1♥ New Year's Eve...... New beginnings await.

Within the flower there lies a seed,

within the seed there springs a tree,

within the tree there spreads a wood.

In the wood there burns a fire,

and in the fire there melts a stone,

within the stone a ring of iron.

Within the ring there lies and O,

within the O there looks an eye,

in the eye there swims a sea,

..and in the sea reflected sky,

and in the sky there shines the sun,

within the sun a bird of gold.

Within the bird there beats a heart

and from the heart there flows a song

and in the song there sings a word.

In the word there speaks a world,

a word of joy a world of grief

from joy and grief there springs my love.

Oh love, my love, there springs a world,

and on the world there shines a sun

and in the sun there burns a fire,

Within the fire consumes my heart

and in my heart there beats a bird,

and in the bird there wakes an eye.

Within the eye, earth, sea and sky

Earth, sky and sea within an O

lie like the seed within the flower.

KATHLEEN RAINE -MAGIC VERSE

2♥ - 2011

Friday -  a brief but busy week. Glad it is over.


Just 2♥ days left and one of those is almost finished!

2011♥ - almost over, where to start?

Lots of beginnings and some endings. Good stuff and good friends, sad moments and a huge OUCH! New kittens and lots and lots of crafting :)

I have a lot to be thankful for♥.

3♥ can you see it?

Earlier on in the year, we were out walking when I suddenly spotted this..............

Can you see it?   3♥

****************

The weather has been atrocious today but not proper winter weather - just wet and blustery.


A good excuse to lie in front of the fire and dream whiskery dreams.

A lovely reason to be cuddled to sleep without a care in the world

Oh what it is to be small and fluffy and to be loved. 


=^.,.^=♥

4♥

Slight variation on a theme............

4♥

4 days left of 2011............ it is a strange feeling, the end of one year and the imminent beginning of a new one. It is also the excitement of the potential still to come!

5♥

6♥

A quiet house, two boys curled up on the settee reading books, two kittens curled up on a chair tired out from frantic play, Himself pottering around and I am about to wander into the kitchen and do 'things' not sure what, but suspect it will involve tidying up. 


It is a mild warm boxing day, strange weather for this time of year but it does mean we can get out later for a bit of fresh air.


 ♡♡ T*H*A*N*K  Y*O*U♡♡  for all your festive messages and greetings

6♥ 

Happy Monday to you all 

In which we celebrate chrimbly-mass and number 7❤

Firstly -   Merry  Christmas 

Secondly - 

Thirdly - I was about to do my next themed run of images and waffle but I seem to have lost the photo - oh well, never mind, got a bit much going on here - so not going to do it!

What I am going to do is to wish you peace and blessings.

8♥ and Christmas eve

On Thursdays I finish early enough to have time off in the afternoon. Usually it is just me at home but all my boys were off from work and school so it was a wonderful opportunity to get out and get some fresh air. We walked along the canal letting Giddy dog run and sniff. The boys chatted and ran on ahead while Himself and I just enjoyed companionable silence.


 Moored on both sides were narrow boats of all shapes and sizes. I decided that naming of boats is a very personal thing - there are the obvious monikers  like 'Just Sailing' and the cutesy folk-style such as 'Rosie' and 'Water Wanderer' and there are the types that raise a giggle like the interestingly named narrow boat - 'Floater'......... but the most curious are the ones that must have a personal reason for their name only relevant to the owner.....'Ossey Gobbin'.


 This means nothing to me but to my northern husband it was obvious - 'Ossey Gobbin' means somewhere on the lines of 'Idiot from Oswaldtwistle'.......Any hoo, where this waffle is meandering towards is today's number which is 8❤

I just want to thank you for your lovely comments about our silly-kitties, they are bringing such joy to us, it feels like the whole house is smiling at their antics. 

Well, it's Christmas eve and we are off to celebrate with family - we eat our main meal tonight. The table will no doubt be laden with crackers and  table presents. My Mom and Dad are hosting and do such a beautiful spread - I am definitely taking my camera!

Enjoy tonight and hope that Santa brings all that you have wished for! I am sure the kittens will love all that wrapping paper tomorrow - just for them obviously!

❇❄❊❈❅ ❤ ❄❇✳❄❊❄❊❈❅ ❤ ❄❇✳❄❊❄❊❈❅ ❤ ❄❇✳❄❊

9♥ and furry festive fun

Today, the number 9♥ is brought to you by a pile of sleepers.....

.....and just a thought, 

have you had a.....

Hard day at the office?

do you have to do loads of pre-festive washing?

Finding it hard to get round all those family phone calls?

Lots of tidying up to do?

No time to rest ?

Never mind - it is the festive weekend - here's wishing you all have a 

purrrrfect yuletide time 

=^.,.^=

10♥ and a quick reminisce

During the summer months (and  pre-knackered-knee situation) a wonderful friend and I would walk with our collective pack of dogs and children up over the fields and on to the moors behind our village. One of our regular spots we'd pass through is this gate. I had eyed up the speed sign for ages but kept forgetting to take my camera. I think I finally remembered on the last walk before I hurt said knee - phew!

I've so so so very nearly finished the last of my hand-made pressies so mustn't chat for long - still to take some photos before I wrap them up. 

eeeee

oooh .... It's Friday tomorrow - woohoo - that means it is nearly the weekend and I get to spend 4 very precious days with my family. ❤❤ 

eeeee

11♥ Winter Solstice celebrations

Firstly - today's number - 11♥ taken on the 11th of November this year..... I'd sat quietly with the radio broadcasting heavy thoughtful silence and I realised that this time and date would only happen now and not again in my life time.


11♥


We celebrate winter solstice. We fill the house with candles and fairy lights, we fill it with music and laughter. We usually take a turn at singing or playing music or reciting poems and this year was no different. Youngest sang and danced and Eldest played the piano. Himself had cooked a wonderful meal so he was allowed to sit back and relax and I found and read a lovely winter solstice poem*.

 Summer is on it's way - the seasons turn, spring is next - let it be a good one !

*If I have a surplus, may I pass it on,

may the sharing return as the weak winter sun,

may it grow stronger until it has won,

and the day of the selfish be over and done,

like night fog I pray hunger fades and is gone,

may abundance return like the weak winter sun.

May the hunger for justice be all that remains,

may we all count our blessings and break hunger chains,

may we make human chains down the country lanes,

may we honour connections and take on natures pains,

may the whole of the world sing this heartfelt refrain,

and as the ice breaks may we break hunger chains.

By all that is generous all that is giving,

so may this be felt in the land of the living.

craft of the wild witch - Poppy Palin

blessings hawthorn xxxxxxxx

♥ COUNTING AGAIN - 12♥

A couple of chilly weekends ago, I sat shivering in the car as we waited for a partying Youngest, he was at a bowling alley tucked away in an industrial estate. We'd only just parked up and had a few minutes to go when I saw, amidst the cars and trucks - a doorway - with the magical number I needed. The fading yellow door with it's turquoise phoenix rising seemed almost like an unworldly portal from this functional work area into an unknown space. There was no signage, no names, no telephone numbers....just a small door, quietly proclaiming it's own importance, set in a huge industrial building. Perfect!

Yesterday, having chatted about (but omitted any pictorial details) about the kits and having received some gentle reminders about lack of said pictorial details - here are some brief (and non-blurred) pictures of my fur-babies. 

Top row - Fascination with reflections

Bottom row - cat napping

Holly has just walked over my laptop and some how switched off the internet and Lily is chewing on a plant - excuse me while I rescue it (plant not kitten)!

All my boys finish today for the festive break - but alas not me, I work right up to Friday evening. We will be celebrating our mid-winter meal this Wednesday - I am looking forward to that.

Better get going, still at the weaving-in-million-ends stage of my crochet goodies. I have already wrapped and given loads away so the pile of handmade looks quite small for the amount of hooky time I have been having....

Have a lovely day where ever you are

xxxx

13♥ days to 2012

I'm still in recovery mode after the weekend so I am fully embracing the fact that the house is quiet and empty apart from Giddy Dog and the kits.  Mind you the kits more than make up for the boys being at school - they are just as bad as the boys at leaving their toys all over the place. I will, over the course of a day, have to pick up cushions and blankets, rescue toppled over pots of pens and paintbrushes and rehang the ornaments on the tree....


Any hoo - enough waffle -


today's number is 13♥, not one of my favourite numbers - 13. As a teenager I was incredibly superstitious and would go to great lengths to avoid saying, thinking or seeing the number. Made maths a bit tricky (Mind you maths was a bit tricky for me any way!)

The kits are galloping up and down on their dainty elephant-sized feet and the washing machine has become silent....better get on, got work to get ready for and I am still trying to finish my crochet pressies - the deadline draws closer and I keep kidding myself that starting another woolly based handmade gift is a good idea....I start off in good time and as chrimbly-pressie-swap-day gets closer, my crafting becomes more frantic and instead of going with the flow and finishing them off in good time, I hastily start the next one as I convince myself that weaving in ALL the ends and stitching on ALL the buttons and sewing on ALL the labels is a good idea if only I would actually get on with it and do it!!

And the hardest thing of all? Not sharing the pictures with you, oh well, will have to have a show and tell after everyone has opened their pressies :)

A Happy Monday to you all!

15♥ and14♥ and festive fun

Apologies for not posting yesterday but it was a whirlwind of a day.

It was our annual festive decoration making workshop and along with all the foliage and friends and fun we were 'blessed' with some rather wintery weather.

But first - 15♥- taken in 2009 (yes I do plan and photograph that much in advance - but not necessarily always successfully!) 

We were on holiday up in the Orkneys on a wild-weathery-break. Some days the weather was fiercesome enough to drive us to hiding in museums and cafés. 

We drove over to Stromness and I fell in love with it's tiny part-cobbled part-flagged streets. Some were so narrow it felt intrusive driving through them. So we parked up and wandered the quiet streets. The wild winds seems to be kept at bay by the twisting of the roads and streets, almost thwarting the breeze.

It was here I found a superb number 15 and wonderfully named street - 

My next offering was only taken last weekend,  a quick drive by photo - nothing special but just what I needed.

  

We had such fun yesterday at our festive workshop. A slightly different format but nevertheless, a yummy and successful day.

There were, as usual, such a wonderful array of door wreaths and decorations.....I mean just look at this creativity!!.....

...and this is only some of them, I have just realised I've not photo-ed them all!

I must admit to eating well too - such gorgeous bakings happened and it would have been rude not to try them all at least once, if not twice erhem....

Sadly some of the delicious offerings were scoffed before I realised I'd not photographed them, but believe me - they were yum!

The entire weekend was filled with family and friends, sleepovers and meals, chatting and nibbling,  and now in the quiet house, Youngest and the kittens are sleeping on the settee, Eldest has wandered over to find sanctuary with a friend, Himself is bumbling about (he is always busy doing something)and I have finally found a moment to catch up with all of you - enjoy what is left of your weekend.............

blessings - hawthorn xx 

Ps can't finish a posting with out gratuitous cute-overload - the kittens and Youngest snuggling on the settee after a seriously hard weekend of fun and friends

*in whispered tones* awwwwww xx

16♥ days to 2012

♥16 - this year has quickly flown by and I've not fully realised the HUGE list I created myself in my Revolutions - I have managed to get through a fair few but some have definitely fallen by the wayside.
Of the 17 ideas/plans/wishes I listed, only 3 I've not managed to do, the rest I have either dabbled in or have made a start - not too bad I suppose (*note to self - have a less ambitious plan with less things on it next year!*)


Any way - I'm off on a jolly with fav-sis-in-law and my mom to Skipton, so got to get ready byeeeeeee!


Oops - today's photo - all BT (British Telecom) telephone posts have numbers on them. Each one a personal identity. It amazes me that from the centres of towns to the wilds of a Scottish moorland you can find each and every post labelled, dated and numbered. Some numbers are so faded and weather beaten that it is difficult to read, while others - like this one today, have new shiny and smart details.  How many thousands and thousands of posts are there out there?

Any hoo 16♥

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤Happy FRIDAY to you all❤❤❤❤❤❤❤