No Moon

Every now and then, and it usually happens when I am busy putting out the rubbish, I feel the urge to stop in my tracks and look up into the sky.  This evening I felt the pull, and as I cast my eyes upwards, there she was, a beautiful moon, not a full moon, but she's almost there.  I stayed with her a few minutes and embraced her beautiful soft energy.  And as I said my goodbyes to her and moved into the flow of my evening, I felt sad not to spend more time with her.

Moon gazing always brings back happy memories with my daughter when she was 2 years old, blond curly hair, in her pink PJ's.  Each evening before bedtime I would hold in her my arms, look out of the window and ask if she could see the moon.  Those times when we couldn't see it, she would say   "No Moon, no Moon". Funny how the little things stay with you isn't it?

In a world where all that ever stays the same is change, the Moon remains.

Look Up, What do you see? All of you and all of me.....REM

Lighting Fires

Today I have been lighting fires

I have set fire to coals of the past which have no relevance to the NOW which is my life.  Those coals are my old wedding cards.  I am divorced, and have been for 7 years or more - I have stopped counting.   But my home still represents many layers about a  marriage I am no longer inside of.  I realised that today when I was de-cluttering my home  (yet again)  when we de-clutter, it's not just "stuff" we release, it is emotional and heart stuff too.

It all started this morning when I had some unexpected time on my hands.  What to do with this time?.....de-clutter of course!  So, I decided to tidy up some of the drawers in my closet, and, as I was doing so, I pulled out a fleece I used to wear many, many years ago. A fleece I wore when I was married, a fleece I wore when my husband and I used to go out walking. A fleece that my old cocker spaniel Oliver cuddled up to when he was very ill and had to spend a few days away from home at the Vets. It all came flooding back, the memories, the times I spent with my husband and my dog. And with it came a gut wrenching sadness.  But the past is gone, done.  I remain.

And then I remembered my wedding day cards.  The cards that I threw into the re-cycle bin a few months ago and then swiftly took out of the re-cycle bin after my friend told me that she burnt hers.  That sounded a much better idea to me.  Today, wearing my fleece, I burnt my old engagement and wedding day cards.

The words on the picture read "move on, you got to move on, you got to get you real good so you can shake on".  These words are taken from "Fire" by Kasabian, I love this song.

My friend Hannah asked me how I would honour the stories around my fleece.  I honoured the story by realising that I form part of that story too.  That fleece represents love, on many different levels.  It's ok that I haven't packed it up and donated it to Charity. Today, the fleece released its hold on me from the emotional baggage. Now I honour it as part of me.

I often think of my old cocker spaniel and the wonderful years we spent together, and once the ritual of burning my cards had ended, I continued with some de-cluttering on a book case.  Another emotional "hot spot".  As I got tough and started to pick out books which could be donated to Charity, I came across a number of Harry Potter books, one of them was Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire. I took the book off the book case, and as I did , there was a picture of Oliver, as a puppy.  For real.

You can't make this stuff up

 
As I'm writing this post, the other half has just got back home from work in London, he sees me sat in the back room and says "oh, oh, me thinks someone has been moving furniture around!!"  For my Making Space friends who may read this, I hope this gives you a chuckle ;o)

Relentless Rain

My friend over at  getting stuff done: creating my life, posted a great video of Mickey Smith, a surf photographer, he has flipped the camera onto himself and created a video called Dark Side Of The Lens (great title). It got me thinking about my relationship with rain, as today, it is raining, its been relentless.  If it's raining, I tend not to go out if I can help it,  because it's cold, it's wet, it's uninviting, a little dark and just uncomfortable!  But wait, isn't this what Mickey Smith talks about in his video?....and yet he transcends all of this and finds beauty, wildness, life. 

September - it can be beautiful, warm, sunny. Miserable, wet and cold. I find its duality hard.  I feel myself wanting to cling onto the sunny days, celebrating the sunlight, yet find myself slowly being pulled away into the deeper energies of the autumnal equinox. 

On the autumnal equinox, many pagans celebrate Mabon as one of the eight Sabbats (a celebration based on the cycles of the sun). Mabon celebrates the second harvest and the start of winter preparations. It is the time to respect the impending dark while giving thanks to the sunlight.


The pictures I have taken recently have all been about capturing and giving thanks for the sunlight:

Finding myself challenged by Mickey Smith, I wondered if I could step out of my comfort zones and embrace the dark?...the rain?

So I cheated, I took a picture of the rain from inside!

The garden taken from my kitchen window

Gazing back over some old pictures, I surprised myself that I can embrace the darkness, all of these pictures were taken on 31 December 2011, this was my expression of respecting the dark.

And as I sign off, it's still raining.

Finding the light

I have taken a couple of  photography courses with the very talented Vivienne McMaster and always enjoyed them.  Yesterday I downloaded her e-book entitled Tips and Tricks on taking Dreamy Photos.
I can recommend it, and is a gift at £3.30 so really no reason not to!

Here are some of the results of my little trip out into St Annes yesterday late in the afternoon, where trying to capture light was a challenge. I visited Ashton Gardens, a place I used to go to ALOT when my daughter was little. I've not been in ages and it was so worth the visit.
In the e-book, Vivienne encourages you to to just experiment and shoot directly into the light, or without looking through the lens, hold your camera at hip height and just shoot.  Intentionally overexpose your photo, intentionally underexpose your photo.  Embrace blur, embrace your inner paparazzi and shoot lots of photos. Embrace Mistakes.

  

I always enjoy feet and shoe shots, I like this as its not my usual colour palette

Girl In The Water

Particularly like these last two "Girl In The Water" shots, they have a slightly moody/dreamy type feel to them

Lets Go Vintage

My friend over at Paper Rainbow (Morag) and I visited the Preston Guild this Saturday just gone.

Preston Guild is an historic celebration, which dates back to 1179 - sharing a heritage of over 800 years. It is the only Guild still celebrated in the UK and, as such, is truly unique. Held only once every 20 years, the 2012 celebration will be the first Guild in the 21st century and the first since the granting of Preston’s city status in 2002. 

We went to look at the Vintage Guild Festival held over the week-end  which was set in Preston’s beautiful, Grade II Listed Avenham Park.  There were lots of lovely vintage stalls, selling all things, well, vintage!  

Vintage Shopping

We got to try out a couple of new crafts too - finger knitting being run by The Ministry of Craft, this was great fun and very simple to do.  

I made a finger knitted flower brooch

I also tried my hand at image transfer.  There were hundreds of books to dip into and literally tear images out of.  This felt a bit odd at first, as some of books looked really good, however, they were there for the very purpose of collage, so, after giving myself permission to "tear up" I did,  and had lots of fun doing it.  

This is the A4 collage I created, all ready for image transfer onto a small cotton bag:

 

Hmmm.....things didn't go according to plan on the bag front!

I really liked the idea of image transfer - it obviously doesn't work with text as you can tell from the bag, never mind, I had fun and I came away with enthusiasm for finger knitting and image transfer.  

September Days

Light Hunting

This morning I started my day just noticing the beautiful sunlight and it's reflections.

This evening I am ending my day by finally starting a mixed media piece inspired by a muse of mine, Kate Bush and her song Under The Ivy.  This is a beautiful song and as a child I remember going down to the bottom of the garden, hiding under an ivy clad tree, just to escape and "be" with nature.
I'm just going for it with this adventure in mixed media - acrylics, wax, fabric, printed napkins - no paticular composition, just seeing what develops.

Kate - Under the Ivy

August Break Day 31 Skye Images

Ooops, I forgot to add a photo for the last day of the August Break!  Here's a little collage of some pictures taken on my holiday in Skye this August:

Yellows and Greens

 

 

 

Rocks and stones

Reflections

Tales from the Sea

Flodigarry Hotel

Hearts in Nature

❤

 

 

Holiday Joy