Snowfall and Firelight. So another week passes by in this endless lockdown. I’m at the point where all time is blurring into one. What day is it? Who knows. But this week at least brought some change in the form of snow – a good few inches here in Yorkshire. Standing at the doorway, watching… Read More Snowfall and Firelight
Morning Afternoon Brew, 6.1.2020 It’s actually the afternoon as I sit and sip scalding hot aeropress coffee and munch through a few lebkuchen left over from Christmas. The wind is blustering through bare trees outside, with rain coming in waves – battering the windows then retreating as clouds scud across wild skies. I managed to… Read More Morning Brew, 6.1.2020
This little heap of prickles is Benjamin. He arrived as a present, a tiny, tiny little sphere covered in glassy spikes of rage. Benjamin lived in a tiny little pot, which was fine, as he was a tiny little cactus. He has a long name for such a little prickle. When Benjamin was small he… Read More Meet the cacti part 4: Introducing Benjamin
This is Theodore. He is a tall lil dude, with many prickly fingers. He might be a succulent, but he’s never told me so I don’t like to ask. Theodore came into my life from my mum, who had been given him as a present. He was rather dehydrated, and lived in a very tall… Read More Meet the cacti part 3: Introducing Theodore
The year is drawing to a close ( I like to get ahead and think of the end of October as my starting point. Samhuinn and all that) and instead of resolutions, I’ve been using loose themes for the last few years. This last year I wanted to be more honest with myself and with… Read More Small Changes: A Project
Wrapping my hands around my mug of hot tea, I looked through the steam to the window beyond. Time stands still in the shed; a place to contemplate, observe. A chair, and a blanket, and a tiny spider spinning webs in the corner. It’s cold today. I make dragon-breath with my exhalations, pulling my hood… Read More Simple things
Summer evening It was one of those rare summer evenings in Britain. It’s half past ten at night, and the sky is clear. It’s still light, although the blue is fading, merging slowly into orange, pink and pastel hues hinting over the horizon. One or two stars appear but to all intents and purposes it’s… Read More Summer evening
The leaves of the silver birch rustle delicately in a lukewarm breeze, rippling shadows onto the grass, rippling sea song to my ears. My eyes take in translucent stream lazily curling from a patterned mug, dark strong coffee cooling slowly from rosebuds and clay. A juvenile robin explores under the blackcurrant bush, a ball of… Read More Time to change
James is my other cactus. He is Ernest’s best friend. They chill out together on the conservatory windowsill, unless it’s freezing, then they chill out on the piano. James is spherical and spikier than he looks. He doesn’t have any flowers (yet) but he does sport some rather fetching little fluffy bits in the middle… Read More Meet the cacti part 2: introducing James
“To feel completely at one with what you are doing, to know you are strong and able to control your destiny at least for the moment, and to gain a sense of pleasure independent of results is to experience flow. The flow state has many names….Whatever words you use to describe flow experiences, they’re sure… Read More Why I love Pyrography