The Memory of Light

I have just had the immense pleasure to read and reread Sarah Elwell’s latest poetry offering, The Memory of Light, and I am wordless because anyway I decribe it cannot capture its profound layering of souls.  That feeling you get when you finish a novel and blink and breathe and realise the world had stopped for a moment, or rather you had stopped while the world went by you and will never see things again in the same light.  That feeling is there in each and every poem.

I don’t know how she does it, but I’m so glad she has shared her extraordinary talent with the world, and I can easliy see her in my mind’s eye

” silent, word-locked, on the windswept hill just beyond this world. “  -  exerpted from one of her poems

 

A new festival impulse

As Easter approaches, many of my southern hemisphere friends have been discussing how many of the Northern Hemisphere festivals sit or don’t sit well in our “reverse” seasons. For me, Easter and Christmas are so globally (and often commercially) celebrated I feel we cannot change their timing to suit our seasons, but instead need to look at the impulses and meanings of the celebrations from our new seasonal perspective. I have written about some of our festivals such as southern Autumnal Easter, Whitsun, Martinmas, and other festivals
Other less well observed festivals such as Michaelmas and May day celebrations however could be moved to retain their essential seasonal impulses. Michaelmas could be well observed at or around St Georges day in Autumn, as there is much overlap in the stories, or ideas and themes behind them. St George musings here.

I wonder if conversely instead of May day we could instead incorporate the ideas of new beginnings and new growth and new life in the celebration of St Francis’s feast day at the beginning of October. It seems fitting in light of the newly elected pope (I am not a Catholic, but he does seem to hold the promise of fresh beginnings and the joy of life and love in the choice of his Namesake
To me St Francis was born again in his faith, and started his life again afresh. He of course is also recognised as having an affinity to the natural world, which too fits so well with all the new life and creatures born in the spring. I’d love to hear what you think about the rhythm and observance of festivals “down under”.

A new tutorial

Over at Sunshine Weavers there is a new tutorial on an old favourite.

Walnut baby necklaces.

Do pop over and take a look.  I find I am posting a lot more of my crafts over there than here at the moment, and pinning them here too, So please forgive the long silences between posts here. I’ll try to remember to update things here once in a while.  Maybe once in a blue Moon

 

Snapshots from my couch

I am playing along with Sarah from Knitting the Wind, and sharing the everyday around me from my couch.  Please excuse my blurry photography skills.

Pencils by the window (and scattered along the windowsill) with various drawn train layouts

The trains at my feet

The Jacobs ladder, Galileo thermometer and the awesome lichtwippe on our mantlepiece

The christmas music still lingering on our piano

The homemade Risk board on the table

And my favourite cushion (hand stitched William Morris design tapestry by my amazingly talented aunt) on the couch.

 

 

 

 

It’s that school fair time of year again

Pop over to
http://sunshineweavers.wordpress.com/
 to see what we have been busily crafting for our Steiner School Fair.

Our stall has some lovely needle felting this year thanks to the inspiration of Marie from Softearth’s World, as well as our annual favourites.  Do take the time to click through,  scroll down and have a look.

 

Standing the test of time

Trying to clear out and pare down toys after a 7 year old sons birthday hoarde, it was interesting the toys that have stood the test of time and were still too treasured and played with to be packed away…

Spring cleaning fairies…

out                                                              in

cuddly dolls                                            digit dolls, sleepy dolly(a knot doll he’s had since birth) and a doll to dress

blocks with holes and screws              plain blocks and natural wood blocks

wooden and felt play food                   kitchen utensils,  teaset and rock collection

felt playscenes                                      playsilks and cotton cloths

wooden cars, trucks and planes        paper planes and silk parachute man

wooden thomas trains                         wooden “real” trains and track (not thomas -too babyish)

dress ups, hats, belts, scarves, playsilks, playcloths

knitted and felt animals

Lego has invaded in a big way, but I was curious to see he still wanted his plain wood blocks, but not the screw together kind.  He was more than happy to get rid of any TV licenced items that have wormed their way into our toys as they have been suddenly deemed ”babyish” by the seven year old, so anything Thomas, Bob the builder and even Charlie and Lola had to go.

Dragons and seahorses

I just love seahorses (and sea dragons for that matter), and that is just what we have been making at sunshine weavers today.  Come and take a look.

Seahorses made with hand dyed wool felt