every year to see them return.

and here is a bumble bee on a rhododendron, there were quite a few buzzing around, also on Easter Sunday which was a beautiful day here in Cornwall with real warmth in the sun.

This post is brought to you by the letter 'M'

2009-04-01T11:01:00.003+01:00

This is a game that has been going around blogs for a while - the idea is to find ten things that you like starting with the given letter - the letter M was given to me by Crobbles. If you would like a letter please let me know. Here are my choices:

MOTHERS - my own Mum and all mothers everywhere and of course, Mother Earth

MEG

my dog companion. Wise, loyal, fun, gentle, sensitive, with the spirit of the wild still in her. She came to me from a rescue home at the age of 6 months, chosen by my son and I feel lucky and privileged to share her life. Her mother is a Springer Spaniel and her father apparently a Border Collie/Greyhound type of lurcher, I can see traits of all three in her.

MOON - lovely moon

MAGNOLIAS

these pictures were taken in Trelissick Gardens and Fox Rosehill Gardens on 24th March. There are so many in blossom at the moment.

MERLIN - I am obsessed with anything to do with stories about Merlin. I particularly love the ones by Mary Stewart the first of which is Crystal Cave. Along with Merlin and King Arthur stories I also love to read myths from other times and cultures. When I was a child I read the Greek myths many times. I have not read the Mabinogion yet so that is on my list.

MUSIC - Mozart, Van Morrison, Bob Marley, Miles Davis, Mariza, Loreena McKennitt just to name a few with M in their name

MEALTIMES - I enjoy my food and meals shared with family and friends.

MOONSTONE - beautiful stones that seem to catch the moonlight.

MAY

the month I was born in and so special to me. A lovely month, beginning with Beltane, with May blossom everywhere and the land bursting with life. We often go on holiday to the Somerset levels in May, near Glastonbury.

MEN - well I couldn't really leave them out, could I.

Look who arrived today!

2009-03-25T19:37:00.005Z

My beautiful femme arrived, made by Ambermoggie. She is called Flidhais, Goddess of the woods and trees and I love her, she came with a shawl to keep her warm on her travels. Amber also made me a lovely medicine bag. Thank you Amber :)

She is resting on the mantelpiece after her long journey. Below is a picture of the medicine pouch. I am so thrilled and keep going to look at her - and smelling her hair as she smells wonderfully of incense

Wales and Wool Museum

2009-03-17T18:51:00.004Z

Last weekend I went to stay with a friend who lives on the edge of the Black Mountain up from Swansea. Above is a view from her kitchen window, it was a bit misty - sometimes red kites fly past. We visited the National Wool Museum of Wales which was very interesting, showing the whole process from fleece to finished blanket or garment.

The picture above is part of the collection of Welsh blankets.

Here you can see the edge of a spinning machine and some of the cones that have been spun

A collection of spinning wheels

This castle was in a town near the museum.

Signs of Spring and gloves

2009-02-26T18:28:00.003Z

These were made with Fyberspates BFL sock yarn. Beautifully soft and lovely to knit with. I am rather obsessed with making fingerless gloves at the moment - these I have given to my daughter. I've got two other pairs on the go even though we are heading into spring!

Signs of spring are everywhere

These pictures were taken at the Uni - the campus in Penryn, part if which used to be the grounds of an old convent.

Trees

2009-02-18T17:52:00.005Z

Beautiful trees in the woods at Mawnan Smith where we went for a walk on Sunday, there was a feeling of spring all around - almost humming. I am going to do more walking this year I've decided, Meg the dog will be pleased.

In the above picture there is an image of a Green Man - I didn't see him while I was there but only when I looked at the photo.

Swans

2009-02-14T19:39:00.000Z

Today, as I was getting in to the car to go to work, four swans flew over the rooftops heading north/north west. It was one of those moments when you catch your breath with the beauty. They were flying really low and looked so big with their necks stretched right out. On Valentine's day too - I feel very lucky to have been there at that moment to see them.

Happy Meg

2009-02-08T18:06:00.000Z

After going to the Earth Mysteries fair I took Meg for a walk to ground myself and ponder. It was very wet and muddy with signs of spring happening and daffodils nearly out in some places.

Snow in Cornwall

2009-02-05T10:12:00.000Z

On Monday night we had snow! It is so unusual in Falmouth - loads of people were out in the streets having snowball fights and building snowmen. There was a real party atmosphere. I took these pictures the next morning as I walked to work. By the evening most of it had melted.

Imbolc

2009-02-02T22:05:00.000Z

We've had a beautiful day here in this part of Cornwall and I found these snowdrops. Everything is now covered in a blanket of snow.

Imbolc seems like a good time to start this blog, readers are very welcome, please forgive me if my posts are not always regular. This blog is part of my wanting to take more care to notice the things around me, particularly the changing of the seasons happening around me.

Here is a poem for Imbolc. Thanks to Ambermoggie for letting me know about this.

A Brigid's Girdle - for Adele
by Seamus Heaney

Last time I wrote I wrote from a rustic table
Under magnolias in South Carolina
As blossoms fell on me, and a white gable
As clean-lined as the prow of a white liner

Bisected sunlight in the sunlit yard.
I was glad of the early heat and the first quiet
And a delicious, articulate

Flight of small plinkings from a dulcimer
Like feminine rhymes migrating to the north
Where you faced the music and the ache of summer
And earth's foreknowledge gathered in the earth.

Now it's St Brigid's Day and the first snowdrop
In County Wicklow, and this a Brigid's Girdle
I'm plaiting for you, an airy fairy hoop
(Like one of those old crinolines they'd trindle),

Twisted straw that's lifted in a circle
To handsel and to heal, a rite of spring
As strange and lightsome and traditional
As the motions you go through going through the thing.