September sunshine...

I love September...after everyone's frenzied desire for summer...to relax into the start of autumnal hints is rather blissful...maybe too, it's something to do with schools going back and the return of a semblance of routine, however painful to teenage anti-earlyrisingness...

I do like a sense of order and at least the house stays the same all day now which gives me a small chance of restoring some sort of order after months of neglect...but I am heart gladdened when husband and daughter return home in the evening...and we can share our different days...but only after a whole day BY MYSELF with only my own thoughts for company...these days more and more I seem to need some solitude...tho' around here with chickens, ducks, donkeys, cats, geese and currently next door's dog staying I am never lonely!

It's been a blissful week of C-art Open Studios...we are open officially at the weekends with lots of delightful visitors calling in...some strays appear from time to time during the week and I rather like coming up from the veggie patch in the sunshine with grubby hands from digging up the garlic to greet strangers and welcome them to my life...to my studio...to our work...

I like to think people take away a sense of calm and tranquility from here, a sense of doing life a slightly different way maybe a more harmonious way (mind you I don't show them the house which currently is...well...in a BIT OF A STATE!!)

So lets take a little walk down the garden...it's such a gorgeous sunny day...quite hot in the sun...I haven't got a cardi, fleece or socks on!

Signage necessary to direct people to the studio and to give a subtle warning...

Gwendoline showing no interest at all in eating people's fingers...she's far too sensible!

ah...Neddy snoozling in the warm sunshine...cheek tickling = happy donkey and hasn't he got a beautiful soft nose and fabulous eyelashes!

and magnificent ears which swivel this way and that as he listens sometimes to you and sometimes to things behind him...carefully rotating one ear forward and one ear back...

Join me in sitting outside the studio for a moment to take in the view...and straightaway Basil take the chance to sit on your knee...

and Emilia hen comes to check out if you are by any chance  eating something...she nabbed a whole rice cake off my plate at the weekend!

and behind you can see the beautiful and rather sculptural seats which husband of patience has created...very patient!

down past the apple tree...apples ripening in the warm sun...and the chickens and ducklings...still together with their Mummy hen..and Basil like a sphinx in the grass...and a duckling apple bobbing...

and down the new path to the veg patch... where despite the somewhat rainy year we have some harvest...the pumpkins and squashes are magnificent...spreading like triffids...a forest of leaves and secret surprises...we love to wander round spotting hidden fruit and shouting 'here's another...and another!'

and here's the garlic I've been digging up...such a nice earthy job in the hot sunshine...it brings a great feeling of contentment...extra special this year as it shows how strong and improved my wrist is, I planted it when my hand was pretty weak in cold wintry weather and now here we have a harvest in the sun...

and help from our chickens...happy hens!
tho' I did have to keep hiding the worms from them as I dug...

and Nellie nextdoor's dog..best girl!

so here's to another weekend of lovely visitors to see all our beautiful artwork...and sunshine...hope you have a great one too...don't forget to love what you do!xx

reasons to be cheerful...day 5

it's friday night...and another week gone past...

daughter is back home from school and gone off in wellies with a wheelbarrow...down to the bottom of our field where the wild things are...

it's after 5pm and still light...

it's been a lovely sunny day with birds twittering...sounds of sheep and lambs from the fields...chickens enjoying scratching around in the orchard and garden...Basil cat sunning himself on a wall

...and warm enough to go out WITHOUT a coat or woolly hat...how wild is that?

another day celebrating my home...and the comforts of home...as in one of my favourite yummy books...

it's a quirky old house built with 2 foot thick rubble walls...lots of beams and stonework...damp and mouldy corners...no central heating just big woodburners, Aga and electric heaters...there are times of temptation when I see smart  modern homes with straight crisp white walls...but I wouldn't swap the character and history of ours...with all it's challenges...we bought it as a kind of barn and turned it into a house full of happy family life...warm (at times!) and welcoming in it's clutteryness

our bedroom...with a deep window sill where you can sit and read a book and look out at the cows in the field up the hill...sometimes they seem very close...

my pretty bedroom chair...one of a matching pair...a rare thing in our home...usually piled high with clothes...occasionally I have a big wash and then the chair is revealed...just bought at the auction for a few pounds... painted cream and voila...I love their simplicity and I love my delightful Jane Foster handmade vintage cushion...which just happens to be PINK...I could buy so many more of her vintage cushions... 

and here is my very treasured Old Teddy...once he was pink too...now I fear more threadbare than fluffy...he sits in a delightful child's little wicker chair which actually has a music box in the base so when a child sat it would play a tune...sadly needs a repair to play properly...sharing a cushion and baby rug with Tiny Ted (daughter's) so tiny he can't quite be seen...

and what could be nicer than a rambling random pile of delicious books...each with pages filled with ideas and photos and inpiringness...I love the feel and smell of real books!

and as for books from the 'World of Ikea...it maybe something to do with living a long way from any Ikea so going is a treat...but I just love the simplicity and optomism imagination of their words and images... 

and there may just be some truth in this sentiment... though I doubt it myself...you just can't have too much fabric...

hope you have a great Friday night in your own home...full of love and comfort to xx

everything and everyday is an opportunity...

 

to make the best of any situation...to find the positive aspects even if it all seems too too challenging...how grateful I am for friends and family and simple things...time for a small confession...I am typing this verrry slowly with my left hand as 4 weeks ago I fell over whilst putting the ducks to bed...having tiptoed so carefully through slippery mud...I avoided the mud on our path to the veggie patch...tripped, flew, landed and thought *%$£+@?!!...so I  am now recovering very well indeed ....from a sadly broken wrist...so sorry my beautiful wrist...and I knew a huge change had taken place in my life...

and out of adversity...has come the most wonderful and amazing and lovely things...

starring husband of even greater patience and daughter mine who have supported and loved me through it all...

friends who have brought such love... and soup and flowers and lovely get well cards

the sheer pleasure of being able to take a bath (after that first week in the same clothes...)
taking delight in being able to make myself a cup of tea...
resting and meditating and thinking and ...or doing nothing but look at the trees out of the window
being able to get myself dressed...or do anything at all...albeit slowly
daytime TV viewing,,,so naughty but very nice
knowing that all is healing well and that this is only temporary
 

the Woolfest letter saying I have a stall that arrived just at the right time to inspire me...so that after much thought...I have given up the 3 day a week day job even tho' I loved it suddenly it wasn't the thing to be doing... time to be bold...to take the risk..to be self employed as an artist, maker and workshop provider...to share and do what I love to do...

taking inspiration from Beth Nicholls do what you love for life...

I believe the world would be a better place if more people were doing what they loved
Because life is more interesting when we open our hearts and minds.
Because we are happier when we discover our passion.
Because magic happens when we follow our dreams.

and inspired by flossie teacakes' wonderful blog...leap and the net will appear

Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well,

but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. Vaclav Havel

can't do any making...but I can manage a little one-handed playing in my studio...enjoying fabrics and books...and taking photos with real ingenuity!

so I have been focussing on things which give me pleasure and make me smile...and that includes the lovely inspiration of all the crafty blogs out there...believe me when you are suddenly in a small (and cosy) world of home with no way to go out into the world... it is truly a joy that the world can come to me... in colour and loveliness! and that I can keep in communication with the world and especially friends near and far

 

 

 

practising being rather than doing 

always hopeful that 'only good lies before me' ...(Louise Hay - You Can Live an Exceptional Life)

homemade cake by wonderful daughter...and guess I won't be making the pancakes this year..