i adore snow

I am so happy about these huge drifts of snow that are upon us. You see I so much prefer cold to hot and wet to dry, and white to grey. I love the way snow has the power to make everyone 'slow down'. I love that snow is tea and toast weather. I love pulling my daughter on a sledge instead of pushing her in a pram. It all just feels so right somehow. Snow simplifies everything, snow is quiet, snow is me... I adore snow.

hidden places

This week , a busy week... of discovering hidden places... and I am so reassured by how little J coped... the book festival (while J enjoyed rhymetime, sticking and colouring and people watching, I discovered gorgeous new fairytales by Carol Ann Duffy), train travel (our favourite way to travel), castles (and a whole room dedicated to weaving tapestries for me to enjoy), lakes, trees, colours, faces and turkish delight ice cream. She took it all in her stride.

house of sticks

A tree born in 1518 and still alive. It was a priviledge to gaze at it. . .

I have a real love of trees. Their branches reach up to the skies like wooden lungs. I am a perpetual collector of sticks and cones when I am out walking... and now my daughter does it too. We bring the sticks and cones indoors and keep them about the place. I need to have these things around me, I call it having a pagan heart. I like to bring the outdoors indoors.

My Dad recognises this in me, and so on his recent walking trip to Spain he brought back two huge pine cones from the tree above which was growing at 8000 ft. They are perfect on my mantlepiece.

And here is my childhood sweet chestnut again, this time the wilderness in summer, and J now old enough to be held in its branches like I was as a child.

This weekend I came upon some wooden buttons from Toft Alpaca Shop. The type of tree from which the button is made is etched on to the back of each... and the wood is salvaged, so no sad tree souls.

Woods destroyed to build 'new build' housing estates break my heart. The only solace is the coppice left between...

I must leave you now in order to bring in some pots of ivy from the garden. I plan to somehow grow ivy up the walls of my bedroom just like Colin's mother's abandoned room in the film of The Secret Garden. More outdoors indoors..

a scrapbook of my absence...

...but now the desire to write has returned.

my wilderness

Spending the morning here was bliss. I wanted to take J to see this particular tree. I used to climb it as a child... see that long long branch stretching out to the side... its like a big arm with which the tree scoops you up and lets you sit in its branches.
I would build a small house here if I could, just to live in this wilderness where I used to hide and where my other half proposed and where I know my daughter will also love to play surrounded by trees and rabbit holes.

lichen-inspired

Everything I am making right now is inspired by lichen and moss. I see it everywhere. I have done so much walking this week. my feet ache. so time for an afternoon in. to sew cuffs and crochet fairy moss crowns...

rabbit tracks & roses

Yesterday we found wild rabbit tracks in the snow. you could see where he had hopped across the grass, where he had stopped alert...

We enjoyed the 'wilderness'. It sets you free.

I am not sure if this snow will ever melt... its a good thing its pretty.

diary, letters

This is the illustration on the front of my day to day diary for this year. Its kind of perfect. I think I might have to make myself a hairband like that. Today my wishes are for letters from a friend to arrive soon...I miss words like unravelled yarn, tumbling...

hey, love, castle

My house is my castle and full of the things I call treasure ... but the roof is leaking again and I am uncertain of many things. yet rather than brood, I always seem to be somewhat observational in these situations and perhaps ever hopeful that fortunes will change... I would like to type this sitting in the kitchen sink, for I am in a rather Cassandra Mortmain sort of mood today...

Everything is so pretty but there is a terrible draught...

Under a fir tree

This little tea cup filled with fir and pine cones sits on my mantlepiece...

My birth tree is the Fir tree (the Mysterious)... and according to my reference this means I have extraordinary taste, I handle stress poorly, I love anything beautiful, I can become depressed at times, I am stubborn, I tend to care for those close to me as well as helping strangers, I am rather modest, I am a hard worker, I am talented, I am unselfish, I have many friends, I don't want foes, and I am very reliable...

I would say this description is pretty well accurate... and I am glad to be an evergreen.

heart shaped box

Today was one of those perfect sort of days. The frost was thick and there was ice on the lake, and we took a walk to visit our swans...

J was dressed in her favourite coat - she calls it her 'white bear'...

There was frozen moss...

a tree framed view of the palace...

and lunch in our favorite cafe with toast and pink milk and turkish delight ice cream...
and as we arrived home the snowfall came thick and fast... it looked soooo beautiful...

then we ran inside for more homemade gingerbread and hot tea but the fire...

today there was something magical in the air... something I wanted to catch hold of and keep in a heart shaped box...

gingerbread day...

Today we made Gingerbread men... Gingerbread fairies... and Gingerbread bunnies...

J had the best fun rolling and squishing the dough and decorating ...

and they passed the taste test too...

white bears

Gosh... we have colds and runny noses, little toddle-belle and I. We are truanting from playgroup and hiding indoors today with homemade soup, The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD (with some scary bits fast forwarded as she is too small), play doh and fairy lights...

The temperature has dropped to zero now and there is frost and rolling mist. I am re-reading North Child by Edith Pattou. It is wonderful, based on the fairytale East of the Sun , West of the Moon, a white bear takes a girl away to a place carved into rock. Oh how I love it. Set in Norway and another of the animal groom fairytales I love so... Just as Beauty in Beauty and the Beast has her room of books in Beast'd castle due to her love of reading, so Rose in this story has her room in the white bear's castle full of threads and yarns and a loom due to her love of making things.

There is also The Princess and the White Bear King. This book's artwork adorns my daughter room...

How I love white bears.

The Lying Carpet

We are in the library at least twice a week so I always spot the new titles and am often the first person to hire things out (!) Last week I took home The Lying Carpet by David Lucas. It is the most head spinning book. I think it reminds me that life is a choice, its about truth and lies, inertia versus adventure, whether to watch or whether to 'do'.... that sort of thing. It involves a talking tiger rug which frankly I just love... and a beautiful little girl statue called Faith. The drawings are perfect too. Anyway its wonderful, mysterious, a fairytale, a bedtime story... and now I want to own it so I might read it whenever I like.

cream and white

My friends send me the most wonderful things... inspiring words and stream of consciousness thoughts... photographs of winter trees in which the criss cross of branches look like little fairy ladders, and beautiful white vintage lace...

And I spotted these at the supermarket of all places. Such beautiful cards... I will be sending them this yuletide, but of course, a few will be kept to adorn the walls of my bedroom.

This week has been all about trips to the library sale (children's books for 10p!), knitting endlessly (my meditation), and planning our little trip away next week..

happy weekend. x

Seeds to grow

Many years ago I used to feel out of synch... then I discovered the pagan wheel of the year. I rediscovered the seasons and their meaning. I found out why I love autumn...


My Halloween / Samhain thought list:

* I will think back over the year past, read old journal entries, be glad for what I have, learn from my mistakes...



*"On the night of Samhain the veil between the spiritual world and the physical world is at it's thinnest. " So I know those who are gone are hovering just over my shoulder, helping me daily and giving me little pointers, little visions...

* I will fill the house with squashs and pumpkins and branches, leaves and seeds from our walks.

*I have a new notebook to list everything I want to achieve next year. It will slowly fill ... and come february I will be ready to start acting on it... I call the list my 'seeds to grow'...

* I have new candles to burn.

crunch crunch crunch, the leaves underfoot.

autumn sowing / sewing

Yesterday I did some autumn sowing in my kitchen garden. Some broad beans behind the lavendar... and some spinach in the pots by my back door. I am not sure you are supposed the do the gardening in a white slip, wrinkly grey wool tights and a pair of pink kiddie shoes... but hey, the shoes do match my gardening gloves...

I love pottering in the garden and I am slowly finding the time to increase our 'homegrown' produce. In spring I will clear more ground and spread out the veg a little. Till then its autumn spinach and broad beans sprouting up outside while I cook up the rest of the apples and cultivate lots of luscious herbs on the window sill inside...

Today I woke early at 5 am and could not sleep longer. I love early morning rising. So I snuck downstairs to finish sewing the Ophelia bag I started so many weeks back. Planning to do some finishing touches after this post. Sigh. Happy weekend. x

More Bill Gibb...

I adore this woodland inspired dress. the dress itself is perfect, the setting, her hair... its like a glimpse through the trees at a magical realm.

Little bumble bee buttons and a whitework embroidery depicting a bee. At some point I will doubtless steal these bee themed ideas for my own creations. How I love them.

Pretty fabric designed in 1977. I love the stance of these birds, one serene and watching the other startled and about to fly. The thistle there I guess for Gibb's Scottish roots.

I hope our trip to the library tomorrow throws some more unexpected published magic my way.

some powder pink fur & green ribbons

Over the weekend I had some fun making this collar. Its knitted in powder pink Jaegar fur which was on offer at my local yarn store. I bought it in other colours too - woodland green and light fawn. I couldn't resist.

Finished it with thrift shop lace and two vintage button box buttons - one wooden heart, one shiny mother of pearl. It also looks very cute on Baby J , but she wouldn't stand still to have her photo taken ;-)

And a while back I had knitted this lace effect collar in leftover creamy yarn. I finally finished it with a striking greenest green ribbon and some more thrifted lace. It is kind of inspired by the Elizabethian collars in the 16th century. Because I guess Elizabeth I is kind of my favourite historical character. " I may not be a lion but i have a lion's heart"...

Oh I am very pleased with it. x