~come visit~

so i am officially in my grrl-cave

 

okay so it is not in the garden as i had hoped but it is my little room and i am making it all mine and even better i can burn my incense in here without upsetting swampy.

 

although i have 'moved in' there are a few things that still need doing...

 

new curtains to make with some cheery fabric with trees and little birds on and green gauze panels to put up at the window...although the only regular passer by is calv, who indeed walked by in the dark last night and called out a cheery 'hello' as he passed...so i have no worry about odd people looking in my window but i think having the panel up will bring a nice bit of colour to the room.

 

i still have to make fabric panels to hide some of the shelves and the things i do not want to see every day...dvd collection comes to mind.
i just want this place to feel right for my projects, writing, for me.


this is my room this morning...

you know i love ferns right?
 well i moved this one into the cave to sit on my desk next to the box that holds my special 'trinkets'...mostly the lovelies i own from the wonderful wild roses

i knew that this room had to have an alter...

i put this mexican blanket down for flynt and he now joins me in here...

if you look closely you will see this lamp is splattered with dried paint...my dad's paint. this lamp must be a good 30-35 years old and sat on my dads desk while he worked...you will also see my little needle felt guardian gnome and dog...

swampy put this shelf up for me...see the bear? i have owned him for many years, i named him bran...then my mum bought me another in a lighter colour who i named hovis...i must get hovis out of his box so they can be together again.
see the red tin?
that holds my stash of stem ginger butter cookies :)
the little bat and spider are jellycat which i brought out for samhain ...

cookie and my notebook which holds all kinds of notes on the slowly developing *wylde apothecary*...

 

 

 

 

i was up early this morning, actually i have been up early or awake for large chunks of the night for about two weeks now.

this morning i woke around 3.30am, lay listening to the radio for an hour or so then decided to get up as i have so many ideas for *the wylde apothecary* that i had to get up and do some research and note taking and order something i had neglected to do yesterday when i ordered a few more bits and pieces.

 

i am taking this flood of ideas and plans as being fortuitous for the success of my new venture...but i do have a good feeling about it and cannot wait to finally share it all with you properly.

~the grrl-cave~

 

i would like you all to meet

 

the

~*grrl-cave*~

 

 

it is no-where near finished yet, i have most things sorted into boxes-my photos, memiorbilia from all my trips away, cd's, codys old toys which i cannot bare to part with, old copies of 'country living' magazines.

 



 

we are putting in more storage in our living room for our large dvd collection but for now they sit on the shelves

 

all of the 'stuff' on the floor will be gone soon and the two shelves of 'stuff' that can be seen above the wicker basket (holding mismi and inca's playthings) are swampys modelling things-paints etx which will be going into the 'man-cave'.

i plan on making some blue gingham curtains to hide the less than nice looking boxes

 



 

you can see why i have done no crafting for a few days...pictures that need hanging and swampys radio controlled boat he is building and a couple of boxed models (he is a big fan of building models!)

 

 

good grief it looks so untidy!

 

 

 

as you can see evangeline is not taking up any room at all and her basket is sitting safely on top of my parents kitchen cabinet...another thing i cannot bare to part with. our bread maker is stored on top but next week i tackle the kitchen and will make room for it. 

the little section of shelving you see here will have a curtain as one shelf is dedicated to stock piling the long lasting foods we have in the camper.

 

i bought a new chair which is a folding one and swampy is going to put me a hook behind the door to keep it away nice and tidy when not being used.

 

~*~*~*~

 

as you can see by my posting photos it means i have replaced my broken card reader, which means a new post of what i have been crafting over at my *alittleeclectic' blog

 

~*~*~*~

 

now make sure you have a nice cup of tea because this is what else was on my camera...

 

we had a blue sky walk where is was foraging hips and haws for a potential project and i saw what i think is either one of the nightshade family or guelder rose up among the sloe bushes...

 

 

 

we had a lot of rain recently and the 'watersplash' reached the 1 foot mark...

 

 

but swampy drove us through in big old pretty pagan!

 

 

the weather now calls for my gorgeous green boots teamed up with a new dress which i am so in love with!

 

 

a cup of afternoon chai...

 

 

i had a serendipitous moment when taking a load of things 'down the tip'...i have had an idea for my crafting...about taking my crafting in a slightly different direction that would need storage jars.

as we were driving down the lane that leads to the tip i was pondering this very question and thinking where to buy the little jars to store dried berries, leaves etc....

 

only to find these in a box at the tip...

 

 

there are 18 altogether, one without a lid and i bought them for 50p!

 

 

on the way out of the forest we went via the ornamental drive as it was round up day but we missed all the excitement but i always enjoy this particular drive that takes us past rhinefield house

 

 

 

and now it is time for baked potato with garlic butter!

 

 



~change~

its that time of year again

there is something about sitting on the cusp of the dark months that i love so much

the autumn equinox is only a short hop, skip and jump away

 

for some weeks now i have had the feeling deep inside of the change that is to come.

 

there has been the smallest change in the air, the way the air feels around me, in the forest itself.

 

out walking flynt the heat has not diminished in any way, its still the heat of summer, there is just something...a something that is hard to really put into words but if you feel it too you will know.

 

i love the dark months,

i adore nights of wild weather, where i sit here all cosy and listen to the wind and rain.

 

although the dark months are a time to withdraw, to look inwards i feel energised by the dark days and i can feel so many ideas and plans tumble through my mind.

 

its also a good time to focus once more on my path, as usual, during the lighter months other things take to the fore and my soul journey always seems to fade with the increased light.

 

i think the darkness helps me focus more

 

there is so much i want to do, i was chatting with calv about it the other day

 

banjo practise

needle felting

try my hand at wet felting

lots of books to read

crochet projects

focus more on my soul journey

jewellery making

 

we both talked about making up a daily timetable to ensure it all gets done!

~*~*~*~

next day...

today has started grey and dark.
i woke and was unable to get back to sleep so was up making my mug of tea by 7.30.
yesterday i did a little gardening

i cut back some plants, swept the patio, stacked my small pile of logs for my cauldron and moved my little 'sleeper' table. then i sat for a while burning some original Tibetan healing incense while writing in my journal.

***

today is a 'pyjama' day-the kind of day where i don't actually dress properly.
on a pj day you wear something that would be comfortable to sleep in if you happen to fall asleep on the sofa, or lie on the bed to read then by some chance fall asleep on the bed.

not that i am planning a nap today as i promised to cook swampy a roast dinner-a rare event in this house i can tell you.

i keep having the urge to de-clutter and tidy our small front room.
at the moment the grrl-cave is on hold and swampy is considering putting decking down on the platform for the cave for now...i admit having a small area of decking would make my poi practise much easier!

i am contemplating turning our front room into my grrl-cave for now.
at the moment 'evangeline' is in there and two whole walls are used for storage-well now, you know that 'man' thing where they just put things on the nearest available surface and that means its tidy and out of the way (but actually is not?!) that's what we have a surfeit of in the front room!
stuff gets put down and forgot about (while my stuff in the kitchen is always commented on...'you do not need another mug!')
so next week i am going to buy some decorated storage boxes and pack 'stuff' away and start to get the room tidy. i have already measured my desk and found it will fit under the window.
my biggest problem is storing evangeline and the 1960's kitchen unit that belonged to my parents when they married.
swampy and i took it on and restored it when we lived in dorset and had a kitchen that had no units (just a sink, rayburn and walk in pantry) and because it was my parents i don't have the heart to sell it.
so until the grrl-cave is in then i will have to just keep it in the 'temporary' cave.
i have the idea of using it to store all my yarn, needle felting equipment etc.

how do you solve your storage problems?!







 

~rowan & the garden~

*following my rowan*

this year is the first year our beautiful young rowan has flowers~not many, but there are flowers.

this means next year there will be more and eventually berries.

hopefully next year there will be enough berries to share with the birds and i can make rowan berry jelly.

the area to the right of the top picture above is where we have built our pond and small waterfall. although we have not quite finished the area it already has a sacred feel to it~the water falls down at different angles in little tiny pools.

nearby is the rowan, oak and rosemary to one side, just over from it is holly, hawthorn, silver birch.

on the opposite side of the garden is where my grrl-cave is going to be.

we have new neighbours and because they are keeping to themselves i have held off lighting my cauldron in the evening~not sure if they are fans of wood smoke and not being brave enough to knock on their door and ask!

so i have a plan to develop the top end of the garden into the area where i have my little fires that will not disturb said neighbours (its not like i burn wet, smelly stuff anyway its all good dry wood!)

*i have this little dream*

 in my mind i have my girl cave all set up, i am going to grow some kind of climber over the g*c, possibly a hop, and have the area between it and the pond as my yoga/fire/meditation area.

the joy is the pond/waterfall is close enough that it is easily incorporated into the area so i am going to develop the area around the waterfall into a shrine of some kind.

can you see where i am going with this~a whole sacred area

*whoot*

'silver moon'

'nora barlow' & 'black barlow'

the top corner where the footing for the g*c will be~presently housing mismi's cage

i love this :)

 the oak grown from an acorn~we found it about an inch high growing from an acorn on our lawn in the wilds of dorset shortly before we moved away

birdsfoot trefoil

salad burnet

black elder~like my rowan i cannot wait for it to grow so i can use the flower heads

flynt made the mistake of taking his eye off of his bestest ball!

my new camera still does not take the close up i wish of the moon but much better than my old one~last weeks full moon...

~no? really?!~

this is what i imagine you would say if i told you that several times this week the temperature in our garden has hit as high as 119f

no?

really?!

yes it has, most days it has been too hot to do anything out there.

during the shady moments at the start and end of the day i have done a little planting~moving some bulbs and plants as swampy has mapped out the footprint of the grrl-cave

 (we have picked out a 8x6 pent roofed shed!)

and we had to rescue the plants.

i have also been planting out some plants we bought last week, but now i need to plant out more that we bought on wednesday when we took my ma out for the day!

my internal body clock has been waking me around 6am each morning and this morning i had an early bath, for which i had to forgo my morning yoga session...with m.e and fibro my life is full of compromises~the actual physical effort of bathing tires me out so no 'spoons' for yoga as well (i usually have a bath before bed that way i can just collapse into bed then!)

i have just hung a little washing out on the line and had a mug of lemon tea before we take flynt for a run over the forest.

today we are travelling up to the malverns for two days (hence the early bath) as swampy has a 'busfest' (until last year was known as vanfest) meeting~i took a step back from being actively involved last year~there was wayyyyy too many chiefs and egos for my liking.

we are not going until after 3 as i have a doctors appointment to discuss my diabetes medication and for the doctor to look into my suspected arthritis.

later today i will help swampy load up Pretty Pagan and off we go...must not forget to pack books and crochet!



~reclaim & liberate~

i have recently been feeling a tad feisty and my watchwords have been

*reclaim*

*liberate*

i have  started to reclaim and liberate my time thanks to k over at sylvan spirit

 i have reclaimed a situation and so feel very liberated about actually speaking out

i have reclaimed my garden and this too is part of liberating my time

and i am in the process of reclaiming my health

~*~*~*~

so last weekend, once i had read k's post, i turned off my laptop and turned my focus to other things and as a result had a serious crafting session.
i did cheat a bit as i posted a few rugby related updates on facebook!

but it felt so good to be free of the technology and so in the week i turned it off and ignored it a few other times.
one day i spent a while in the garden-two fifteen minute sessions was all i could manage but it felt good.
i cut back some of last years dead plants to make room for the new green that is pushing up through the earth, pulled out some 'weeds' and provisionally planted my elder, the guardian of the garden .
i have been collecting some interesting pieces of gorse wood so have placed a few bits of that in, what was last year, the vegetable beds.
i cleared out two pots that i have been thinking of planting out my asparagus peas when they are ready to go out.

~*~*~*~

i had my yearly diabetes review and things are okay
the odd thing was that my weight had gone up a little but as i explained to my nurse that last week i put on a jacket that, last year was wearable but tight, but is now loose.
after some some discussion we came to the conclusion that my yoga practice has been developing and firming my muscles but at the same time muscle weighs more than fat!
so although i am changing shape in a good way i am heavier.

~*~*~*~

 

yesterday we went and did our shopping and while out stopped at a local garden centre to look at sheds.

 the idea wasn't to buy one, we just wanted to find one the right size, stand in it and work out how the grrl-cave is going to be set out.

cheeky eh?!

 

anyway we found one that was just the right size and so stood around in it for a while with much turning in circles, pointing and general arm waving.

and it turns out it will be just perfect... wont bore you with the details but be sure of plenty of photos when the grrl-cave is here later in the year.

~it didnt happen~

well the sky did not clear yesterday and it turned really chilly.

i had planned on getting some things up on etsy but found my 'camera' (my old htc phone takes a better photos than our real camera!) needed charging and then i realised i had about 6 brooches that still needed finishing.

so my plans had to change somewhat but today new stock will be appearing on etsy!

so when i finish this i shall be taking a whole heap of photos and start listing.

~*~*~*~

again it is a chilly, grey day but the weather forecast on radio 4 last night assured me...yes they assured me! that it would clear up today.

i hope so!

~*~*~*~

the search for the grrl-cave continues.

we realised we have a few things to work around in our garden,we have a specific size we have to keep to, there is a manhole cover which we have hidden by way of a wooden tub with fountain in...this means we need a shed with a door in the side so the fountain can remain, and it has to be in the position i mentioned a few posts back because of well established trees and plants.

its a difficult search to make because there are so many sites out there selling sheds and i thought that maybe the word 'shed' is the wrong word to use!

what about hut?

Workman's hut?

garden office?

arrghhhhh

well i happened upon a very good site offering two affordable (just!) options for me offering the right size and a side opening door and floor (one site offers the shed with the floor an optional extra!)

as we have have the stonewylde gathering in may and our trip to yorkshire in june the grrl-cave will hopefully be put in in july/august...oh and did i tell you i am off to wimbledon in june?

i am!

every year my sister and i fill in the form to enter the ticket ballot and this is our second time of getting lucky...a few years ago we had centre court tickets for the mens semi finals, the year raphael nadal won the final and this year we have centre court tickets for the first tuesday of the championship which is men's and ladies singles and doubles...so hoping we get to see raffa play again!

this time however i shall be taking our own pimms and strawberries and cream.

~well time to take flynt out and get ready for my diabetes 'MOT'



~grrl-cave update~

lizzie, you may move in, i wont tell anyone except our dear wild roses :)

yarrow, the chamomile lawn sounds perfect!

well the hunt for the grrl-cave is still ongoing with a few second hand ones having a keen eye kept on them but swampy has found a site that produces new ones and delivers at a very very reasonable price.

we have decided how to place it in the garden as well...

in the picture below, see the fence next to the bird house?

well its being placed with the back along this fence because we realised to have it up in the corner facing the house we would have to disturb our well established Banksia Rose.

i was also sitting at my desk yesterday which faces south/south-west and realised how blinding (but lovely) the sun is, so decided i would rather have the windows facing north/north-east which would mean i can see the pond and wee waterfall from the window.

and the area between the cave and the pond will be my outdoor yoga/contemplation area...*sigh* its all working out 'perfik'

placing it against the side fence actually means that i can have a slightly larger grrl-cave

*squeeeeee!*

swampy has even drawn some rough plans for the interior as he is going to custom build me a corner desk and fit a rack to one end for me to hang Evangeline from.

so now the hunt is on for a nice comfy chair in which to read, meditate, crochet and a fold up one that can hang on the wall when i am not at my desk working.

plus i keep thinking of decoration...well who wouldnt?!

i will of course be going for the whole eclectic, bohemian thing

curtains
cushions
blankets
plants to go on the shelves
lanterns to hang outside

swampy is going to hook up a couple of electric sockets so i can have a lamp, use my sewing machine but shall i tell you a secret?

i am hoping its going to be large enough so that i can have a wee little wood burner in one corner, just big enough to sit a kettle or coffee pot and to enjoy the warmth of on cold days and nights.


can you just imagine it?!

~dreams of a girl cave~

actually it should be...

grrl cave!

i think mel is as excited about the idea as i am!

even small sheds are expensive so i am constantly checking a certain online place for second hand ones.

i have a few lined up and hope they don't become too expensive.

i keep thinking of the cosy little boho cave sitting at the end of the garden...swampy has even mentioned about a tiny deck (because the whole garden is on a very distinct slope from calvs wall...we are on the side of a gentle hill) so i can sit by our pond with its wee little waterfall.

i can burn my incense, play my drumming music, meditate, craft, journal, listen to the birds (yippeee for a house with no main roads nearby!)

our garden is in fact quite small.

 i think you can see this from the photos i have posted over the last few years.

see the bit of wooden fence up the back...that's where the grrl-cave is going!

because of the health problems we both have we are working on creating a very low maintenance garden, with lots of perennials and small tree's, herbs etc and just a few of the veg we really like.

plus for some reason we have very suspect soil that just will not allow grass to grow and i think swampy has finally given up trying to maintain it and so a grrl cave will take up some room and we can fill spaces with yet more plants.

of course i must remember that it will not be huge before i start dreaming of wood burners, comfy armchairs etc!

ohhh fairy lights...

a kelly kettle...

warm, cosy rugs and blankets...

but i know swampy is taking me seriously because i have heard him on the phone to his nephew saying he will line it out properly and paint it to keep it nice and snug.

*squeeeee*

i can hear you mel!