Weaving Summer Magic

I have been weaving summer magic in myriad ways. Connecting with the season through creativity. Touching its spirit.

After a couple of weeks away. A rocky transition in to the summer holidays. And my own ups and downs, I have been feeling the need to reconnect - with myself and the season and to ground myself, my body, to their place, this time.

On Saturday  had a full day to myself, after being in sole charge of kiddies for nearly a week. I wandered through the gardens of my father's house, harvesting flowers and foliage. Then settled n the sun in front of the tea house, my soul space, sacred space, I created a mandala and then surrounded it with the wreath, seated on the damp earth in the sunshine. All my sense alive. Drawn by my intuition as I worked - laying the plants out, bending, plaiting, stripping petals from stems.... drawn by their meaning and symbolism, as well as shape and colour, aware of the emerging wholeness, balance of the finished design.

Willow sliver grey and soft as mouse's ears, plaited for flexibility, strength and framework.
Pink hydrangea for beauty and longevity.
Regal purple clematis.
Roses to release anger.
Shamrock for luck and Irishness.
Melissa for calm and to ease anxiety.
Rose bay willow herb for my childhood and wild places.
Jasmine for purity and sensuality.
A pink rosebud at the centre, for the budding feminine.

Then later that day after meditation, feasting, writing and sleep I did a zentangle which I am delighted by - again being drawn to organic shapes, the mandala (or zendala as they are known!), the idea of the wreath, of weaving the season.

I am also doing a lot of harvesting and cooking: ice creams and sorbets, jams and savory concoctions. As well as lots of herb teas, including my summer tea of lemon balm, rose geranium and rose. Cooking with myriad fresh herbs, ingesting their magical and medicinal properties into our bodies is where its at for me right now. The same with the fruits, vegetables and flowers of the season - festooning our home with garden blooms, creating mini altars wherever their beauty touches.

Homemade raspberry and rose sorbet. Here's my recipe.

Through the ice window

It has been bitterly cold outside here, spring may have sprung, and the flowers are up, but yesterday the polar wind was howling right down from the north, and so we snuggled up warm in front of the fire with a movie, and watched the snowflakes swirling in the late afternoon light.

It was too cold to spend much time outside. But in five minutes.... and a little waiting time... we made magic!!  It's been ages since we've made and shared some ephemeral art on Dreaming Aloud - I LOVE doing it - read more about it here!

An ice window! Which is now swinging on our washing line, glimmering icily in the bright morning sun.

And you can make one too if the cold winds are blowing round your way... It's a great nature activity to get everyone, big and small outside and active for a short time before running in to warm up with hot chocolate and marshmallows...

The next chilly day, gather some spring flowers and leaves from your garden, sprinkle them into a bowl of water, and leave overnight to freeze. Simple as that.

Then.. in the morning, magic will have happened! Lift your ice window out of the bowl and hang it on the line!

Finding Form: a meditative guide to creating Random Acts of Beauty

I went into the woods, wanting to make something. And blanked. Fancy images from Andy Goldsworthy flashed before my eyes. But here I was, a mama, with a helpful nearly-three-year-old on foot and a fractious teething, just-turned-one-year-old in a buggy. And half an hour to spare before I had to collect my husband from the doctors. So it had to be quick, simple and I wanted it to be seasonal. Oh, and it's going to go on a blog... And my friend is coming down tomorrow to hunt for it...panic... stage fright...blank...

Breathe. Look around. Walk with your eyes open...

So I did. This is like beginner's mind in meditation. Always start again with beginner's mind: open to all possibilities, to the joy of everything.

And that's when I saw the catkins. Lots and lots of them. Little shaggy fairy lambs tails. In acid yellow, ochre and brown. I started to gather them.

Random acts of beauty

Most have heard of the concept of random acts of kindness. It is a popular one. But, Oliver Burkeman in his book Help! (which I am really enjoying at the moment) reflects that random acts of kindness can often freak strangers out - our immediate response is suspicion and confusion, rather than gratitude! So I am not suggesting that here, rather a variation on that theme.

Our world can feel a little grey sometimes. A little too man-made. Our environment despoiled. We don't have time to be creative. We do not have big artistic ideas. We feel stuck.

But all around us are pockets of beauty, glory in miniature where nature flourishes. Wherever we live. We all have favourite place to walk, to re-energise, to get inspired: the beach, the woods, the moors, the river bank.

Random acts of beauty aim to take these places and enhance them through our own small acts of creativity.

Our spiral on the strand!

Think natural graffiti. Guerrilla art. Making your mark in your local surroundings. Leaving little works of art behind you that others on their morning walk will happen across. Unexpected beauty and creativity. Little creations to lift the heart and spirits. To make people stop and wonder for a moment.

Today's random acts of beauty

"Eye of the storm"
Made in magnolia blossom snow around a lonely daisy.

"I hold you in my heart"
Made from growing daisies.

Join me in making random acts of beauty. Grab my button (look right!)
And add a link in the comments box below to your own random acts of beauty.
For more about random acts of beauty, see here, here and here

Happy days

Another sunshine day...

Children playing in a room full of patchwork quilts...

There is a gorgeous exhibition at the Grain Store where our playgroup is.

Washing on the line...

Spring flowers nodding in the sun...

A walk in the Cookery School gardens...

A picnic on the lawns...

Random acts of beauty whilst waiting at the school gates...

And another on the way home...

A dandelion sun...

(We made it on a big patch of living dandelions on the communal grass area in our housing estate)

Home again...

Watercolour painting in the sunshine...

A pot of chilli bubbling on the hob

Luscious lemon squares baking in the oven...

And eaten in a flash - more yellow to fill our souls.

Happy days.

And for the sake of balance...
We were up VERY early, the kids are waking when it gets light...and the baby had woken multiple, multiple times in the night.
I yelled at my daughter cos she wouldn't keep her shoes on, and so she whinged walking bare foot over the stones to playgroup, where she clung to my skirt driving me mad. And she slammed the baby onto the ground and lay on top of her whilst she screamed. The baby whinged the whole time I was hanging the washing. And I'm going to have to cook something else for number two's supper cos she won't eat chilli. And the kids spend their whole time calling each other "stupid, stinky idiot", and they're now watching TV... So it's not perfect, we're not perfect. This is cherry picking the good, the wonderful good of which our life is full, though there are plenty of stinky bits thrown in to chomp on. But let's celebrate - all is well in my world!

A Wishing Day

Today has been a sunny wishing day. Timmy has been home from school for the past two days, awaiting spots, which never arrived! I have enjoyed our couple of home-schooling days. Since we can't formally flexi-school, then we are freestyling it. We take a day out of school, now and then "for family reasons" and have a special day of craft and educational outings. A day for the soul and creative spirit which doesn't get much nurturing at school.

So we made wishing eggs, inspired by my dear friend Laura at Nestled Under Rainbows. The eggs came from our happy-ish free range hens who live under the trampoline. we wrote wishes on paper, put them into the empty shells and wrapped them in bright tissue paper and raffia ribbon. Wishes included... "I wish I was a digger driver", "I wish for a pants super hero birthday party at my house" and "I wish it was Christmas"!!!

They are now adorning our seasons table and will be taken out and hidden in the woods at Easter time where the fairies will find them and grant our wishes. We are waiting for the arrival of our very own fairy: the cherry blossom fairy, who will grace our nature table any day now. The buds are swelling in the garden outside and we're counting down the days till our first o-hanami (Japanese cherry blossom picnic) under the cherry trees in our very own garden in the Pink House. But for now we are enjoying the bright yellow daffodils, and blue wood anemones and grape hyacinths we planted last September.

If You go Down to the Woods Today...

If you go down to the woods today you're in for a big surprise!

We were there first! Weaving our magic.

We made a sun web out of catkins...

And rearranged fire stones to make a heart ...

A home waiting for fairy folk to inhabit it... a project for another day!

Want to know more about random acts of beauty? Read here for my introduction to them...

Tomorrow I will post some more on them...

Walking Labyrinths of Sand

Today was a celebration.

Of women's circles.

More than 20 groups throughout the UK and Ireland gathered.

To celebrate...

Creativity,

Togetherness,

Nature,

Love,

Peace,

Being alive,

Being Women,

In honour of 100 years of International Women's Day.

At 12 noon, 

The Flare groups connected in spirit.

We hope our sisters had as wonderful a time as us.

This was our gathering.

You are welcome to join in spirit too...

An icy cold mist and wind surrounded our corner of East Cork, Ireland. 

A true sea mist.

I walked the forty minute walk to our local beach.

With our baby in the buggy

Forming a plan as I walked...

Still unsure as to what we would do...

Or who would be there...

The circle of stones series from this week was circling in my mind

I had a few of my favourite books with me...

Labyrinths of Birth with lots of labyrinth seeds

Make it Wild - for ephemeral art inspiration

and of course Circle of Stones if readings were needed...

Shanagarry strand in the mist

The way to Garryvoe...before we worked our magic!

The island, in all its misty glory

rivers of sand...