Beltane

Ahhhh! That's a big contented sigh from me. I feel all filled up and grounded after spending a lovely day and evening with our ritual group yesterday. The rain we've been having cleared away, and the sun came out. We crafted, ate, sat around the bonfire, ate, participated in storytelling, shared our own stories, and had little meditations and exercises. Yes, very nice.

Then today I went along to an ancient crafts day - super fun! I didn't get along to last month's one, but today I was able to. Crickey. I have a sore arm from wood chopping, a sore finger from cutting myself with my pocket knife (while cutting veges for the soup), blisters from whittling my spoon, a stubbed toe while foraging for greens for the soup, and a little sunburn - oops!

Today we made wooden spoons! I was surprised to see that my lump of wood did in fact start to take shape fairly easily. Next time we need to burn out the centre of the spoon using little smouldering wood lumps.

The woman who ran the day started our campfire the ancient way even. She had her little piles of tinder, her stick and bow (the string is twirled around the stick and rolled quickly), and we had a fire within a few minutes. It was great to witness.

Let's see if I can get back into this blogging thing?

So, life has changed significantly for me over the past few months. I'm now doing life as a solo mum. So far, so good. I've just started to refind my inspiration, enthusiasm, and enjoyment for all of those things that are a part of me and my life.

I need to get into my garden in a big way! It's been very neglected, and unfortunately hasn't really had much work put into it. I have randomly put a few bundles of seedlings in, and did manage to grow my own seedlings for silverbeet, spinach, and lettuce which I transplanted a few days back. So, I may get there with the help of buying seedlings for other things I want to put in for summer. But, thems the way sometimes.

What else? I've had a hair cut! All that long hair has gone, it happened in about 3 stages over a few months and the last two cuts I did myself with the help of a friend. I then wanted to go shorter again yesterday, so this time I went to the hairdresser so I didn't look too hacked and chopped!

I'm learning how to use my weed-eater. Yikes, I need a bit of practice so the grass doesn't look all bald in some places, and long and shaggy in others!

I'm absolutely LOVING my herb garden at the moment. This is the first time that it is looking VERY full and is literally taking care of itself. There is no space for weeds, so seems to be a true cottage garden now. It's so full of colour and new growth, I love just looking at it. I will get a photo when all this rain stops.

Wednesday Wardrobe - Winter

This was a bit of a Sunday mish-mash type of outfit. As in, I threw it all on, and then quite liked it (but was secretly glad I wasn't leaving the house that day since it was going to be one spent sitting at the computer lol).

Brown hairband (market purchase last year)
Red cardy - new last year (is actually a blue-based red, not bright as in the photo)
Brown t-shirt - comfy and old
Patterned paisley skirt - about 10yrs old!
Jeans - 5yrs old
Brown birkenstocks

Just playing around...

Been playing on my uke, and learning new strums. This is my latest...the calypso...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtl4W1o9HPM

I got my new-to-me camera on Saturday, so have been having a wee play with that too. I haven't used a manual camera before, so it's been quite a learning experience. Thought I'd capture a bit of the action and colour going on in my garden at the moment, while learning something new.

Yay! All 3 chickens are now laying.

Loving the aperture setting, just need to figure it all out now!

Books, books, books...

I'd love to say that I've been on a spending spree, but no, we just visited the library this afternoon.

~ I've been looking out for a 2nd hand version of this Ukulele book, but pleased to get to try-before-I-buy. I spent a bit of time yesterday studying up on music theory (a mix of internet and this book). I have never in my life learnt anything musical (although I'm sure I briefly learnt the recorder and ukulele when I was in primary school), so this is all new and quite interesting to me.

~ I grabbed the first book I found on SLR cameras - my mum is giving me her 8yr old camera, so I need to now learn how to use it!

~ I picked out a variety of drawing and painting books to carry on with once I'm done with my course.

~ I saw Dorothy Hall's herbal book on display, so added that to my pile even though I've had it out before.

~ I also saw on the returned shelf this cute book with some neat little crochet projects. The author uses a variety of materials including: jute twine, wool, and leather cord. I don't currently own a book on crochet (I have only self-taught myself off Youtube tutorials), but this one has made it onto my wants list. I've got my eye on these projects...

But first, I've had a job come in that will consume my weekend. I'd love to go on a book buying spree with the $$ from that, but I think getting a plumber in is a bit higher up the list of priorities!

Icy outside, but tucked up inside

That's all the snow that remains on the hills.
They were completely covered in white.

Well, the snow seems to have gone, but the icy weather continues.

The sum total of snow that settled at our house on Tuesday night!
And it was slushy due to all the rain.

Yesterday I was tucked up inside again and decided I needed to do a bit more practicing ... first the ukulele (I've been trying to master strumming along with changing chords) and then some drumming.

Drawing - I really need to make this a bit more regular, but I felt inspired by looking at an aloe vera plant I'd recently moved and realised that I was visualising the negative space within what I saw and that I was mentally drawing it - so out came the sketch book and pencil and off I went.

I've been rearranging! Although our lounge is quite large, we're quite restricted on how to place the furniture. So after a bit of mental planning, I decided at 11.30pm Tuesday night that it *had* to be done right there and then lol. I don't usually like to cover over the window with the couches, but I find that the lounge doesn't seem cosy, or warm enough for my liking because it's so spacious and so much window (there is the same amount of windows/doors right next to this lot). So this way, it creates another area that we can now use as a comfy floor spot.

Kid decluttering - yep, while rearranging furniture I managed to find another bag of games and puzzles that are no longer used.

Crafting - I have been wanting to make one of these recycled woollen blanket buntings for a while now, but didn't have a suitable blanket, and hadn't gone looking for one. I did recall I had a very thin piece of woollen fabric though (apparently it was a very old-skool nappy-wrap back in the day and came from my nana...). Same red pin-stripe down one side and same size as a flannel nappy. So I made this up yesterday afternoon. I'm quite pleased with the results!

Wednesday Wardrobe - Winter

Another outfit inspired by my Trinny & Susannah book...

Turquoise merino - 2 winters old
2 x blue/green shaded under tops for layering - a few years old
Brown corduroy skirt - $1 op shop skirt that I refashioned
Black tights - a few years old
Green/turquoise Dr Marten boots - new this winter

I felt great wearing this combo!