The Peace of Wild Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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