31.10.09

Samhain

All Hallowtide

All Hallows Eve
The Day of the Dead
The Feast of the Dead

The beginning - not the end

We, still in the quest of entertaining youngest son 

whilst eldest is away,

went sloe hunting

it is traditional in our house

to collect the fruit after the first frosts to make Sloe Gin   (link)

The last few years have been poor picking 

but this autumn has been generous

we picked two tubs-worth.

While the youngest and giddy dog explored the woods 

for dragons and monsters

we picked and reminisced about past harvests.

May all monsters, big and small 

enjoy trick and treating 

tonight

30.10.09 Recipe of the day - Autumnal wreath

Ingredients
1 x bored 9 yr old,minus his brother
1 x autumn pile of leaves
1 x giddy dog
1x camera
a pinch of time
a pinch of persuasion (yes you really do want to do this....)
Loads of patience
Vine wreath
Cotton thread


Method:
Take one child and one dog and visit the libary.
Can I take my bike?
Can you leave it behind?
Can I take my scooter?
If you want to....
Can I leave them at home?
sigh
Collect leaves
Can I roll in the leaves Mum?
Take photos
Can I throw this for the dog?
Grit teeth
Can I roll down the hill?
Brush off mud and wet grass
Can I run down to the river?
Walk down, with camera, handfuls of leaves and reduce amount of patience
Simmer - quietly - whilst youngest and giddy dog run round in circles

Return home with muddy son and giddy dog, shedding leaves as you walk along

Wrap leaves around vine wreath
I am going to get my skateboard...
keep adding leaves
I need my shin pads.....
keep adding leaves
I need something to skate around - what can I use?....
keep.......adding.....leaves.......
Can I get my bike out?
stand back and look at wreath
I can't reach the lock can you open the garage for me so I can get my bike out?
Return to wreath, add more leaves
I think I've had enough of my bike - what shall I do next?
Help me hang the wreath up? I ask hopefully
ok - said in a very non enthusiastic 9 year old way
Attach to door, stand back and admire.
Why are the leaves falling off the wreath Mum?
sigh.

Youngest - before the rolling and the running and the mud...

Giddy dog - notable for it's giddiness ..........

Leaves - just need a few more

Finished!

29.10.09
The colours of autumn.
The symbols of samhain.
The fruits of the season.

One a flavour filled globe of fruit, the other a woolly impersonation.

The saying goes -  that imitation is the highest form of flattery.......

Can you spot the difference?

28.10.09

Our boys were playing with the dog out back,

when suddenly he noticed a bumblebee bumbling along.

'Careful' he called out as he reached down to rescue her.

She sat on his hand, not defensive or afraid.

Just tasting him.

Gently, gently she tasted his fingers.

Whilst he gently put her somewhere safe from games and dogs.

Somewhere she can hibernate.

27.10.09

Well - yes.

The screech of the gull as it wheels overhead.

The whisk of their wings as they turn and twist on the air.

Then they swoop for the bread as she throws it up.

A loud and ravenous mass of beaks and birds as they snatch and tear at the loaf.

Then as quickly as they came, they go.

Landing just out of reach on the tarn and wait for the next meal to arrive.

Holiday rituals

25.10.09

It's half term.
The boys are home for a week.
We always make a list of things to do and places to go, and the first is always - can we go to the cafe??

Our village has it's own cafe - within walking distance,

far too close if you are calorie counting,

far too close if you are dieting,

far too close if you are watching your weight.....

But - just the right distance for a pot of tea and a piece of carrot cake - aaaah delicious.

I do like half term and carrot cake!

Mine

Eldest

Youngest

25.10.09
We are cat-sitting for a week.
On our way up we walk along allotments and garages.
There is something so typically English about them.

Hotch-potch

Higglety-pigglety

Random

Loved

Neglected

Abandoned

Used

Paint peeling

Wood rotting

Pigeons cooing

Chickens scratting

Ducks waddling

Weeds growing

Geese hissing

CD's hanging from twine

Plastic pop bottles on canes

We walk up an uneven cobbled lane
A testament to an era of a bygone age.

24.10.09

Having added to my stash,
I had to justify - to myself - that there is a reason for purchasing 'sable'*
So I have started making Yule gifts.

A soft wintery scarf for favourite sister-in-law.

That is - if I decide to give it to her.....

I have fallen in love with it :)

I could always make her another.

As long as I don't fall in love with that one too.

Oh dear.

*sable = Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy

23.10.09
'Fancy going to the wool shop?' she asked
'I need some more wools for my babette blanket'

Silly question really - of course I would go,

not that I needed to buy anything -

just going for moral support

just going to look

just going to feel

I've got a cupboard full of yarns at home.

My yarn cupboard has a name - He's called Jonathan Jo link
After an A.A.Milne poem.
My Jonathan Jo is a cupboard full of surprises.


Anyway, we went shopping - and I could not help myself. 
It is an addiction. 
I now have even more yarn.

I blame my friend - she dragged me along....

22.10.09

A celebration of life

A marking of a death

A meeting of the families from far and wide

A chance to catch up

A Quaker funeral - with quiet words of love and memories and stories

A few discreet tears

A sharing of tissues

A mutual handshake to commune accordance to life, to love and family.

A wake that remembered her gentle look on life,

 her love of the countryside, her family, her cooking,

her enjoyment of music, her love of the arts, her open door.

Then a drive along her favourite lane,

to take pictures of places that will always hold her memory and whisper her name.

21.10.09

Life isn't about waiting for the storms to pass,

it's about learning to dance in the rain.

20.10.09
Hmmmm.

I have a 'Should be - Could be - Am doing' list.
How does it work? Well, let me explain...........

I should be doing:-

• vacuuming - the carpet is covered in bits of yarn from the last project I had to hastily finish last night to be able to be given to fav teacher this morning
• dusting - but the boys made off with the feather duster to enhance some game or other
• bed making - when will everyone make their own?

I could be doing:-

• writing up my notes for my coursework - but the urge to run in the opposite direction is pretty full on.
• the washing - but its not that urgent (yet)
• putting away the yarns from my last project but the colours are so pretty together that I have left them - for aesthetic reasons you understand......

I am doing......

• taking pictures of threads and cards made by the youngest
• drinking piping hot tea
• about to start sewing a bag
• about to carry on crocheting  my 'windmill' bag 
• completely ignoring the above two lists.

As a postscript - a picture of the blankie and the card the youngest made for fav teacher

19.10.09

Is crafting food for the soul? Discuss......

All the while I am crafting, the only hunger I have is for the yarn, the paint, the pens, my camera.

It is insatiable, all consuming and devouring.

Then, when I am done, I sit back - admire or condemn - and it is then the physical hunger hits me.

It is then I realise I have not eaten breakfast or I have not had lunch and the kitchen is calling out loud.

Excuse me - I have to answer.

18.10.09
Work in progress.

Slow progress.


Hey ho - youngest son watching over shoulder, better get on...........

17.10.09
Shy.
Distant.
Wary.

In this throw away society even she was 'thrown away'.
Physically hurled from a car over a wall.
She lived rough for about a year, foraging from skips and stealing from a tea room kitchen.
That is where I met her.

She was so hungry she was eating ginger cake wrapped in plastic.

Now, for the last three years she has lived alongside us, not with us. We share the same house, the same garden.

She will never fully trust humans - hardly suprising is it?

16.10.09
Favoured teacher will be leaving to have her baby.
When? I asked.
Soon the youngest said vaguely.
How soon?
erm - think on Wednesday..... .
Next week?
Yup. Can I give her a present?

Sigh.

Ok, out with the hook and yarns. I'll see what I can do...............

16.10.09
Today, at 10.30am, over 100 years of history stopped.
She was born before the two world wars.
Suffragettes were fighting for what they believed in and I now benefit from.
Before women pilots were allowed or even thought possible!
Before girl guiding started.
Before Marie Curie received her Nobel prize for chemistry.
Before the first woman was actually accepted entrance into the Royal College of Surgeons.
Before WRNs were formed.
Before women were allowed to stand in parliament.
She was born at a time when women were wives and mothers first and women last.
His Gran, our boys Great Gran.
I salute you Winifred - you shall always be remembered.

14.10.09

A 21st birthday present.

In 1963.

My mother's sewing machine.

Carted across borders, across continents, across the hemisphere - more than once.

As a child I learnt to sew on it

My sister in law learnt to sew on it.

It bears the scars of years of use.

Now it is mine.

If it could talk - it would tell of tales of making clothes and curtains, of costumes for children, of making tents and coats for dogs.
 It would reminisce about making secret gifts in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, of crafting with a teenager in South Africa in an attempt to make ra-ra skirts and shift dresses.
I am sure it would regale with laughter the samhain costumes it has made in the past and the samhain costumes it is making now.

It isn't pretty and it isn't easy to carry - despite its portable aspirations.

But it is mine.

Addendum......

13.10.09

I am very touched at receiving a 'One Lovely Blog award'  -

Thank you very much Jan  :) x

http://wwwbobbypinsboardwalk.blogspot.com/

Please go and have a look at Jan's site, it's full of inspirational ideas.

The rules, upon receiving this award, state that you must:

1. Accept the award;
2. Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link;
3. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered;
4. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. 

I shall follow the rules and let everyone know.

13.10.09

Sticky fingers.

Snipperty bits of paper on the floor.

Glitter stuck on a cheek.

Cutting and snipping and gluing and making.

And that's just me!

Tonight there will be 28 cubs doing exactly the same - so I better get it right.

12.10.09

After yesterday's rain - today is glorious.

The garden is bathed in soft sunshine,

warming my back and feeding my soul.

The light glowed from the plants and the last of the summer colour.

But there is a weather front coming..........

11.10.09

Autumn rain.

I'm sitting in the front of the car

watching as a sheet of rain water slides upwards

to meet the wiper rattling down.

A brief moment of clarity.

Then gone.

It's leaden out there,

 the road,

the sky,

the sidewalks.

But, inside

it is full of sound,

of music,

of boys chatting,

of us talking.

Just like I like it.

10.10.09

It's his birthday today.

We all piled onto our bed this morning as he opened his presents.

Our boys excitedly gave him home-made cards they'd spent ages secretly making the night before.

I sipped steaming coffee and watched.

To see his face, to see his smile is to love him.

I am very lucky, and I know it.